Donna Gallo

Bio

Dr. Donna Gallo is an Assistant Professor of Music Education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in elementary general music, curriculum perspectives in music education, teaching music to students who are neuro and/or physically divergent, quantitative research designs in music, and teaching young singers. Her research interests include: inservice teacher learning through collaborative professional development structures; creative music making and popular music practices in elementary music contexts; and community partnerships in as critical field experience in preservice teacher education. Gallo regularly presents her scholarship in national and international music education research conferences and has published her work in the Journal of Research in Music Education, Music Education Research, the International Journal of Music Education, Music Educators Journal, and the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education. She has authored book chapters in two forthcoming edited books: The Routledge Companion to Creativities in Music Education and Toward Equity in School Music: Ideas for Practice in Music Teacher Education. Gallo has been awarded grants to fund professional development programs and community partnerships in collaboration with local music educators and school districts. Recently, she partnered with faculty in the School of Music and the College of Engineering for a grant awarded by the university’s Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion’s Call to Action to Address Racism and Social Injustice.

Prior to her appointment at the University of Illinois, Gallo was on faculty at Westminster Choir College where she also coordinated the Kodály Certification program. Gallo taught K-6 general/choral music in Fairfax County Public Schools (VA) and in Simsbury Public Schools (CT). She received her Ph.D. in music education from Northwestern University and is a graduate of Silver Lake College (MME), Indiana University (BME), and the Kodály Institute in Kesckemét, Hungary where she was awarded the International Kodály Society Scholarship. Gallo has served as an editor for the AOSA Echo (2012-2016) and is currently on the editorial board for the Music Educators Journal.