WMEA News 2022 WMEA Service Awards
Jazzmone Sutton Brings NAfME Advocacy Efforts to Wisconsin
WMEA Service Award recipients: Robyn Pfeifer, Lauren Heinen, Christine Hayes, Will Janssen, Kathryn Koch Galezio, Bill Clouse.
Each year at the Wisconsin State Music Conference, WMEA recognizes outstanding music educators, advocates and support- ers. President Brad Schneider conferred the honors with the 2022 WMEA awards as part of the President’s Welcome..
The Michael G. George Distinguished Service Award was established to recognize significant contributions made by a professional to music and music education at the local and state or national level over the course of a career. Christine Hayes of Whitewater was presented with the award.
The Distinguished Administrator Award was established to recognize a school administrator who is an advocate for the importance of music in schools. This year’s recipient was Bill Clouse from the Durand-Arkansaw School District.
For 25 years, Richard Gaarder provided leadership to music education. Upon his retirement, WMEA established an award in his name to commemorate his outstanding service. The Richard G. Gaarder Award is presented to an undergraduate music edu- cation student who has shown exceptional leadership, musical excellence, and service to campus and community. This year, two students were presented with this honor – Lauren Heinen at UW-Milwaukee, and Robin Pfeifer at UW-River Falls.
The Wisconsin Award for Excellence in Teaching Music was created to recognize, reward, and encourage excellence in music teaching by Wisconsin’s best professional educators. This award is co-sponsored by WMEA and WSMA and was awarded to Kathryn Koch Galezio, Slinger School District; and Will Jans- sen, Mount Horeb Area School District.
WMEA offers a number of awards including Distinguished Board Member, Distinguished Legislator, Creative Sparks (innova- tions in the classroom and beyond) and more. The nomination process is ongoing. More information about all WMEA awards can be found at
https://wmeamusic.org/awards/ Please consider nominating a deserving individual from your community to be presented at the 2023 Wisconsin State Music Conference.
Wisconsin School Musician
Paul Budde, WMEA Past-President; Jazzmone Sutton, NAfME State Advocacy Engagement Manager; Will Janssen, WMEA President- Elect; Brad Schneider, WMEA President
Jazzmone Sutton is the State Advocacy Engagement Manager for the National Association for Music Education (NAfME.) Sutton joined the NAfME team in July 2021. Before joining NAfME as a staffer, Sutton was a passionate elementary music educator and advocate based in North Carolina.
While in Wisconsin, Sutton presented a session at the Wisconsin State Music Conference with suggestions on how to improve advocacy efforts at the local level, met with WMEA leaders about statewide initiatives, attended performances and spoke with many WMEA members.
Advocacy Committee News Will Janssen,
Advocacy Committee Chair
One of the primary roles for WMEA is to serve as the lead re- source for advocacy resources in Wisconsin. A significant focus for WMEA is to help our elected leaders in state government understand some of the challenges we face and to provide them with possible solutions.
To make this work effectively, we need music educators from across the state to join in our “Drive-In Day” activities. This will be our 7th annual event and we are staying with a virtual format using Zoom meetings to make scheduling easier for everyone. This will allow teachers from every legislative district to join a conversation with their elected legislators at a time that works for them! The Zoom meetings usually last 20-30 minutes each.
This year’s dates are February 7–9, 2023. A training session will be held the week before to go through the talking points
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