Title: Associate Professor of Music Education
Company: Northwest Missouri State University
Location: Platte City, Missouri, United States
Debra R. Brown, PhD, Associate Professor of Music Education at Northwest Missouri State University, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Educators for dedication, achievements and leadership in Music Education.
Dr. Brown has established a distinguished career in music education spanning over 45 years, marked by her unwavering commitment to advancing the field and advocating for universal access to music instruction. Since 2024, she has served as an associate professor of music education at Northwest Missouri State University, where she is responsible for teaching future music educators how to instruct young children, offering a course through the school of education for elementary education majors on integrating music into their classrooms, and leading a music history class focused on 20th– and 21st-century popular music. Dr. Brown’s expertise in music curriculum, classroom management and educational philosophy has been widely recognized within the academic community.
Hired by Northwest Missouri State University in 2017, Dr. Brown began as an assistant professor of music education. During this period, she made significant contributions to the development of innovative teaching methods and played a pivotal role in shaping the university’s approach to music education. Dr. Brown was also appointed as the associate chair of the department of fine and performing arts on campus from 2022 to 2025, where she provided leadership and support for faculty and students across multiple disciplines.
Before her tenure at Northwest Missouri State University, Dr. Brown was an assistant professor of music education at the school of music at Ball State University between 2016 and 2017. In this capacity, she refined her pedagogical skills and expanded her influence in higher education. Dr. Brown also excelled as an adjunct assistant professor at Johnson County Community College, where she taught a variety of courses from 2000 to 2018.
Dr. Brown’s foundational years were spent as a music educator in the Olathe School District between 1982 and 2011, where she dedicated herself to fostering musical growth among elementary students. For over five years, she also held the administrative role of general music facilitator for elementary music, coordinating and developing programs for 35 elementary music teachers within the district.
Highly educated for her career in this sector, Dr. Brown obtained a bachelor’s degree in music education from Baker University. Subsequently, she received a master’s degree in music education from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1998 and a Doctor of Philosophy in music education from the University of Kansas in 2016. While pursuing her doctorate, Dr. Brown served as a graduate teaching assistant on campus from 2011 to 2015. This experience allowed her to deepen her research interests while supporting undergraduate instruction.
Dr. Brown’s professional affiliations reflect her dedication to excellence in the field. She is an active member of the National Association for Music Education, the Kansas Music Educators Association, the American Orff-Schulwerk Association and the Missouri Music Educators Association. Meanwhile, her scholarly contributions included co-authoring an article in Contributions to Music Education in 2021 and delivering over a dozen regional and national refereed presentations or poster sessions in music education, as well as numerous invited presentations.
In light of her achievements, Dr. Brown has been recognized with numerous awards from Northwest Missouri State University, including the Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching, which led to her selection as the recipient of the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. She also received a Diversity and Inclusion Award and, most recently, the Faculty Advisor Award for Student Organizations for her work advising the student chapter of the National Association for Music Educators.
Throughout her career, Dr. Brown has attributed her success to persistence and the skills developed during her early years teaching elementary school. Today, she remains deeply committed to refining her teaching practice and aspires to revisit research projects while staying engaged with developments in music education after retirement.
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