Biography
Jocelyn Stevens Prendergast is Associate Professor of Music Education at Truman State University where she teaches music education courses, as well as Conducting, Research in Music, Music Psychology, and Perspectives
in Music: Hip-Hop. She also supervises intern teachers, oversees the Music Masters of Arts in Education program, serves as the faculty advisor for the Truman State collegiate chapter of the National Association for Music Education, and founded and performs with the Truman Music Department Faculty Pop/Rock Band. She received a BM in Music Education from Butler University, an MM in Wind Conducting and an MA in Music Education from the University of Minnesota, and a DMA in Music Education from the University of Georgia.
Dr. Prendergast’s teaching experiences have been rich and varied, having taught in Indiana, Minnesota, Iowa, Georgia, and now Missouri. She has worked with students aged preschool through adult and has taught band, jazz band and combos, strings, choir, general music, and private trumpet and horn lessons. She has directed musicals
with students in middle and high school and is active in musical theatre in the Kirksville area as both a performer and director. She also enjoys teaching on the soccer field, coaching preschool through high school players at many competitive levels for the Northern Missouri Futbol Club.
She brings a diverse perspective, gained from her upbringing as an Air Force brat and her varied teaching experiences, to her work serving the music education community in Missouri and beyond in a variety of ways. She serves on the MMEA Advisory Council as
the Advancing Music Education Chair as well as on
the editorial board of the Missouri Journal of Research in Music Education. She also serves on the NAfME Innovations Council and co-facilitates the Critical Examination of the Curriculum ASPA for the Society for Music Teacher Educators.