Strategies to protect your program don’t have to be hard, scary, or complicated! Join us for a two-part session sure to inspire – you’ll leave with ideas and tools for keeping your music program a priority for your administration, your parents, and your school board.
Part one is a 30-minute lightning round of one-minute advocacy and community-engagement ideas sourced from and presented by your peers who have successfully used them to strengthen support for music learning. Part two is a facilitated discussion and Q&A with music education and industry leaders sharing current needs and realities to protect, strengthen and expand music education to meet the needs of ALL students and their families. Presented by the Midwest Clinic in collaboration with the NAMM Foundation.
Mary Luehrsen
- Biographical Information
Mary Luehrsen is director of public affairs and government
relations for NAMM, the National Association of Music Merchants and Executive
Director of the NAMM Foundation. Since 2001, Luehrsen has directed NAMM’s
government relations and advocacy efforts and guides the organization as a
international leader for music education. In addition, she directs the 120-year
old organization in policy and advocacy issues that impact global music product
businesses. Luehrsen is the NAMM Foundation’s inaugural executive
director since its formation in 2006. The NAMM Foundation focuses on
supporting music research, and philanthropic and public service programs that
advance music making opportunities for people of all ages and abilities. The
Foundation’s various signature programs – Best Communities for Music Education,
President’s Innovation Awards, SupportMusic Coalition, Talking Up Music
Education podcast and the Coalition on Coalitions – exemplify Luehrsen’s focus
on rallying talents and energies of people and organizations to advance
opportunities for people of all ages and abilities to know the joys and
benefits of making and learning music.
Luehrsen created and developed NAMM’s GenNext and Music
Education Days programs that host thousands of university music faculty,
students and music educators at the annual NAMM Show to inspire career options
in music, connections with the music industry and advance opportunities for
music learning. These programs now serve over 5,000 education and
nonprofit stakeholders at the annual NAMM show in January in Anaheim, CA.
Luehrsen also created the NAMM Foundation’s Nonprofit Management Institute held
at the NAMM Show that supports and trains leaders and staff of over 300 music
service organizations with goals to strengthen their effectiveness. In
2005, Luehrsen established the development of NAMM’s Washington DC Advocacy
Fly-in that trains NAMM business leaders from around the country in pro-active
advocacy for music education on the federal, state and local levels. In the ten
years prior the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act in 2015 (ESSA).