Dr. Kathleen Melago
Role(s):
Specialties:
Affiliations:
Dr. Kathleen Melago is Professor in the Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Educational Leadership at Slippery Rock University. She previously served for 16 years as Music Education Program Coordinator in SRU’s Department of Music, where she taught a wide range of music education courses and supervised field experience students and student teachers.
Kathy holds music degrees from Slippery Rock University (B.S., Music Education), the University of Northern Iowa (M.M., Flute Performance), Eastern Illinois University (M.A., Music Education), and The Ohio State University (D.M.A., Music Education). She has taught music in Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Ohio, in both school and private studio settings, and previously taught flute and directed the flute choir at Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa.
Her writing has appeared in journals including Music Educators Journal, Journal of Research in Music Education, PMEA News, Teaching Music, Flute Talk, Canadian Music Educator, and The Instrumentalist. She is co-editor (with Dr. Scott Edgar) and a contributing author of Portraits of Social Emotional Learning in Music Teacher Education: Teaching Music with Heart (GIA Publications, 2024), the author of Field Experience Immersion in Music: A Planning Guide (Fflat Books, 2025), and author of an e-text for music appreciation courses called Exploring Music (Top Hat Monacle, 2019). She has several publications for flute available through ALRY Publications. Kathy is an active flutist and frequent presenter at state, national, and international conferences, including PMEA, NAfME, and The Midwest Clinic. She has held leadership roles with the National Flute Association, PMEA, and as a member of the Music Educators Journal Editorial Board (2016-2024).