Kate Fitzpatrick

(she/her)

Associate Dean for Undergraduate Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Music

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Bio

Kate Fitzpatrick (she/her/hers) is Associate Dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Music Education at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance. In addition to holding BME and MA degrees from The Ohio State University, Fitzpatrick holds a Ph.D. in music education from Northwestern University, where her mixed methods dissertation focused on the experiences of instrumental music teachers in the Chicago Public Schools.

Before coming to U-M in the fall of 2008, Fitzpatrick served as assistant professor of music education and assistant director of bands at the University of Louisville, where she conducted the Symphonic Band. At U-M, Fitzpatrick has taught a variety of courses on topics such as Social Justice in the Arts, Secondary Instrumental Methods, the Art of Music Teaching, Curriculum and Assessment, and Advanced Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Methods Research. As Associate Dean for the SMTD, she oversees the academic and artistic journeys of the undergraduate student body, with an emphasis on fostering communication, connection, and belonging as essential components of student success.

Fitzpatrick is an active and prolific researcher, specializing in equity within arts education, urban music education, culturally responsive pedagogy, gender and motherhood in the academy, and mixed methods research. Her research has been published in the Journal of Research in Music Education, Research Studies in Music Education, the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, the International Journal of Music Education, Contributions to Music Education, the Music Educators Journal, and the Journal of Mixed Methods Research, in addition to numerous book chapters. Her work has been presented at national and international conferences such as the National Association for Music Education Music Research and Teacher Education Conference, the biennial meeting of the Society for Music Teacher Education Conference, the College Music Society, the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, and the International Society for Music Education World Conference.

Her book, Urban Music Education: A Practical Guide for Teachers, was published in 2015 by Oxford University Press. Her newest book, “Motherhood in the music education academy,” co-edited with Dr. Bridget Sweet of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, is forthcoming with Oxford University Press. Fitzpatrick has served on the editorial boards for the Journal of Research in Music Education and UPDATE: Applications of Research in Music Education. She is the past national elected chair of the Social Sciences Special Research Interest Group for the National Association of Music Education. Fitzpatrick serves as a faculty expert affiliate to Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan, which focuses on fostering research related to the prevention and alleviation of poverty, and also serves on the Advisory Board for the Save the Music Foundation.

Dr. Fitzpatrick is a 2020 winner of the Carol Hollenshead Inspire Award for Excellence in Promoting Equity and Social Change, awarded to University of Michigan faculty “whose sustained efforts have resulted in greater equity with regard to gender, race, class, age, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation.” In 2022, she was named a fellow of the Big Ten Academic Alliance Academic Leadership Program.

An avid supporter of public school music programs, Fitzpatrick is the former director of instrumental music at Northland High School in Columbus, Ohio, where she directed the district’s largest band and orchestra program. She is also the recipient of the 2003 God and Country Award for her “outstanding, sensitive leadership of young people.”