CMEA Bay Section – General Session/Keynote Address
Clinician(s): Chad Zullinger (President, CMEA)
Leadership Through Service: Answering the Call to Serve by Connecting with our Musical Self
CMEA President Zullinger will invite educators to embrace service not only as a responsibility but as a pathway to meaningful change, inspiring others, and shaping the future of music education. Attendees will leave with a personal account on how to elevate their impact by leading with a servant’s mindset, driven by a shared commitment to the profession and the students they serve.
Mr. Zullinger will reflect on his journey of giving back to the CMEA Bay Section music education communities, drawing on experiences from hosting choral festivals as an area representative, serving as Technology and Choral representative(s), and organizing Bay Section and CASMEC professional development sessions. His address will inspire music educators to embrace leadership through service, emphasizing the rewarding impact of community partnerships and contributing to the field that has given so much to their music teacher identities, pursuits, and careers.
Chad Zullinger is an Assistant Professor of Music in Music Education at Sacramento State University, where his duties include teaching courses in music technology, general, and choral music education. In addition, he serves as President of the California Music Educators Association (CMEA). Mr. Zullinger earned his M.M. in Choral Conducting from the University of Delaware and a B.M. in Composition at San Francisco State University. Currently, Mr. Zullinger is a Doctoral candidate in Music Education at Boston University.
Mr. Zullinger is a self-taught guitarist who grew up participating in small groups (rock bands), in and outside of school, as well as creating music at computer workstations using MIDI keyboards, devices, and software. After attending San Francisco State University, he taught for over 20 years in a variety of classes including band, chorus, general music, and popular music performance in K-12 public school and university settings. Mr. Zullinger’s choirs consistently earned top ratings at state festivals that led to performances and ensembles earning accolades from prestigious organizations and associations, both regionally and abroad.
Chad has presented on topics in post-secondary music curriculum and pedagogical practices for numerous National Association for Music Education (NAfME) state organizations around the country. In these contexts, Mr. Zullinger encourages session participants and his students to engage reflexively, creatively, and to consider pedagogical approaches to curriculum and experiential learning in multiple musical disciplines and settings, a topic he explored in a forthcoming book chapter on Participatory Learning in the Music Classroom with Oxford University Press.
Mr. Zullinger’s dissertation explored the perspectives and values of self-defined, multi-musical preservice and inservice music educators, particularly as it relates to their experiences in/through U.S.-based preservice music education programs. Recently, he presented his research at the Society for Music Teacher Education (SMTE), the Suncoast Music Education Research Symposium, and the international conference, Research in Music Education (RiME). He looks forward to continuing these paths of research, as well as seeking out opportunities for collaborative and creative work with the music education community in the greater Sacramento region.
Chad, his wife Angela, and two daughters, Ellen, and Hannah, recently relocated to Sacramento from the Bay Area, California. Outside of teaching, he enjoys playing guitar in rock bands, helping with his daughters’ softball and soccer teams, and taking walks with his dog, Isabelle.
Session Handouts