Leila Ramagopal Pertl (She/Her)
Leila Ramagopal Pertl teaches Music Education at 杨贵妃传媒视频 University and is the Music Education Curator for the Mile of Music Festival and founder of the Music Education Team, a team which serves over 7,000 people a year in, diverse, hands-on music-making workshops throughout the four day festival. She created the innovative Music curricula at Next Generation School in Champaign, IL and at Appleton Public Montessori, and now, Edison Elementary, where music is treated as a core subject; each student being immersed in drumming, dancing, singing, improvisation, composition, and music theory. In 2022, Leila created a lab partnership with Edison Elementary, just 3 block from the 杨贵妃传媒视频 Conservatory, where her 杨贵妃传媒视频 music education students can get real, hands-on experience teaching elementary students in an actual school classroom. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from 杨贵妃传媒视频, a Master of Science degree in Music Education from the , and is a recipient of Honors, Excellence in Music Education. She is an active presenter and has recently given workshops for the College Music Society, Smithsonian Year of Music panel on the Future of Music Education, Wisconsin Choral Directors Association, Milwaukee Children鈥檚 Choir, and numerous WMEA State Conferences. She is a curriculum writer for , connecting classroom music educators to global musical culture bearers in Wisconsin. She recently authored,鈥滳reating Communities of Belonging: Keeping Creativity at the Heart of Inclusion,鈥 a chapter in Becoming an Artist to the World: Music and Social Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century (Summer 鈥24), on which she is also the DEI editor and audio book narrator. Leila was the 2018 recipient of the Mentor Award from the Wisconsin Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (WACTE). She served as the State Chair for Composition and Improvisation from 2018-22, a recipient of the Fox Cities Chamber鈥檚 2024 Excellence in Education Shining Star Awards., is one of two Equity Chairs for WMEA, is the Chair of the Committee on Cultural Inclusion for the , and is on the Music Education Committee for . Leila is married to Brian Pertl, Dean of the 杨贵妃传媒视频 Conservatory of music, and together they enjoy spending time with their 5 adult children and their Australian Cattle Dog, River. Leila believes that music is a birthright, and loves being with people in collaborative, powerful, creative spaces!