Dr. Barbara McLain
Professor of Music, retired
Barbara McLain served as professor of music in the Music Education area at the University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa in Honolulu, Hawai‘i, until 2016. Previously, she was a member of the music education faculty at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and taught instrumental and vocal music in the public schools of Arizona, Illinois, and Indiana. She is a nationally acclaimed technology clinician and the founder of the University of Hawai‘i’s online graduate music education program, the first, NASM accredited, online degree offered in the nation.
Dr. McLain is an active adjudicator and author and has served in numerous leadership capacities including as president of the Western Division of NAfME; president, journal editor, and conference chair for the Hawai‘i Music Educators Association; national collegiate chair for NAfME; and has served on numerous editorial boards. She has presented national conference sessions for NAfME in Milwaukee, Salt Lake City, Nashville, Kansas City, Washington, D.C, and Phoenix, and for state MEA conferences in Arizona, California, Utah, Nevada, Ohio, North Carolina, and Hawai‘i.
She has numerous guest conducting appearances to her credit in Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Virginia, and Hawai‘i. Her articles have appeared in professional journals including Sloan C: Journal of Asynchronous Learning, Technological Directions in Music Learning, the Instrumentalist, the Music Educators Journal, the Journal of the College Band Directors National Association, College Music Society Symposium, New Ways, T.U.B.A. Journal, and Triad.
She recently published the 2nd edition of MENC’s first online textbook, A Career Guide for Music Education, and co-authored with Dr. Tim Lautzenheiser, an innovative ebook: Recruiting and Retention: Finding and Keeping Instrumental Music Students.
An active technology enthusiast and freelance designer, she received a BME degree from Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois, a MM from the University of Arizona, and Ph.D. degree from The Ohio State University.