Alice Hammel is a widely known music educator, author, and clinician whose experience in music is extraordinarily diverse. She teaches for James Madison and Virginia Commonwealth Universities in the areas of music education and music theory respectively, and has many years of experience teaching both instrumental and choral music in public and private schools. She has maintained a large, independent flute studio for over 20 years. Most recently, Dr. Hammel is also the Autism Spectrum Disorder Music Intervention Specialist for ASSET ( Autism Spectrum Support, Education and Training), a division of Virginia Youth and Family Services.
Dr. Hammel travels widely to universities during the school year to serve as an in-residence scholar in the area of students with special needs. Her recent residencies include: University of Oklahoma, University of Texas at San Antonio, Midwestern State University, University of Arkansas, James Madison University, and Shenandoah University. This travel, combined with approximately 10-12 state and national conference presentations each year keeps Dr. Hammel well informed of the needs of both pre-service and in-service music educators. In 2016, Dr. Hammel will travel to Lublin, Poland to serve as the Keynote Speaker for the Autism Conference at the Marie Curie University. She will also travel to Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland to present research, serve on a panel of experts, and provide teaching demonstrations at the International Society for Music Education biennial conference. During the summer months, Dr. Hammel spends her time teaching in graduate programs for music educators around the United States. Her expertise in those teaching situations ranges from musicianship, pedagogy, and teaching students who learn differently. This wide demand places her in close collaboration with PK-12 music educators who are seeking to become better teachers and musicians.
Dr. Hammel has put these varied experiences to great use while compiling a large body of scholarly work. She is a co-author for two texts: Teaching Music to Students with Special Needs: A Label-free Approach, and Teaching Music to Students with Autism, available through Oxford University Press. A new resource, Winding It Back: Teaching to Individual Differences in Music Classroom and Ensemble Settings, will be released in February 2016. Dr. Hammel has contributed chapters to several other Oxford University Press resources including Composing our Future (edited by Kaschub and Smith) and Exceptional Pegagogy (edited by McCord and Blair) . Dr. Hammel is a contributing author to a variety of resources available through the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) and has published widely in music, arts, special, and general education journals.
Dr. Hammel has been affiliated with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Arts for several years and has presented multiple workshops for arts educators and arts administrators through this association. She has been a “Thought Leader” for the Kennedy Center National Forum: Examining the Intersection of Arts Education and Special Education since 2012, and serves on the planning committee for their annual national conference.
Dr. Hammel serves in many concurrent state and national professional leadership positions. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Hammel has built the Students with Special Needs section of the Virginia Music Educators Association into one of the strongest in the country. Attendance at her annual conference sessions has increased tenfold over this time, and teachers and administrators from across the state reach out to her for help and guidance. As the chair of the first-ever National Association for Music EducationTask Force on Students with Special Needs, Dr. Hammel spearheaded a two-day pre-conference bringing together speakers, clinicians, and students that represent the most current best-practice teaching techniques. She is currently overseeing the publication of a special edition of the Music Educators Journal devoted to students with special needs.
Dr. Hammel is on the Editorial Board of the Council for Exceptional Children - Division for the Arts, is a member of the Teacher Education Committee for the Organization of American Kodály Educators, and serves as an expert with the National Association for Music Education’s Solutions Music Group.
Dr. Hammel is a proud alumna of Shenandoah Conservatory (BME – magna cum laude and DMA) and Florida State University (MME). She holds post-doctoral certifications from the Organization of American Kodály Educators and the Gordon Institute for Music Learning. Dr. Hammel is a multiple award recipient honoring her commitment to music education and music teacher education.
