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Katherine Damkohler

Katherine Damkohler is Education Through Music’s (ETM) founding Executive Director. A long-time educator of urban children, she is a former teacher and school principal. As a principal, she led one school to a U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon Award, for which she was honored at the White House. Over her 26 years of leadership at ETM, she has grown the program from serving one school to over 50 schools, and the addition of an affiliate program in Los Angeles. Through ETM, she is a national education leader, advocating for music education as a core subject for all children.

Ms. Damkohler has spoken at arts education conferences and panel discussions in New York City and around the country, addressing principals, superintendents, teachers and business and community leaders on school leadership and using the arts to help revitalize schools. She has served as a guest lecturer in curriculum and pedagogy at the Manhattan School of Music. In 2016, she addressed fundraising for arts education on a panel led by the USDAN Sumer Camps for the Arts.

In 2006, ETM licensed an organization to replicate our model in Los Angeles, and Ms. Damkohler worked closely with ETM-LA’s Executive Director to build the affiliated organization. She served on the Arts Education Council of Americans for the Arts during 2011-12 and is a member of the National Advisory Board of Arts|Learning. In 2014, Ms. Damkohler began partnering with the Ibáñez Atkinson Foundation to help guide the Foundation in bringing music education for children in Santiago, Chile. In 2017, she spoke at an arts education conference held by the Ibáñez Atkinson Foundation in Chile.. Ms. Damkohler holds an M.A. in Curriculum and Teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University. She lives in Pelham, NY with her husband.