Anita Kumar

Anita B. Kumar is a visiting lecturer in Music Education at University of Washington. She holds degrees from Miami University in Ohio (B.M.), Arizona State University (M.M.) and University of Washington (Ph.D.) She is excited to return to UW after four years as a lecturer of music education at Georgia State University in Atlanta. Her research interests include psychosocial perceptions of teachers and conductors in large ensembles, audiovisual perception of conducting gesture, school-community engagement partnerships, and evaluation of preservice teachers. Her work is published in Frontiers in Psychology, Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, Psychology of Music, and by GIA Publications.

At Georgia State, Kumar was assistant director of the award-winning Sound Learning program, a school-community outreach program in partnership with East Lake and Cousins Family Foundations. From 2015-2018, she served as the assistant director of the Around the Sound Community Band, a 20-year community institution in North Seattle. Prior to her doctoral studies, Kumar served as band director at Landmark and Melvin E Sine elementary schools, and instrumental music lead teacher, in the Glendale Elementary School District in Glendale, Arizona.