/ Membership / Meet Our Members / Rob Lyda
What do you see as the major challenges music education will face during your term and in what ways can you transform these into opportunities during your presidency?
I believe music education will face three primary challenges during my term of office: relevance, the teacher shortage, and access. These challenges require reflection on our values, systems, and the role of music within education.
Music education’s relevance is influenced by societal values, economic pressures, and evolving priorities in education. While traditional secondary programs serve many students well, 80% of secondary students do not participate in school-based music. I believe we must continue to offer and support existing music ensembles. However, we must broaden our offerings to include diverse musical experiences. Economic pressures and a focus on career readiness in education also threaten music’s place in schools. To address this, we must provide professional development in culturally sustaining pedagogy, develop partnerships with career and technical education, and engage in advocacy to affirm music’s role in the curriculum.
The shortage of certified music educators poses a threat to student access to music education. We must utilize Tri-M as a pathway to support and identify future music teachers. In my state, we offer a highly successful program at our conference that introduces high school students to music education as a career. This program has been replicated by other MEAs with great results.
Our cNAfME chapters should be utilized to connect collegiates and in-service teachers. cNAfME should be the place where we lay the foundation for mentoring relationships with in-service educators. Additionally, MEAs, NAfME, and State Departments of Education should collaborate to create mentoring and support programs for music educators during their first five years. We must actively work to combat the teacher shortage by any means possible.
Access to music education remains a persistent issue. It is our moral responsibility to ensure all students have access to music education. We must engage in grassroots advocacy to empower people to demand music education for their students. MEAs should collaborate with their State Council on the Arts and Arts Alliance to host advocacy training days to empower parents, community members, and boosters to become advocates. As music educators, we must create local support systems that work to change policies and secure funding for music education in schools.
Addressing these challenges requires collective effort. It will take all of us working together to overcome these barriers and ensure music education thrives for all students.
What do you see as the major challenges the association will face during your term and in what ways can you transform these into opportunities during your presidency?
NAfME must focus on three critical areas: advocacy, economic sustainability, and enhancing membership value. These challenges present opportunities for collaboration, advocacy, and leadership.
We must empower our members to be effective advocates at the local, state, and federal level. Lately it seems that the arts and education are constantly facing policy issues. Divisive concept laws, vouchers, curricular scrutiny, and other issues are impacting music educators and students. NAfME must educate, develop resources, and empower members to advocate for comprehensive music education. In addition, we must engage the Policy Roundtable to strategically advocate for music education and combat policies and laws that threaten access to music education. Collaborating with like-minded organizations will be essential to protecting music education.
NAfME must embrace its role as a “big tent” organization, advocating for all areas of music education. There are many voices in our field that represent specialty areas and specific content areas. NAfME must be the leader for ALL music education. With the upcoming revision of the National Standards for Arts Education, NAfME’s leadership is critical to ensuring the standards reflect our vision for a comprehensive, sequential, and equitable music education.
The economy will have a lasting impact on all facets of music education. The pandemic has already forced NAfME and MEAs to make difficult but necessary decisions regarding staffing and operations. Financial limitations will hinder access to music education for some students. The economy will also affect membership and NAfME’s ability to serve its members. Our state MEAs will feel the economic pinch as they continue to strive to offer high-quality conference experiences.
NAfME must identify sustainable funding sources, enhance financial transparency, reevaluate the membership fee structure, and share advocacy costs with partners. In addition, NAfME may need to explore ways to offer financial support to state MEAs that lack an adequate funding structure. We will need to collaborate with our partners to share resources to develop mutually beneficial programs. There are several examples of NAfME’s Councils working with “sister” organizations to offer programs and resources. We need to continue to grow these partnerships to offer benefits for our members.
We must redefine why membership is important and actively engage all music educators by making them feel represented. Our members need to feel that NAfME and MEA membership is an essential component of their professional identity. NAfME must nurture and build advocates, make wise financial decisions, and lead the music education profession.
How do you plan to advance equity/DEIA in NAfME during your term of office?
NAfME has spent the past few years engaging in necessary conversations about equity. While progress has been made, we still have significant work to do. It is our moral responsibility to build an organization that is equitable, inclusive, and fosters a sense of belonging for all members.
I will continue to advocate for initiatives that strengthen our commitment to equity and access throughout our state MEAs and NAfME. I envision several key initiatives that we can focus on:
- Examine the nomination process for Councils, Societies, and committees to ensure diversity of location, content areas, grade levels, membership status (active, retired, collegiate, industry), gender, and racial/ethnic background.
- Use NAfME’s social media, website, and publications to showcase a variety of musical experiences (performance and non-performance) in urban, suburban, and rural music education.
- Support initiatives like HBCU Night or scholarships for students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic Serving Institutions to attend state conferences, ensuring broader access and engagement.
- Empower the Professional Learning and Partnerships Committee to work with MEAs to expand its reach and offerings.
- Partner with state MEAs to develop leadership programs for underrepresented groups. General music educators, in particular, often lack a visible pathway to leadership. Without opportunities such as All-State or Solo & Ensemble, their students may be less engaged, and their teachers underrepresented.
- Utilize NAfME’s research community to make this research more accessible and applicable for K–12 educators, helping them translate data into daily practice.
- Our advocacy is often reactive. We must be more proactive and unify the efforts of the Advocacy Leadership Force, NAfME staff, and the Policy Roundtable to drive systemic change. This includes building long-term policy strategies to improve access to music education at federal, state, and local levels.
These goals may seem ambitious, but with shared purpose and commitment, they are entirely achievable. I want to help shape a NAfME that welcomes all music educators, affirms their identities and experiences, and supports their mission to provide meaningful music education for every student. Together, we can build a more inclusive and empowered community that reflects the richness of our profession and leads the way in transforming music education for the future.
Equity Statement
It is easy to write a statement; it’s much harder to live a statement. I tried to reflect on what I truly believe and practice. First and foremost, I believe we must actively work to create a culture of belonging—one that respects diversity, includes all people, mitigates barriers, opens access, and centers equity.
Equity must be the framework that guides our work. Most of us are trained to teach and learn from a single cultural mindset. However, both we and our students are unique individuals with diverse needs that must be considered for full participation and benefit from music education. We must intentionally break down barriers and offer support so that all voices are represented, included, and valued in our profession.
All music is valid, and we should offer opportunities for students to explore a variety of musical traditions. Our traditional ensembles must be supported and honored—I would not be a music educator without my band experiences—but we must also recognize and embrace the musical practices found in our communities that exist outside the Western tradition. We must open ourselves to teaching, learning, and experiencing music from multiple cultural perspectives.
All children deserve access to music education as part of their curriculum. While advocacy remains crucial, it must go beyond highlighting ancillary benefits. We must focus on dismantling policies and structures that inhibit access to music education. Advocacy must become systematic and strategic, aiming to change education policies that stifle music education. Every music educator has a role to play, and our organizations must train all educators to become effective advocates.
State MEAs play a pivotal role in opening pathways to diverse musical experiences. Some MEAs have worked hard to add Modern Band, Mariachi, and Music Technology to their conferences. While this is a fantastic first step, we must continually examine internal and external structures to ensure all music is valued within our organizations and schools. As a member of my state’s standards revision team, I advocated for writing new standards for music industry courses and revising existing standards to accommodate a variety of ensembles and music technology courses.
We must also elevate examples of music education success across all school settings. Teaching music can often feel isolating, particularly in rural or small schools. I taught part of my career in a rural, small K–12 unit school and I often wished I saw examples of success elevated by our professional organizations. Our conferences, journals, websites, and social media platforms should better reflect the wide variety of music and experiences across our communities.
The music teaching profession must open pathways to music education at all levels. Across the country, there are too many places where students lack access to music education. Even where programs exist, participation rates are low. We must continue to support traditional ensembles but also offer culturally relevant experiences for students not currently engaged.
I am not suggesting that already overburdened music teachers take on more responsibilities. Rather, we must open doors for musicians trained in Modern Band, mariachi, steel pan, music technology, and cultural music to enter teaching preparation programs, graduate, and earn teaching certification. The Music Teaching Profession Initiative’s Blueprint identifies both challenges and mitigation to diversifying the profession. We must continually examine why students do not or cannot enter music teacher preparation programs and work together to remove those barriers.
All people are of sacred worth and deserve an education that is inclusive of multiple perspectives, learning experiences, and respect for their personal experiences. Children come into our classrooms shaped by their unique backgrounds. Likewise, adults bring their diverse experiences and cultural competencies into our associations. We must create pathways to learn from and about our members’ experiences, both positive and negative. Through open dialogue, we can build organizations where everyone belongs and sees themselves reflected.
Teachers must model lifelong learning and a commitment to inclusion and respect. To achieve equity, we must remain committed to growing our knowledge—not only of our content but of our students, their experiences, and the cultures of our communities. Equity cannot be merely discussed; it must be intentionally practiced.
Leaders must actively work to open pathways and foster a culture of belonging. Students are often our greatest teachers. A former student of mine, now a music educator, once shared that they sometimes felt they did not belong in the profession. Their words made me reflect, ask questions, examine who was and was not included, and seek ways to mitigate barriers. As a state MEA President and Chair of NAfME’s Council for General Music Education, I committed to bringing people together, questioning our structures, including multiple perspectives from a variety of backgrounds, and actively creating and fostering belonging.
Members must see themselves reflected within our organizations and leadership structures. Without intentional representation, we cannot create a true culture of equity, inclusion, and belonging. This work is difficult, time-consuming, and often demands personal reflection and growth. But it is vital for the future of our profession. Equity is worth the work. If we truly believe in music education for all, then we must actively work to break down barriers and include ALL people.
Leadership Statement
I believe that all people in our organization are capable of being leaders. As I reflect on my time serving, I have identified several core beliefs and principles that continually guide my leadership journey. Above all, a central tenet of my beliefs is that leaders should serve others first, and the organization will follow. Leadership is not about praise and accolades; leadership is about serving others. Below, I will elaborate on my core leadership beliefs.
Leaders must respect people. Organizations are made up of individuals with different perspectives, beliefs, and lived experiences. Our organization, in particular, includes people with diverse content area expertise. It is essential that we provide opportunities for all individuals to benefit from our organization and allow them to contribute meaningfully to it. No one should feel that any personal characteristic excludes them from participating and contributing. As a leader, I believe it is my responsibility to create a culture that values equity and fosters belonging.
Another important component of leadership is developing the next generation of leaders. Our organizations will not survive without focusing on leadership development. We must look critically at our current leadership structure and compare it to our membership. Who is missing? What voices are absent? What barriers are preventing participation? Creating an organization that values people and places them first should be our primary goal.
Leaders must be learners. It is dangerous for leaders to believe they know everything. I am the first to admit my limitations and gaps in knowledge. However, as a lover of learning, I see it as my responsibility to surround myself with people who can teach me and help fill those gaps. In my classroom, I consider myself the chief learner. If I am going to teach others, they must first see me as a learner.
It is equally important for leaders to surround themselves with people of different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives. Each time I have served in a leadership role, I have formed a personal cabinet to help fill my knowledge gaps. I constantly seek to learn new things in order to teach and serve others better. To make lasting change in our organizations, leaders must be lifelong learners.
Leaders need to help their organizations and members see new possibilities. It’s easy to settle for the comfortable mindset of “we’ve always done it this way.” While this approach may provide easy and consistent results, it creates a culture where new ideas are neither welcomed nor valued. As leaders, we must break down barriers to new ideas and perspectives. Every system can and should be evaluated and improved for the betterment of the organization and those we serve.
Leaders must actively seek opportunities for collaboration. A recent song my daughter often plays includes the lyrics “If you wanna go fast, go alone . . . if you wanna go far, we go together.” Sometimes leaders may believe it is better to work alone to achieve a goal quickly. However, I have found that collaboration is more beneficial in the long run. When we work alone, we view experiences solely through our own perspective. When we collaborate, we have the opportunity to consider multiple possibilities, perspectives, and experiences.
During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was confusion and fear throughout our profession. As Chair of NAfME’s Council for General Music Education, I knew we needed to act to ensure music education continued even as schools shifted to virtual instruction. I contacted leaders of many well-known general music approaches and began developing resources and virtual professional development sessions to support teachers. Through this initial collaboration, a group of like-minded individuals came together to adapt and interpret guidance to continue music education across all delivery modes. Even with the pandemic behind us, we have continued this collaboration by offering periodic resources and NAfME’s annual general music virtual mini-conference.
It’s true: if we as a profession want to go far and ensure access to music education for all students, we must form strong, lasting collaborations with like-minded professional organizations.
Leadership requires making hard decisions and following them with deliberate action. One of the hardest leadership challenges I faced was cancelling the 2024 AMEA professional development conference due to a historic ice storm. I made the motion myself because I didn’t want other board members to shoulder the burden. Though it was one motion and then one vote, the consequences were significant: a year of planning and 70% of our MEA’s operating budget disappeared in an instant. Still, it was the right and safe decision in 2024, and it remains the right decision in 2025. The safety of our members, industry partners, conference staff, hotel workers, and students far outweighed any losses.
While cancelling the conference was difficult, the truly hard work came afterward. I worked with our board to determine the essential elements of our conference, develop a plan to recover lost revenue, and ensure we met constitutional obligations that would have been fulfilled at the conference. Fortunately, our MEA had contributed to an investment fund, which helped replace some lost revenue. I sent a letter to our members asking them to contribute their conference registration fees to AMEA. Our board decided that rescheduling our honor and All-State groups was our top priority. We rescheduled all events, found new venues across the state, and made other accommodations to serve our students. I personally traveled across the state to present awards to members who would have been recognized at the conference.
It was exhausting to pick up the pieces, but it was essential that we found a way forward. Our board made a difficult decision without knowing what the end result would be, but we committed to working together for the common good of our members and our organization.
Leadership is not glamorous—it is hard work. But leadership is also an honor and a privilege. Each time I am elected to serve my fellow music educators, I am deeply grateful for the trust my colleagues place in me. Serving people, ensuring access to music education, and creating a culture that values all individuals is worth the time, effort, and challenges of leadership.
