Adenike Webb, PhD, MT-BC is a board-certified music therapist with over 15 years of experience working in inpatient and outpatient behavioral health settings. She received her undergraduate training in music therapy at Radford University and completed her Masters and PhD in Music Therapy at Temple University. Her clinical experiences led to her research interests in developing cultural awareness and sensitivity in music therapy practice and education. Her focus on issues pertaining to diversity, equity and inclusion have led to contributing to education and advocacy efforts in her local and professional communities.
Whitney Covalle, Ph.D., is a singer, researcher, and choir director. Her research is on improving access and equity to music education for students in urban settings, emphasizing community expertise, participatory music, and teaching in the aural-oral tradition. She took her 17 years of teaching choir in urban settings and completed her doctorate in music education at Temple University. Her dissertation “All God’s Children Got A Song: An Exploration of Urban Music Education” involves three studies around urban music education. First, Dr. Covalle examines her own journey leaving a predominantly White institution to enter urban settings and teach music, finding herself unequipped in musical and nonmusical ways, and journey toward musical and cultural competency. The second section is a deep exploration of teaching Black Gospel as defined by three Philadelphia experts, recently published in the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education. Lastly, she studied two urban school music educators who through engaging community arts partners to learn about the liberatory praxis of Black music.
Previously, Dr. Covalle was the Director of Choirs at Jones College Prep High School, a Chicago Public School in downtown Chicago, combining students from across the city. She ran the choirs with a social mission of building community through diverse music. Under her tenure the choirs grew to serve over 200 students. Prior to her work at Jones, Dr. Covalle was a conductor for Chicago Children’s Choir.
