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National Council on the Arts Members

Karen Lias Wolff (Ann Arbor, MI)

Karen Lias Wolff is Dean of the University of Michigan School of Music and Professor of Music Education. In addition to having oversight of a $21 million annual budget, her responsibilities include a faculty of 125 (in music, dance, and theater), a 60-person staff, 11 facilities on campus, development, public relations, and outreach activities. Previously, she was Dean of the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music (1991-99), Director of the University of Minnesota School of Music (1987-91), and had a number of positions at the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music (1978-87). Her teaching specialty is the training of youth choral groups, and her dissertation concerned the effects of music education on academic achievement. She serves on the boards of the University Musical Society, the Michigan Shakespeare Festival, the Ann Arbor Summer Festival, and the Interlochen Arts Academy, and she is currently vice president of the National Association of Schools of Music. She is a frequent speaker at national and regional conferences as well as a curriculum consultant for schools of music throughout the country. Dr. Wolff received a bachelor's degree in Music Education at Morningside College in Sioux City, IA, and master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.