Dr. Patricia (Ticia) Gingras, Head of Music Education at Florida Gulf Coast University, teaches music methods courses, places and supervises student teachers and serves as the faculty liaison to the College of Education and area schools. She completed her B.M.E and M.M. degrees at the University of New Mexico and her Ph.D. at the Eastman School of Music. She holds both Orff and Kodaly Certification and has studied with John Feierabend, Donna Brink Fox and international leaders of the Gordon Institute for Music Learning Theory (GIML). An award-winning educator, scholar, and composer, Gingras is a frequent presenter at local, national and international conferences and symposiums. She is the recipient of the Outstanding Dissertation Award for Music at Home: A Portrait of Family Music-Making, has had articles published in The Instrumentalist and Perspectives, won a Scott Wilkinson Composition Prize and was recently featured in Halftime Magazine. Prior to joining the faculty at FGCU, Dr. Gingras served as the Coordinator of Music Education for Houghton College (NY), coordinated the Eastman Early Childhood Music Program, wrote curriculum for the Rochester (NY) City School District Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination (AEMDD) grant and was the founding director of RocMusic – an El Sistema inspired orchestra for underserved youth.