TEACHING

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

My teaching is grounded in the belief that students learn most effectively by engaging in the practice itself. Professional confidence is not developed through observation alone, but through authentic creative experiences that connect technical mastery, critical inquiry, and professional opportunity.

Across my courses, I have intentionally integrated professional practice into the classroom by drawing upon my research, creative scholarship, industry partnerships, and technical expertise. Rather than treating coursework as isolated academic exercises, I design learning experiences that mirror the collaborative, interdisciplinary, and entrepreneurial realities of today's media industries. As a result, students do more than complete assignments—they produce immersive audio experiences, present original research, contribute to professional productions, collaborate with industry practitioners, participate in public-facing events, and build portfolios that prepare them for meaningful careers.

This approach reflects my broader commitment to workforce development and educational access. During my time at Howard University, I have leveraged professional relationships to create internships, mentorship opportunities, industry workshops, guest lectures, production experiences, conference presentations, and research collaborations that extend learning beyond the classroom. These efforts have contributed to early-career placements with organizations including Spotify, SoundExchange, the Smithsonian Institution, the Denver Broncos, Stages Houston, and other leading organizations across the media industries.

My teaching is guided by the conviction that access changes outcomes. By connecting students to professional networks, emerging technologies, interdisciplinary research, and real-world creative practice, I seek to expand not only what students know, but what they believe is possible for themselves.

Taken together, these experiences reflect a pedagogical practice centered on learning by doing. More importantly, they help students see themselves not simply as learners of media, but as scholars, creators, innovators, entrepreneurs, and leaders prepared to shape its future.

TEACHING INNOVATION & CURRICULAR DEVELOPMENT

The Preamble of the Appendix A -050514 MJFC APT Philosophy Statement affirms, the university expects professionally oriented faculty to conduct classes that serve as teaching laboratories for imparting professional skills and knowledge to students. (p. 1).

Also, Creative / Professional Activities worthy of high distinction include  the development and management of meritorious special projects of an academic or professional nature that exceed normal expectations of teaching and/or instruction and supervision of co-curricular programs, and that achieve recognition on local, regional, national or international level (p. 11).

 

EVIDENCE OF TEACHING & CURRICULAR DEVELOPMENT

GRAMMY GO

2023 - 2024

Context: Authored, designed, and taught the Recording Academy's globally distributed GRAMMY GO Music Production Specialization courses from 2023 to 2024, partnering with the Recording Academy to build a high-profile, professional-caliber learning experience that remains actively available to the public on Coursera.

Effort: Led a year-long effort to architect the full curriculum, lesson designs, and assessment structures, translating complex music production and engineering principles into accessible modules while nurturing a framework for asynchronous teaching contributions from GRAMMY-winning producers, engineers, and top music executives. Also worked as on-camera talent to deliver video lectures.

Distribution: Selection by established distribution system (Coursera) + Internet and mobile distribution

Impact: Created a scalable educational infrastructure that bridges the Recording Academy’s massive audience brand—which draws 14M+ live broadcast viewers and over 300M global video views—with Coursera's platform of 205 million registered learners; expands access to elite music education for creators across diverse socioeconomic backgrounds worldwide, while positioning Howard University at the absolute center of global commercial music education and highlighting a unique ability to blend complex technology, education, and elite music industry networks.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFsHrL-5B-A 

Link: https://www.coursera.org/specializations/grammygo-music-production-award-worthy-songs#testimonials 

Sonic Branding Initiative for Howard University's "HU YOU KNOW!" Identity

Spring 2026

Context: Directed a creative branding initiative with Advanced Audio Production students to turn a famous, culturally significant campus soundscape into a professional audio property.

Effort: Guided students through field recording, composition, and immersive mixing to capture Howard's famous "HU YOU KNOW!" identity. Taught students how to pitch and present their final work to university stakeholders.

Impact: Transformed a public cultural chant into a scalable, protected branding asset for official university media platforms. This project gave students direct experience in client-based design while giving the institution ownership of its own public sound. The resulting audio logo has been used in WHUR FM commercials.

HU x AU Formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)

2023 - Present

Context
This strategic partnership establishes a shared curricular pathway using the existing consortium infrastructure between the two institutions. Following a comprehensive update to our audio course offerings to meet new university benchmarks and elevate student learning outcomes, the department faced critical staffing and resource limitations to run specialized upper-level tracks. To overcome these constraints without exhausting departmental budgets, I identified and leveraged an external institutional relationship with my alma mater, aligning the collaboration with department-wide targets for student retention, academic rigor, and professional placement.

Effort
In 2023, the American University Audio Technology (ATEC) Director, Associate Chair, and I began mapping and synchronizing our respective curricula. Our arrangement opens competitive 300- and 400-level AU courses—including Critical Listening, Acoustics, and Studio Production I & II—directly to Howard University audio students. We successfully negotiated a specialized articulation agreement embedded within the MOU to secure structural pathways for advanced degrees and advanced the document through the external clearance pipeline. These efforts culminated in the formal signature of American University's Vice Provost. The completed package was submitted to Howard University administration on February 5, 2026 and remains under active institutional review.

Impact
Once fully approved, this MOU expands student access to specialized, top-tier production environments. The agreement guarantees that Howard students can seamlessly fulfill their new credit requirements. Crucially, it establishes an elite, automatic admission pipeline into American University’s prestigious Master of Arts in Audio Technology program for any Howard graduate completing the track with a "B" average or higher, dramatically boosting the global competitiveness of our alumni.

Industry-to-Classroom Pipeline and Professional Guest Lecture Series

2020 - Present

Context: Cultivated a continuous series of guest lectures, applied workshops, and professional networking events across my entire tenure-track career.

Effort: Recruited and coordinated visits from elite recording artists, audio engineers, music executives, technologists, and distinguished Howard University alumni.

Impact: Transformed the classroom into a living professional network by bringing in experts from SiriusXM, Dolby, film scoring, and sync licensing. This sustained pipeline reinforced experiential learning and directly connected students to modern workforce opportunities.

Guest Speakers:

Spring 2026 - Jim Watkins - WHUR FM Founding Engineer and long-time General Manager; Kayla Steen - A&R at United Masters

Fall 2025 - Skye Landgraf - Director of Partnerships and Programs at We Are Moving the Needle; Wordsmith - Multidisciplinary artist, Kate Krontiris - Musician, Cultural Strategist, Facilitator (Sierra Leone)

Summer 2024 - Dr. Leslie Gaston-Bird - Past President AES • Pro Tools & Dolby Atmos certified instructor • BAFTA • 2X Golden Reel & CAS nominee • Author Women in Audio & Math Fundamentals for Audio • GRAMMY (AES)

Spring 2025 - Sirius XM: Imaging Producer - Brian ​Freeland and ​Host / Voiceover Artist - Cayman Kelly

Fall 2021 - Marcus Marshall - Sr. Director - Global Project Engineering, Warner Bros. Discovery

Fall 2020 - Brandie Lane - Grammy Award winning engineer, Master Sergeant in the United States Army and is the non-commissioned officer-in-charge of the Technical/Audio Section with the West Point Band

Specialized Audio Refresher Workshops for Capstone & HU News Service Students

Workshop Date: November 18, 2025

Context: Designed and delivered an intensive audio production and post-production refresher workshop for senior students in Prof. Jennifer Thomas' Capstone course and podcast planning workshop for Dr. Yanick Rice Lamb's HU News Service course.

Effort: Identified a critical gap in the curriculum where Journalism and TV/Film students take only one required audio course early in their undergraduate scheme. For Capstone, created a targeted training session covering critical listening, noise mitigation, microphone selection, and sound design to bridge this knowledge gap.  For HU News Service, aligned student engineers from the Audio program with the podcast.

Impact: Empowered senior students to polish and elevate the sound quality of their final senior projects. Directly enhanced workforce readiness by ensuring graduates enter the media industry as multi-skilled professionals with modern audio competencies.