Dr. Kate Fitzpatrick is Assistant Professor of Music Education at the University of Michigan. In addition to holding BME and MA degrees from The Ohio State University, Dr. Fitzpatrick holds a PhD in music education from Northwestern University, where her dissertation focused on the experiences of inner-city instrumental music teachers in the Chicago Public Schools.

Before coming to Michigan in the fall of 2008, Dr. Fitzpatrick served as Assistant Professor of Music Education at the University of Louisville. While at Louisville, Dr. Fitzpatrick conducted the UofL Symphonic Band, an ensemble composed of undergraduate and graduate music majors who perform standards of the wind band repertoire. At the University of Louisville, Dr. Fitzpatrick also taught courses in music education, graduate quantitative and qualitative research, and conducting.

Dr. Fitzpatrick is an active and prolific researcher, specializing in urban music education, mixed methods research, and music teacher education. Her research has been published in the Journal of Research in Music Education and presented at numerous state and national conferences. Dr. Fitzpatrick also serves as a frequent clinician and guest conductor with bands across the United States.

An avid supporter of public school music programs, Dr. Fitzpatrick is the former Director of Instrumental Music at Northland High School in Columbus, Ohio, where she spent five years directing the district’s largest band and orchestra program. Dr. Fitzpatrick is the recipient of the 2003 God and Country Award, presented by the Salvation Army and the Brass Band of Columbus for her “outstanding, sensitive leadership of young people.”