Message from the Dean

Dear Friends, Families, Students, and Colleagues,

I'm thrilled to be signing on as dean of COFAC. And while I'll miss the great outdoors of New Mexico, my heart and home have always been in Maryland and I am grateful for this opportunity to join a world-class University and a college with a deep commitment to excellence. The mission of COFAC speaks to my roots as a teacher, collaborator and interdisciplinary artist. Before my time in New Mexico I spent more than 20 years as a music teacher in Maryland and Virginia public schools - and yes, I sent many of my students onto TU to continue their education. While the past 10 years of my career have been mostly administrative in nature, I'm still an active researcher and conductor. I'm currently finishing up a songbook collection of 11 newly arranged/commissioned choral pieces for children's choir based on New Mexican Folk Music (Bailen, Bailen, Parajitos, In Press, Pavane Publishing) and I continue to work as an aural skills clinician and guest conductor throughout the US. Over the years I've helped create new pathways for interdisciplinary arts research, connecting various disciplines and community organizations. I was attracted to COFAC because of the strong connection to the Baltimore arts and media community and I'm looking forward to supporting faculty staff and student in the inspiring outreach projects already being done and great yet works to come.

That said, the coming months will bring us new challenges and many unknowns. It will be essential for all of us to stay connected, in communication and ready to help. We'll be meeting each other “mask on”, from a distance, virtually and in some cases, in constant revision as we change/refine the way we make, perform and participate in our work. Now more than ever, the world needs what COFAC has to offer and you--, the makers, marketers, journalists, scholars, performers and creators will lead the way. Your collective creativity and ability to move beyond "good enough" are essential as we- together, weave the fabric of a post-Covid world.

Looking forward to meeting each of you!

Regina Carlow, Ph.D., Dean

College of Fine Arts and Communication

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About Regina Carlow

Regina Carlow received her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland. She joins us at Towson University after recently serving as Interim Dean for the University of New Mexico. Dean Carlow also served as Associate Chair in the Department of Music from 2010-2012 then as Associate Dean of Students for the College of Fine Arts from 2012-2018. She is an active researcher, choral conductor and teacher. She was named Regent’s Lecture in 2009 and has authored several books, numerous articles and presentations across a wide spectrum of venues and publications in music education.

Her research and teaching center around the experiences of immigrants students in the music classroom and their trajectory in higher education. Dean Carlow is the founding artistic director of the UNM Children’s Chorus, a non-auditioned choral program for children in grades K-12. In 2008 she founded New Mexico Kodaly Institute, a summer institute for music teachers that focuses on the teaching philosophy of Hungarian Composer Zoltan Kodaly and the centrality of singing in musical literacy – especially with young children. Regina went to UNM in 2004 after teaching K-12 public school music for more than 20 years in the Washington DC area.