Dr. Rachel Whitcomb

Rachel Whitcomb is an Assistant Professor of Music Education at Duquesne. She currently teaches methods courses in primary and elementary general music, supervises student teachers, and serves as the faculty advisor for the Duquesne collegiate chapter of MENC. Before coming to Duquesne in 2009, Dr. Whitcomb was on the music education faculty at Nazareth College of Rochester for four years.

Dr. Whitcomb has over ten years of experience teaching preschool and elementary general music in New Jersey, Tennessee, Illinois, and New York.  Her professional interests have included improvisation in the elementary general music classroom, rubrics as evaluative tools in music instruction, and professionalism in music teacher education.  Her work has been published in Music Educators Journal, Research and Issues in Music Education, General Music Today, Teaching Music, The Kodály Envoy, and numerous state music education journals.  She has given presentations at local, state, regional, and national conferences and currently serves on the Editorial Board for Music Educators Journal.

Currently, Dr. Whitcomb serves as the Program Director for Grow Up Great: Early Childhood Music Initiative, a project funded by The PNC Foundation that brings music to under served preschools in the Pittsburgh area. She also teaches 5 to 7 year olds in 1-2-3 Music, a general music offering of the Children's Festival Chorus.