Aaron Wacker

Assistant Professor, Music Education

Aaron T. Wacker (BME, University of Northern Colorado; MME, University of Northern Colorado; PhD, University of Missouri-Columbia) is an Assistant Professor of Music Education at Washington State University. At WSU, he teaches undergraduate and graduate music education courses. In addition, he continues to teach graduate music education courses at Capital University’s Summer Master of Music Education program in Columbus, OH. Dr. Wacker has previously held positions at Southeast Missouri State University, The University of Tulsa, and Missouri Valley College. Before his higher education career, Dr. Wacker taught secondary music ensembles and general elementary music in Colorado and Missouri.

As a music education researcher, Dr. Wacker has presented at state, national, and international conferences. Recent presentations have included the International Society for Music Education conference in Helsinki, Finland (2024); the Symposium on Music Teacher Education in Salt Lake City, UT (2023); the Missouri Music Educators Association (2023); the Music Research & Teacher Education NAfME Biennial Conference, National Harbor, MD (2022). He has been published in the Journal of Music Teacher Education, International Journal of Music Education, Journal of Band Research, Visions of Research in Music Education, Missouri Journal of Research in Music Education, Contributions to Music Education, Band and Orchestra Magazine, The Colorado Music Educator, Teaching Music Magazine, and Teaching in a Minute NAfME (National Association for Music Education) Blog.

Actively involved in the music education community, Dr. Wacker currently co-facilitates the Program Admission Assessment and Alignment Area of Strategic Interest, NAfME’s Advocacy Task Force (ALF), and has been appointed as a member of NAfME’s Teaching Music magazine advisory committee—his recent appointment as a 2024 Modern Band Higher Education Fellow.