Courtney Powers is the Music Director at South Philadelphia High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Originally from a small rural town Leon, Kansas she began playing French horn in middle school with director Lynn Harrington and came to Berklee by way of Cowley County Community College in Arkansas City outside of Wichita under the direction of Gary Gackstatter. She graduated from Berklee in 2007 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education and from Villanova in 2015 with a Master of Arts in Education. In her 12 years of teaching she has had a wide ranging experience in urban schools that have taken her from Massachusetts to Texas and Pennsylvania while working in schools and community bands and choruses. She has extended her teaching to include modern band, guitar and ukulele, drama and general music classes. Courtney is a VH1-Save the Music grant facilitator and a 2020 Grammy Music Educator QuarterFinalist. Her professional activities include a social media presence #musiccitizenship and active membership in NAfME, PMEA, Little Kids Rock, American Pop Music and affiliations with notsolatin, Roland, Artist Year, Project 440 and other community partners.