Dr. Kathleen Melago is a Professor in the Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Educational Leadership at Slippery Rock University. From 2009 to 2025, she served as Music Education Program Coordinator in SRU’s Department of Music, where she taught a wide range of music education courses and supervised field experience students and student teachers.

Kathy holds degrees from Slippery Rock University (B.S., Music Education), the University of Northern Iowa (M.M., Flute Performance), Eastern Illinois University (M.A., Music Education), and The Ohio State University (D.M.A., Flute Performance). She has taught music in Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Ohio, in both school and private studio settings, and previously taught flute and directed the flute choir at Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa.

Her writing has appeared in Music Educators Journal, Journal of Research in Music Education, PMEA News, Teaching Music, The Flutist Quarterly, Flute Talk, Canadian Music Educator, and The Instrumentalist. She is co-editor (with Dr. Scott Edgar) and a contributing author of Portraits of Social Emotional Learning in Music Teacher Education: Teaching Music with Heart (GIA Publications, 2024), the author of Field Experience Immersion in Music: A Planning Guide (Fflat Books, 2025), and the author of Woodwind Methods Practice Book (Fflat Books, 2026). Kathy has several publications for flute available through ALRY Publications.

Kathy is an active flutist and frequent presenter at state, national, and international conferences, including PMEA, NAfME, and The Midwest Clinic. She has held leadership roles with the National Flute Association, PMEA, NAfME, and has served on the Music Educators Journal Editorial Board.

A native of western Pennsylvania, Kathy is grateful for the opportunity to continue serving her home region through her work in teacher preparation at Slippery Rock University. Outside of music, she enjoys reading, writing, exercising, learning new things, and traveling with her husband, Tim.