Ellen McCullough-Brabson is Professor Emerita of Music Education at the University of New Mexico. She received her BM degree from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and her MM and DMA degrees from The University of Arizona. She has taken postdoctoral courses in ethnomusicology at the University of Washington and has attended ethnomusicology institutes at San Diego State University and Florida State University.

Dr. McCullough-Brabson has taught elementary general music in the Cincinnati, Ohio and Tucson, Arizona, Sunnyside Public School Districts; she is an active workshop clinician and has presented sessions on multicultural music for the International Society for Music Education, for the International Kodaly Society, for the Music Educators National Conference, for the American Orff-Schulwerk National Conference, and for numerous state and local teacher in-services. She teaches summer multicultural music education workshops throughout the United States.

Dr. McCullough-Brabson is a Regents’ Lecturer at the University of New Mexico, a title given for teaching excellence that included a grant of $8,700. Her published articles are on topics including world musics, Appalachian music, the dulcimer, and musical instruments from around the world. She was a contributing author to the MENC publications Readings in Early Childhood Music Education, Readings in General Music, Multicultural Perspectives in Music Education, Toward Tomorrow: New Visions for General Music and World Musics and Music Education: Facing the Issues. Dr. McCullough-Brabson is co-author of the book Roots and Branches: A Legacy of Multicultural Music for Children. She is also co-author of the book We’ll Be in Your Mountains, We’ll Be in Your Songs: A Navajo Woman Sings (University of New Mexico Press, 2001). She has served on the Editorial Board of the Music Educators Journal and the Society for Ethnomusicology Education Committee. She was the recipient of the prestigious Albuquerque Arts Alliance’ 1995 Bravo Award for Outstanding Arts Educator. In 1997 Dr. McCullough-Brabson was honored as a distinguished alumna from her alma mater, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. She is the recipient of the 1998 YWCA Woman on the Move Award for Creative Expression. She is listed in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers, 1998.

Her hobby is collecting music instruments from around the world. She has traveled to and collected instruments from Burma, Cambodia, China, Greece, Guatamala, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, Nicaragua, Panama, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe. The New Mexico Music Educators Association inducted Dr. McCullough-Brabson to its Hall of Fame in 2004.