Courtney Powers is the Music Director at South Philadelphia High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Originally from a small rural town in Leon, Kansas she began playing French horn in middle school and came to Berklee by way of Cowley County Community College in Arkansas City outside of Wichita. 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 14 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 Semifinalist, 2021 Grammy Music Educator Quarterfinalist, 2020 Give A Note Grant winner, 2020 Vans gives a Band $10,000 grant winner. Her professional activities include a social media presence #musiccitizenship and active membership in NAfME, PMEA, Little Kids Rock, American Pop Music, Fflat books, International Music Summit and affiliations with notsolatin, Turtle Records, Roland, ArtSmart, Artist Year, Project 440 and community partners.