The Alabama Music Educators Association is pleased to announce the two candidates for the upcoming President-Elect election: Lisa Latham and Stuart Tankesley. Both candidates bring a wealth of experience, leadership, and dedication to music education in Alabama.
Instructions
The election will take place from April 1 through May 1. Voting is open to current members of National Association for Music Education residing in Alabama (Not retired members or collegiate members). Eligible members will receive an email at the beginning of April containing a link to vote. If you did not receive a voting link by April 2, check your SPAM folder before contacting AMEA Executive Director Rusty Logan for assistance.
UPDATE: The voting link was sent to members in the April eNewsletter.
Candidate Biographies
Lisa Latham
Lisa Latham counts it a privilege to share her love of teaching and music with her community. She believes her primary role as a music educator is to see the person before the subject, and that building relationships is the key to success in the classroom. Over the past thirty years, Latham has passionately guided students in all levels of music-making from preschool to college. Latham is a well-known music educator, spending all of her public classroom years in Hoover City Schools, where she currently teaches at the elementary level. She was named Teacher of the Year twice, both at Berry Middle School and Trace Crossings Elementary School, as well as being named Hoover City Schools Secondary Teacher of the Year.
Latham has served as a guest clinician for numerous festivals and competitions, and served Alabama as AVA District Co-Chair, ACDA Repertoire and Resources Chair for middle school and children’s choirs, Director of Alabama ACDA Young Voices Festival, and is a former AMEA Executive Director. She currently serves ACDA as Executive Secretary and continues to serve on the Young Voices Committee. In 2013, Ms. Latham received the first Robert E. Wright, Jr. Award for Exceptional Service for her years of work with the Alabama ACDA Young Voices Festival and in 2017, Latham initiated the first Hoover City Schools Elementary Music Festival.
Latham has served as an adjunct music professor at The University of Montevallo, where she is a proud graduate. Her students have performed in a variety of festivals and community events, including the Broadway National Touring Production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Her current elementary students have performed as a part of the Capitol Tunes project at the Alabama State Capitol and in the rotunda of the Gordon Persons Building at the State Department of Education.
In addition to public school teaching, Mrs. Latham serves her church as the preteen and middle school choir director and Arts Academy director, where she oversees fifteen arts instructors who serve more than 225 students. Latham also maintains a personal private voice and piano studio and serves as an online ESL teacher. Latham created and founded Grace’s Kitchen, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit feeding ministry, where she still serves Executive Director. All of these varied experiences allow Ms. Latham to help students discover their own gifts and use them to better their world.
Stuart Tankesley
Stuart Tankesley is in his 18th year as a music educator. Since 2017, he has been Director of Bands at Huntsville High School. He earned his Bachelor of Science in 2006 and Master of Arts in 2008 both from The University of Alabama.
Prior to Huntsville High School, he was the Assistant Band Director and Choir Director at Discovery Middle School and the first Assistant Band Director and Choir Director at James Clemens High School when it opened in 2012. He taught general music at Faucett Vestavia Elementary School while working on his secondary degree. He also has taught as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
He is the founder of Madison Music Camp, a popular summer middle school camp for over 200 students in the Huntsville area. His students have had the opportunity to perform in the London New Year’s Day Parade twice, the CBDNA Southern Division Conference, Music for All Concert Festival, and AMEA Conference. In addition, he served as an instructor on a month-long performing tour of China with Madison Jazz. He spent a decade conducting orchestras and music directing for many musicals in the Huntsville Community as well as a fill-in conductor for the Huntsville Youth Orchestra. Stuart is an alumnus of Carolina Crown Drum and Bugle Corps.
Stuart recently served as the Alabama Bandmasters Association District Chairman for District One and is currently the Alabama Orchestra Association North District Chair. In 2024, he was inducted into Phi Beta Mu International Bandmasters Fraternity. Stuart lives in Huntsville with his beautiful wife Anna; their son, Connor; and their daughter, Caroline.
We encourage all eligible members to participate in this important election as we select the next leader who will help guide the future of music education in Alabama.