Angela Schendel Keedy

Music Will Help ALL Students Recover and Reconnect: The Intersection between SEL and Trauma-Informed Practices

The COVID epidemic has hit the education system hard across the country. Lack of routine, ever changing expectations, deficient human connections, and dwindling resources have affected our communities deeply. What can we do now to help our students? This workshop explores the intersection of SEL and trauma-informed structures and will provide specific, researched-based instructional strategies that can be easily incorporated into music instruction on a daily basis. Additional suggestions for administrative support structures will also be covered from the perspective of the band director turned school administrator.


Angela Schendel Keedy serves as the NAfME Professional Development Coordinator.  She has extensive experience working within K-12 education and in the arts.  A master teacher, she has taught at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Keedy has taught within private, traditional public, and charter schools in rural, suburban, and urban environments.  Her students have been featured on NBC Nightly News, been invited to perform at the Olympics, and have performed with the Wally Cardona Dance Quartet in New York as part of a National Endowment for the Arts grant.  She currently teaches 7-12 band.

Keedy is also a former principal and school founder pioneering new educational opportunities for K-12 students that include an emphasis in arts integration.  Under her leadership, her school implemented a building-wide multiyear social emotional learning program that greatly improved school culture and connection to community. She now acts as a consultant and trainer to schools and districts that are implementing SEL in their arts programs. 

Keedy is a doctoral candidate at the University of Northern Colorado where she teaches undergraduate music education courses, supervises student teachers, and provides annual festival support for the UNC/Greeley Jazz Festival. She serves on the National Practices Board for The Center for Arts Education and Social Emotional Learning where she co-authored an article on empowering arts staff during times of trauma.  She lives with her husband Paul and cat Norman in Broomfield, Colorado.