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Mandy Smith is Director of Jacobs Academy, where she leads the full collection of pre-college programs, adult non-curricular programs, and community engagement projects for the Jacobs School of Music. She also teaches Women in Popular Music through the Music in General Studies Department.
Before joining Jacobs, Mandy served as Director of Education at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, where she led onsite and online learning programs that reached over a million students— spanning pre-kindergarten through college. She helped build and oversaw The Garage, the Rock Hall’s interactive musical instrument exhibit. Mandy also worked at the Percussive Arts Society, where she project-managed large-scale learning experiences, including the organization’s flagship international convention PASIC.
Mandy earned her PhD in Musicology from Case Western Reserve University, her MA in Musicology from California State University, Long Beach, and her BA in History of Rock & Roll Music from Indiana University.
Outside of her work in education, Mandy has spent 30 years drumming in punk, metal, alternative, and progressive rock bands. She once even got to sit behind the kit with Metallica for five minutes.