Dr. Ramona Wis is the Mimi Rolland Endowed Professor in the Fine Arts, Professor of Music, and Director of Choral Activities at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. She conducts the Concert Choir, Chamber Singers, and Women’s Chorale and teaches courses in conducting, music methods, and servant leadership.

Dr. Wis holds degrees from the University of Illinois, Northern Illinois University, and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University. An active festival conductor, clinician, writer, and public speaker, Dr. Wis has presented workshops across the country and in Canada, including presentations for the British Columbia Music Educators Association, the International Conference of the Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership, Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, GALA Choruses, the Tennessee Arts Academy, the Illinois and Ohio Music Educators Associations, and in 2016, was the keynote speaker and session presenter for the ACDA North Central Division conference.

Dr. Wis’s book, The Conductor as Leader: Principles of Leadership Applied to Life on the Podium has quickly become a leadership classic among conductors and music teachers, as well as those interested in leadership outside the music profession. She has written for The Choral Journal, Music Educators Journal, Teaching Music and the China Europe International Business School Review, and is a contributing author to Toward a Description of Musical Experience and The Musical Experience: Rethinking Music Teaching and Learning, written by doctoral faculty and fellows of Northwestern University.

Dr. Wis has served as President of the American Choral Directors Association in Illinois and on both ACDA and ILMEA executive boards. She has sung under Robert Shaw, James Levine and Margaret Hillis, and has conducted and performed in professional, theatrical, community, and academic settings for more than 35 years. Dr. Wis also holds the 200-hour yoga teacher certification (CYT/RYT) with additional work in biomechanics and anatomy, continuing her study of the body-mind connection in choral music and conducting.