NAfME Western Division
Western Division President-Elect
Introducing your candidates ~ Renee Shane-Boyd (Arizona) & Michael Stone (California)
Western Division: Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah, Nevada, and India
Elections will open on January 9, 2018. Division presidents preside at their board meetings and communicate their concerns to the National Executive Board. The elected division president-elect will take office one week prior to the National Assembly in June 2018, and assume the office of Division President in July, 2020.
In the coming months, these candidates will answer a series of questions via our newsletter. From these responses, we will know them better and will feel more equipped to best select our next Western Division President Elect.
Renee Shane-Boyd
Current professional music education position: Band Director, Catalina Foothills High School, Tucson, AZ
Renee Shane-Boyd has a long history of service in leadership positions at the school, community, regional, and state level in Arizona. She has served as Southeast Regional Band Chair, secretary and treasurer for the Arizona Band and Orchestra Directors Association, Vice President of High School Activities for the Arizona Music Educators Association, and from 2013 - 2015 she served as President for the AMEA during which time she oversaw the 75th Anniversary celebration of AMEA. She is the Fine Arts Chair for the Catalina Foothills School District where she has served on numerous curriculum and architectural committees during her tenure. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Tucson Arizona Boys Chorus and is president of the Parents’ Executive Committee.
In her career as a music educator, she has served as Director of Bands in the Catalina Foothills School District for 33 years where she has taught elementary, middle school, and high school concert band, jazz band and marching band in addition to numerous small ensembles. She is currently Director of Bands at Catalina Foothills High School. The program is known for its diversity and excellence in all performance areas, concert, marching, and jazz, and the marching band has consistently been the largest high school marching band in the state of Arizona for over 15 years. Her concert and jazz ensembles have performed numerous times at the Arizona Music Educators In-Service Conference, and the bands have performed nationally and internationally at venues including the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Hawaii, Australia, and the 2008 Pre-Olympic ceremonies in Beijing China.
Her work as a clinician and conductor includes the Southern Arizona Band Orchestra Directors Honor Band, the Arizona Elementary All-state Band, the TUSD Honor Band, NAU Summer Music Camp, and she is regularly a guest conductor with the Arizona Symphonic Winds in Tucson, Arizona.
Awards and honors include the OM Hartsell Excellence in Music Education Award, University of Arizona Honored Educator, 2009 Teacher of the Year Award in the Catalina Foothills School District, AMEA Longevity in Teaching Award, and in 2015 the Rotary International named her a Paul Harris Fellow for outstanding contributions to the community.
Michael D. Stone
Current professional music education position: Visual and Performing Arts Department Coordinator, Bakersfield City School District, Bakersfield, California
Michael D. Stone earned the B.A. in Music Education/Performance and the M.Ed. in Education from University of California, Los Angeles. He works as the Visual and Performing Arts Coordinator for the Bakersfield City School District (BCSD), where he previously served as instrumental music teacher at Chipman Junior High School.
His band and orchestras at Chipman consistently earned Unanimous Superior Ratings at California Music Educators Association (CMEA) ratings festivals during his tenure, and performed at the state conferences of CMEA and California Band Directors Association (CBDA). Mr. Stone was featured in the January 1999 issue of The Instrumentalist Magazine, and has written several articles for the magazine since that time.
Under his leadership, Bakersfield City School District was named a Best Community for Music Education by the National Association of Music Merchants the past five years. The District’s innovative Music In Our Schools Week program received a 2014 Golden Bell Award from the California School Boards Association.
Mr. Stone is Immediate Past President of California Music Educators Association (CMEA), and a past president of California Band Directors Association (CBDA), CMEA Central Section, and the Kern County Music Educators Association. He currently serves as the Western Division Representative on the NAfME Council of Music Program Leaders. A member of numerous professional associations, he was inducted into the American School Band Directors Association in 2001. Mr. Stone, a euphoniumist, is a founding member of the Bakersfield Winds.
Active as a clinician, adjudicator and guest conductor, Mr. Stone has conducted numerous honor groups and clinics throughout California, as well as in Arkansas, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, and Utah. He has served for many years as a guest conductor at Cazadero Music Camp in California’s Sonoma County.