OMEA Top Honors Recognize Alumni, Faculty

February 23, 2011

Three OBU music alumnae recently received honors from the Oklahoma Music Educators Association. Julia Woodward Haley was inducted into the 2011 OMEA Hall of Fame; Katie Cease Robertson was named the 2011 OMEA Outstanding Young Music Educator; and Vivian Hall Rice was named a 2011 OMEA Exemplary Teacher.

The honorees were recognized during the organization's annual meeting in Tulsa in January.

Haley, a 1980 OBU graduate, is one of three music educators statewide to be inducted into the OMEA Hall of Fame this year. She is an associate professor of music education at Oklahoma State University where she specializes in elementary music methods and teacher training. She has been a member of OMEA/MENC (the National Association for Music Education) since her freshman year at OBU.

Julia Haley	Katie Robertson	Vivian Rice

During her years of teaching at the college level, Haley has supervised numerous student teachers and helped to place them in music teaching jobs all over the state of Oklahoma. She has served as Collegiate MENC Faculty Advisor at OSU since 1991 and served as Collegiate OMEA State Advisor from 1998-2004.

She is founder and conductor of the Stillwater Honor Choir, a community choir for singers in grades three through 12. The choir is in its seventh season. She also has served as an officer of several state music organizations.

Haley's mother, Betty Woodward, a long-time OBU music education/church music faculty member, was chosen for the Hall of Fame in 2003. Haley co-authored a book with Woodward titled "Using Kod