Forum

Professional service is virtually second nature to music educators. Being a teacher and being a musician is as much a lifestyle as an occupation in that the demands of the job extend well outside official job descriptions and regular work hours. In each case an above-and-beyond investment of resources—time, energy, effort—is often required to accomplish excellence rather than simply get a task completed.

Within the scholarly community, few contributions of professional service surpass the demands and the impact of evaluating new research. During their appointed terms, members of the Journal of Research in Music Education (JRME) editorial board devote 6 years of service to consideration of the approximately 120 manuscripts submitted to the journal each year. This represents a significant commitment to the field given that board members are selected in light of their already-considerable record of publication and guidance of graduate students. They make room in an already busy and productive schedule to support excellence in the profession at large.

The JRME is guided by the judgment and expertise of its standing board of 21 members who collectively bear the responsibility—and the associated workload—of identifying and, through their thoughtful reviews, shaping the final form of some of the finest research in the field. This issue of the JRME marks the departure of seven outstanding colleagues from the journal’s editorial board: Carlos Abril, Don Coffman, Cynthia Colwell, Carl Hancock, Mary Kennedy, Margaret Schmidt, and Patrice Madura Ward-Steinman. At the same time, it is a pleasure to welcome new board members Colleen Conway, Frank Diaz, Kate Fitzpatrick-Harnish, Chee-Hoo Lum, Mark Montemayor, Jessica Nápoles, and Stephen Zdzinski (contributing a second term after previously serving from 2004 to 2010). These scholars—both outgoing and incoming—have provided and will provide a broad array of perspectives, experiences, and areas of expertise. More than that, they volunteer many hours of their time supporting scholarship in music teaching and learning. As a profession, we celebrate their service with deepest gratitude.