Executive Members 2007-2008
Dr. Julie Skadsem (conductor)
Dr. Julie Skadsem is an Associate Professor of Choral Music Education and Conducting at the University of Michigan where she teaches courses in conducting, choral techniques, and vocal methods. She has earned degrees in choral music education from St. Olaf College (B.A.), Florida State University (M.M.E.), and the University of Missouri-Kansas City (Ph.D.). Before coming to Michigan in fall 2006, Dr. Skadsem was Associate Professor of Music Education at the University of Alabama and was Founding Director of the Birmingham Children's Choir. She is a member of the VoiceCare Network and is certified in Dalcroze eurhythmics, Orff-Schulwerk, and Kodaly. Dr. Skadsem's research on choral conducting and rehearsal techniques has been presented at MENC, ACDA, and the Southeastern Music Education Symposium.
Jennie Hegwood (President)
Jennie Hegwood is a senior from Naperville, Illinois. She is currently studying Spanish and searching for her calling. She has been a choir member for as long as she can remember, and is proud to be a part of a group as wonderful as the Women's Glee Club.
Deirdre Sprague-Rice (Vice President)
Deirdre is a junior from Owosso, Michigan. She is an English major in the College of Liture, Science, and the Arts and has been in the Women's Glee Club since her freshman year. She is very happy to be a part of such a special group of women and is looking forward to another fantastic year.
Melisa Gilbey (Treasurer)
Melisa is a Junior in the School of Kinesiology studying movement science with the goal of attending dental school. She is from Rochester Hills, where she attended high school but is actually Canadian! Melisa has been a member of WGC since fall of her freshman year and has served as a fund raising co-chair, treasurer and is now the Business Manager. Aside from the lovely Glee Club Melisa is involved in the Pre-Dental Association and is a participant of UMDM. She is very excited for our upcoming International Tour to Austria and can not wait for our performances in Hill Auditorium.
Erin Rhode (Secretary)
Erin is old... when she was a freshman at MIT, the current freshmen were still in elementary school. (She just figured this out now and it makes her kind of sad.) Now she's an Nth-year graduate student in the EECS department at Michigan, spending her days trying to find ways to increase the performance of certain polynomial time algorithms. Or she's potentially punting her work by updating the Glee Club website and inventing biographies for the e-board members who haven't submitted their own.
When not sitting in her office all day, Erin can be found solving crosswords, going to baseball games, and (obviously) singing with the Glee Club where she bottoms out the range of the group. (She's even been known to spontaneously drop a low Eb into an arrangement if she thinks it'll sound better.)
Rachel Harrison (Business Manager)
When Rachel was a small child, she wandered into the woods and came across an unlocked house. Upon entering the house, she found three bowls of porridge sitting at the kitchen table. One was too cold, so she heated it up on the stove and ate it. One was too hot, so she waited for it to cool off. While she was waiting, she noticed that the third bowl was just right, so she ate it too. Then three bears came home and threatened her, so she picked up a shot gun and killed them all but the cub, which she kept and trained to be her personal servant. This is why we call her Bear Lady.
Kirsten Mortensen (Concert Manager)
Kirsten is a senior double majoring in Linguistics and Spanish, and dreads graduating and finally joining the real world. She grew up singing in every room in the house but the shower. Her great loves include reading (for pleasure, not for school!), exploring new cities, phonetics and historical linguistics, and of course, chocolate. Kirsten hopes to attend graduate school in speech pathology and audiology.
Christina Ziegler (Publicity Manager)
Christina is a senior nursing student. She is originally from Crystal Falls, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where she attended Forest Park High School. Christina joined Glee Club to be apart of "University of Michigan's Premier Women's Choral Ensemble" and to continue her love of singing and sharing it with others. She is publicity manager for her third consecutive year and she is looking forward o getting the word out there about Women's Glee Club, not only in the U-M campus but also across the state and country!