Marcia Neel

Marcia served as the Supervisor of the Secondary Music Education Program of the Clark County School District (CCSD), headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, from 1994 through 2007. Highly regarded for her commitment to program expansion and innovation, Marcia is recognized as a leader for her creative approaches to curriculum design and implementation. One of the most successful is the CCSD’s standards-based Mariachi Program which was instituted in 2002 with four (4) instructors teaching 250 students and is now staffed by over thirty (30) full-time, licensed mariachi educators teaching nearly 6,000 students daily. Marcia is the lead author of ¡Simplemente Mariachi!, an instrumental and vocal method series for mariachi students and educators.

Over the years, she has become a leader in assessment-driven curriculum for mariachi education and as a result of her National Mariachi Workshops for Educators®, she has been instrumental in starting or further developing over 150 mariachi programs across the nation. Marcia is tireless in her endeavor to bring more students to music-making through hands-on, high-quality experiences provided by a sequential curriculum that focuses on achievement. Her greatest joy is to see young people excelling as a result of becoming engaged in these types of life-changing music education programs. The pride displayed by these young musicians and their families is the ultimate reward!

Marcia sees mariachi as yet another opportunity for students to find meaningful experiences at school and over the years, many young people have relayed the similar story that they stayed in school solely because of the connections they made – some within their own families – through participation in their mariachi ensemble. Due to her prominence in this particular field, she was called upon by the White House Initiatives for Educational Excellence for Hispanics to serve as a presenter for the National Policy Forum on Music and the Arts hosted by Pixar Studios.

Rev. 2020