Dr. Cynthia McGregor has been serving students at Southwestern College since 2004, when she joined the faculty. Her background in performing arts gives her a unique perspective of how to connect with students and the community. She was in the classroom full time for 14 years before moving to her current role as the Dean of Arts, Communication and Social Sciences. Dr. McGregor's graduate degrees (PhD and Masters) were awarded from Northwestern University, and her Bachelor's in Music is from Oberlin Conservatory. She is currently a member of ACCCA, the Great Dean's Academy, and the La Jolla Symphony.  

“I inspire greatness by helping children find their voice. A child who sings with confidence and joy will always know how to share his or her ideas and empower others to use their voices as well. I believe that the singers in my classroom are on their way to becoming citizens who will live their lives out loud.”  

Since 2003, Wendy Clemente has taught general and vocal music in the Lower School. Beginning with the Tiny Torreys, she enjoys watching her students explore musical expression and find their voice. She believes that all humans are musical and that early music experiences can build skills that will set up a lifetime of music making.  In the Middle and Upper School divisions, Wendy works as the theater costumer, designing and dressing shows, while also teaching and mentoring costuming students in the theater tech program.  

A life-long Californian, Ms. Clemente always knew that she wanted to be a music teacher. She grew up singing regularly in church and began piano lessons at age 9. In high school, she began performing in musical theater while also interning for a small-label fashion designer. She spent a year studying music and theater in England, toured Western Europe as a soloist, and finally graduated with a Bachelor of Music Education. Ms. Clemente began her first teaching job in Bozeman, Mont., and then relocated to San Diego, teaching music and English at Escondido Adventist Academy for 11 years before coming to LJCDS. She continues to perform as a soprano and conducts various choral organizations, including the La Jolla Renaissance Singers, the UCSD  Geisel Library Toy Piano Duo, Bach Collegium–San Diego, St. Paul’s Cathedral, La Jolla Playhouse, and the La Sierra University Vocal Octet Alumni.  On weekends, she serves as music director at St. Augustine of Canterbury Church in Escondido.  In 2019, she was selected as the La Jolla Rotary Club Teacher of the Year.  

Ms. Clemente spends her spare time sewing costumes and apparel for herself and family members, cooking gourmet vegetarian food, reading, and traveling with her husband, two adult children (who are both  LJCDS lifers) and two cats.

My musical journey began like many others. I enjoyed music at a young age, as most children do, but it wasn't until later in life that music would begin to mean something so much more. 

​As time passed my love for music began to grow. My family began to see me excel in this field and assisted in procuring a teacher to guide the development of my art. I began to study voice privately, and the woman who became my voice teacher would become the reason you are reading this today. She was the definition of a mentor and friend. She instilled in me that we as musicians have an obligation, the privilege, to create beauty and art in a world that at times can seem dark and incomprehensible.

I chose to devote my life to music education and enrolled at Ball State University to earn a Bachelor's degree in Music Education. I came with optimism and excitement, overjoyed that I had the opportunity to create music every day.  As my journey began, self doubt and fear began to infiltrate my mind. I began to ask myself if I was really cut out for this, and if I was, why was I struggling to believe that I had the intelligence or natural gift to continue? How could I come to feel so lost in my art when it used to be the only thing in my life that made me feel like I had a sense of belonging and purpose? When the thought to give up began to arise, it was my teachers, my mentors, that helped return that sense of purpose. I became revised with a renewed love for my art and a new drive for why I wanted to continue. Music used to instill within me the feeling of purpose and belonging but as I've come to learn, it is now something more. Music instills in me the drive to help others finds their sense of belonging and purpose. I often read this quote:

"I teach music...not because I expect you to major in music, not because I expect you to play or sing all your life, not so you can relax, not so you can have fun, but so you can be human, so you will recognize beauty, so you will be closer to an infinite beyond this world, so you will have something to cling to, so you will have more love, more compassion, more gentleness, more good, in short, more life".

​This quote reminds me what I am striving for. To work hard to learn how to be the best teacher I can be. To stretch myself and learn new strategies on how to create effective lesson plans, develop my classroom management, and work diligently as a musician so I can teach proper technique and create a healthy learning     environment for my students. I will continue this work so my future students can find the never ending potential to become hard working, determined, beauty seeking humans. My musical life history, I owe to my teachers.  

Emma Schopler is a first-generation university graduate, immigrant, award-winning music educator, and multi-award winning singer/songwriter. Emma advocates for Arts Education in several volunteer capacities: California Music Educators Association Southern Border Section (CMEA-SBS), San Diego Kodaly, San Diego Orff, Organization of American Kodaly Educators (OAKE), and more importantly, Emma founded San Diego Kids All Sing, a volunteer community project that welcomed over 100 children in grades 3 - 6 for a children's music festival in 2022. Emma recruited 16 teachers and 20 parents to support the initiative of creating equitable opportunities and access to quality music instruction. Emma’s contributions were recognized in 2018 as the CMEA State Award Winner for Outstanding Music Educator-Southwestern Section, and in 2022, Southern Border Fortissimo Outstanding Elementary Music Educator recipient. Emma’s Elementary, Middle and High School choirs have performed at Hollywood Bowl, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Knott’s Berry Farm, UAE Children’s Peace Conference, OAKE National Conference, Southern California Vocal Association, and more. Her experience as a clinician include CASMEC, NAfME, Hawai’i MEA, CMEA-South Bay and Southwestern, Kodaly Los Angeles, CCDA, amongst others. Before San Diego, her career included Associate Conductor (Junior Division), Kodaly Musicianship teacher (Senior Division) at the National Children’s Chorus, Los Angeles Children’s Choir (K-12), Singing Specialist/Choir Conductor (K-12) at the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Youth Orchestra where her singing student, Anthony Gonzalez voiced the lead character Miguel in the film Coco (2017). Emma’s degrees: Master of Music in Choral Conducting, Bachelor of Secondary Education, and Bachelor of Music (Voice/Pedagogy). In 2023, Emma will conduct 137 choristers at San Diego Unified Honor Choirs Festival. 

Dr. Jennifer Gee is an Assistant Professor of Elementary General and Choral Music Education at San Diego State University. She instructs undergraduate courses in elementary general music, choral music education, and music integration for elementary teachers. 

Gee holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Music Education from the University of Kansas, an Education Specialist degree in Elementary Administration from the University of Central Missouri, a Master of Arts in Arts Administration from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, a Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Kansas, and a Bachelor of Music in Clarinet Performance from Wichita State University.

Her research is focused on preservice teacher preparation, specifically in positive classroom management strategies, and music integration in the elementary classroom. Her research has been published in the Journal of Music Teacher Education, Update:Applications of Research in Music Education, Visions of Research in Music Education, and the Journal of Education. Gee has presented research at the College Music Society National Conference, the Desert Skies Symposium for Research in Music Education, the Symposium for Music Teacher Education, the National Association for Music Education Music Research and Teacher Education National Conference, the American Orff-Schulwerk Association National Conference, the California All-State Music Education Conference, and the Kansas Music Educators Association. She is an American Orff-Schulwerk nationally certified teacher and also has certificates in Kids, Choir, and Drumming and Drumming Up the Fun through World Music Drumming.