Jessica Nápoles is Professor of Choral Music Education and Conductor of the Concert Choir at the University of North Texas. A native of Florida with a Cuban-American background, Dr. Nápoles taught in the public schools of Miami and Orlando, FL. She received 3 degrees in music education from the Florida State University. Prior to her appointment at UNT, she taught at the University of Utah for 11 years.

 

Dr. Nápoles is an active conductor, clinician, and adjudicator, frequently engaging in guest conducting opportunities locally, regionally, and nationally. She has conducted All State and honor choirs in over 20 states. Additionally, she guest conducted honor choirs for the ACDA Southern, Eastern, North Central/Central and Western regions of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) and was the featured conductor for the World Strides Honors Performance Series in Carnegie Hall on multiple occasions.

 

In addition to her work as a conductor, Dr. Nápoles is a well-known researcher, with numerous publications in prestigious journals. Her research interests center on testing pedagogical claims empirically, intonation, conducting expressivity, burnout, perfectionism, and teacher talk. She has served her profession through work on editorial boards (Journal of Research in Music Education, the premier journal for music education, and International Journal of Research in Choral Singing, the ACDA research journal, and Journal of Music Teacher Education), as Assistant Conference Chair for the national ACDA conference (2019, 2021, 2025), ACDA Honor Choir Coordinator (2015, 2017), Chair of the Research Standing Committee for ACDA, member of the Executive Board of NAfME’s Society for Research in Music Education, and lead writer for the ACDA COVID-19 task force report.