A native of Lexington, North Carolina, Kristen Thomas-Durrell is a music educator with 12 years of public school teaching experience. She earned both a Bachelor and Master of Music in Music Education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. In North Carolina, Kristen taught 6-8 grade band and chorus for five years. Then she taught K-5 general music for four years and was voted Teacher of the Year during the 2014-2015 school year. Kristen currently serves as a 4-6 grade music teacher in the Lansing School District. Her duties include teaching general music at two schools as well as instructing an extracurricular beginning band.