Sigma Alpha Iota

sai-national.org • Spring 2026 25 Dr. Thomas Singletary Dr. Thomas Singletary was initiated as a Friend of the Arts by the Statesboro Alumnae Chapter in December. Dr. Singletary is Assistant Professor of Music Education at Texas Christian University. He is a conductor, composer, and music educator whose career reflects a deep commitment to artistry, scholarship, and musical community. As a music arranger and transcriber for winds, he is highly regarded for his custom arrangements for high school and collegiate marching bands around the nation. Before his doctoral studies, Dr. Singletary spent seventeen years at Eau Gallie High School in Melbourne, Florida. The Eau Gallie Band earned widespread acclaim for performances at district, state, and national levels. He later joined North Central Texas College as Chair of the Visual and Performing Arts Department, where he founded the North Texas Winds, bringing together college musicians, local educators, and community performers. In 2025, the Statesboro Alumnae Chapter commissioned Dr. Singletary to compose a new piece for their annual JamFest Clinic Band, which was the first time JamFest featured a newly-commissioned work at its closing concert. Dr. Singletary is not the first SAI member in his family—he is the son of Mrs. Jerry Anne Singletary, a sixty-five-year member and a founding member of the Statesboro Alumnae Chapter. His father, Dr. Thomas Singletary, Sr., was also a Friend of the Arts, and was on the search committee to find a permanent home for National Headquarters. Jerry's daughter, Anne Blackwell, and Thomas's wife, Dr. Laura Singletary, are also Fraternity members. Dr. Singletary earned a Ph.D. in Music Education and Wind Conducting from Florida State University and degrees in Music Education from Florida State University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Hannah Snavely Dr. Hannah Snavely was initiated as Friend of the Arts by the Nu Gamma Chapter at Stephen F. Austin State University in December. Dr. Snavely is Assistant Professor of Musicology at Stephen F. Austin State University, and an ethnomusicologist specializing in Chilean folk and popular music. Dr. Snavely's dissertation, grounded in two years of ethnographic research in Chile, explores how folklorist Margot Loyola Palacios (1918–2015) reconfigured national understandings of traditional music and dance in twentieth and twenty-first century Chile. She has collaborated with Chilean musicians to publish collections of traditional local songs and performs regularly with folkloric ensembles in Valparaíso. She frequently aids in Spanish-English translation for Chilean musicologists and co-presents at conferences with research collaborators. Her current research includes Latin American folk religious musics, histories of folklore in Chile, and cantora (women music- poet) practices. Her research and writings have been published in the International Journal for Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage, Not Even Past, Fontes Artis Musicae, and Rising Voices in Ethnomusicology. She has been supported by the Fulbright Hays, Fulbright IIE, P.E.O., and Society for American Music. Outside of the classroom, Dr. Snavely enjoys hiking, rock climbing, sewing, and playing folk music of all kinds. Dr. Snavely earned a Ph.D. and Master of Arts in Ethnomusicology from the University of California-Riverside and a Bachelor of Arts in Music and Spanish from Messiah University. Dr. Timothy P. Butler Dr. Timothy P. Butler was initiated as a Friend of the Arts by the Mu Zeta Chapter at Kutztown University in February. Dr. Butler serves as Assistant Professor of Music at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, where he directs the Kutztown University Marching Unit and conducts the Clarinet Choir. He teaches courses in Music Theory, Composition, and Music Education while overseeing ensemble administration and mentoring future educators. His scholarship focuses on collegiate marching band leadership development. Previously, he was a Graduate Teaching Assistant at Pennsylvania State University, serving as Director of the Penn State Hockey Band, conductor of athletic bands, Student Teaching Supervisor, and Student Leader Training Coordinator for the Penn State Blue Band. Before starting his graduate studies, Dr. Butler directed the grade 5–12 band program at Holgate Local Schools, where he wrote all the musical arrangements and drill formations for the Pride of Holgate marching band. He began his own marching career as a baritone player in Baltimore's Marching Ravens, and ended as a fourth-year section leader in the Ohio State University Marching Band. Dr. Butler earned a Ph.D. in Music Education from Pennsylvania State University, a Master's in Music Education from Bowling Green State University, and a Bachelor's in Music Education from Ohio State University. FRIEND OF THE ARTS a person who is supportive of and actively involved in the arts at a local or regional level Distinguished Members Butler Butler Singletary Singletary Snavely Snavely

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