Debra Hedden, associate professor of music education, received a B.M. in music education from the University of Iowa, an M.A. in music education from the University of Northern Iowa, and an Ed.D. in curriculum and instruction with an emphasis in music education from the University of Northern Iowa. She has been recognized as an outstanding teacher in Iowa by MENC and IMEA, named in MENC's Teaching Music, October 2000 and received various teaching awards at UNI. At KU, she was recently received the Byron Shutz Excellence in Teaching Award given to one faculty member annually. 

In October of 2010, she served as a curriculum consultant for the Vilnius Pedagogical University in Vilnius, Lithuania, and has been invited to return to assist in melding existing degree programs together for form a music education degree.

Publications to her credit include the following:  Journal of Research in Music Education; Music Education Research; Update:  Applications of Research in Music Education; The Choral Journal; The Australian Journal of Music Education; The Orff Echo; General Music Today;  Children and Music: Developmental Perspectives; Contributions to Music Education; Teaching Music; and The Music Educator's Journal.  Online publications include the Elementary General Music Curricular Framework at MENC's website. Recent presentations include the Festival 500: The Phenomenon of Singing in Newfoundland; Research in Music Education Conference in Exeter, England; College Music Society in Miami; International Society for Music Education in Bergen, Norway; the Mountain Lake Colloquium in Mountain Lake, Virginia; the Syllabus Conference in San Jose, CA; the Second National Symposium on Music Instruction Technology in Florida; the Music Educators National Conference in Minneapolis; the American Choral Directors North Central Conference in Iowa; the International Music Education Research Symposium in Tasmania; and a host of state conferences in Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas,Texas, and Arizona.  She has also conducted classroom teaching via video teleconferencing  and distance learning systems to the University of Western Australia, Arizona State University, and several conferences with IUPUI in Indianapolis.  Presentations at various institutions in China, Kazakhstan, and Australia are also to her credit.  In addition, she has conducted numerous choral festivals in Kansas,

In terms of service, Hedden serves as Immediate Past Chair of MENC's Society for General Music, as a member of the Ad Hoc Committee on Undergraduate Curriculum Reform – Orff Schulwerk Association,  and as a member of the editorial boards for the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education and Journal of Music Teacher Education.