Barbara English Maris has been actively involved with The College Music Society throughout her professional career as a musician in higher education. She first joined CMS in 1973, as a student member of CMS.  After completing doctoral work (DMA in piano performance) at Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, she taught at several very different types of institutions: Federal City College (Washington, DC); Smith College (Northfield, MA); and University of Wisconsin-Parkside (Kenosha, WI). Her final twenty years of teaching before retirement were at The Catholic University of America (CUA - Washington, DC), where she directed the graduate degree programs in piano pedagogy and worked with students from six continents. After retiring from CUA as a Professor Emerita, she has remained active as a musician, author, teacher, and mentor of teachers. Her book, Making Music at the Piano: Learning Strategies for Adult Students, was published by Oxford University Press (2000). Dr. Maris was the first woman to be elected President of CMS, serving in that role in 1981 and 1982. She and her husband, David Willoughby (CMS President in 1987 and 1988), now live in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, where the vista from their back yard includes wide expanses of Lancaster County's preserved farmland.