Melissa Jmaeff is an award-winning music educator having taught music in small, public schools in Douglas County, Oregon since 2006. She currently teaches 6th-12th Grade Band and Choir for the Sutherlin School District. Melissa graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree from Humboldt State University in 2005 where she studied Flute Performance and Music Education. She earned her Master’s of Music in Music Education from Kent State University in 2023. Throughout the span of her career, Melissa has taught public school students of all ages from kindergarten through college. Over the years, Melissa’s students have earned accolades and awards for their performances at the regional and state levels. In addition to her duties as a public-school music educator, Melissa is also the chair of OMEA District 10, OMEA Small Schools Co-Chair, and member of the Oregon Small Schools Task Force, which she initiated in 2025. In these positions, she advocates for music education in small schools, urging equity and access to music education for all children – particularly those in rural communities. She also serves on the National Association for Music Education’s Small Schools Advocacy Task Force. She is a contributing author to Music Education in Rural America Volume II: A Teacher Guidebook, which was published by Routledge in 2026. When Melissa is not in the classroom or advocating for rural school music students, she is a songwriter and recording artist having self-produced 4 albums of original Americana/blues music. She and her husband Johnny Leal tour throughout the American west as a duo and with her band, Melissa Ruth & The Likely Stories.
Melissa Jmaeff
Small Schools Chair
Sutherlin School District
Sutherlin, Oregon
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