A musician and scholar, Tammy L. Kernodle is University Distinguished Professor of Music at Miami University in Oxford, OH. Kernodle is the author of Soul on Soul: The Life and Music of Mary Lou Williams and served as Associate Editor of the three-volume Encyclopedia of African American Music. She appears in numerous documentaries, including Mary Lou Williams: The Lady Who Swings the Band, Girls in the Band, and the Emmy-award winning Miles Davis: The Birth of Cool. The immediate Past President of the Society for American Music, she has worked on educational programs with The American Jazz Museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, NPR, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the BBC, New World Symphony, and Carnegie Hall.