Heather Landes

Heather Landes is director of the Arizona State University School of Music, Dance and Theatre. Having served in leadership roles in the arts for more than three decades, Landes has collaboratively developed key curricular and community initiatives and has wide-ranging experience in academic leadership.

Before becoming director, Landes served the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts as associate dean from 2008–2014 and oversaw curriculum development, recruitment and admission, enrollment and retention initiatives, career planning, and managed the Herberger Institute online learning, communications and student success teams. Previous academic leadership appointments include serving as assistant dean and director of student success for the Herberger Institute, assistant dean of enrollment for the Northwestern University School of Music and managing director of the National High School Music Institute.

Landes’ research focuses on creativity, entrepreneurship and organizational culture in higher education arts programs. As an advocate for the importance of the arts, she has presented sessions on arts entrepreneurship and curricular reform at the National Association of Schools of Music annual meeting, and Counseling the High School Performing or Visual Artist at the National Association for College Admission Counseling conferences, regional admission counseling meetings, the Interlochen Arts Academy and high schools in the United States and abroad. A former student of Walfrid Kujala and Alexander Murray, Landes holds a bachelor's in flute performance from the University of Illinois and a master's in flute performance from Northwestern University. She earned a doctorate in education from Loyola University Chicago. Her dissertation research involved a comparative study of the student experience at a conservatory of music and a university school of music. In 2022, Landes was elected treasurer of the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), the accreditation, national policy and research, and professional development assosciation for collegiate music schools. She served as Region 1 chair from 2021-2022, and vice chair from 2020-2022.