Meet the NITLE Staff

Paul Henley

Membership Director

Paul T. Henley is the membership director for the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE). Dr. Henley works with leaders at liberal arts colleges and universities to develop the NITLE Network, a forward-thinking group of institutions working to transform liberal education.

Before joining NITLE in July 2011, Dr. Henley served as the teaching and learning specialist for the Texas State Teachers Association, a national affiliate of the National Education Association. In his nearly eight-year tenure there, Dr. Henley worked to improve teacher performance and quality in educator preparation and more than doubled membership in TSTA’s student program. His work as a lobbyist was nationally recognized and documented during the 2010 Texas State Board of Education’s deliberations regarding the social studies textbook standards. Dr. Henley wrote extensively on issues of concern for TSTA and developed a wide array materials still in use by multiple NEA affiliates. He was a member of the Texas Education Agency’s Response to Intervention Coordinating Council and a contributor to Learning Forward’s work on model policy for professional development.

Prior to his service with TSTA, Dr. Henley taught music education at the undergraduate and graduate levels at the University of Montana-Western and Missouri State University. His research on instrumental practice techniques has been published by the Journal of Research in Music Education, The Instrumentalist, and the Missouri School Music Magazine. He has presented at state and national education conventions on aesthetics, practice techniques, and the proper development of student teachers; served as guest conductor for numerous honor bands; and lectured on practice techniques nationwide. Dr. Henley has also served on the Southwest Montana Arts Council and the editorial board of the Missouri Journal of Research in Music Education.

Dr. Henley earned his Ph.D. at Louisiana State University. His dissertation, “The Effect of Modeling and Tempo Gradations as Practice Techniques on the Performance of High School Wind Instrumentalists,” was published in the Journal of Research in Music Education as was further research with Dr. Cornelia Yarbrough focused on music conductor magnitude. At LSU, Dr. Henley taught music education philosophy and instrumental techniques, and he played tuba in and conducted the LSU Wind Ensemble. Dr. Henley also holds a Master of Arts in Education degree from Chadron State College.

Before earning his graduate degrees, Dr. Henley taught music in public and parochial schools for seven years. He graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Music, Music Education degree from the University of South Dakota, a public liberal arts institution, and is married to DeAnn Henley, a reading intervention specialist and union leader in the Pflugerville Independent School District (Texas). He and his wife have three children, all of whom are dependent on the positive transformation of higher education.