Archived AIM Teacher of the Year Awards

2025

EMILY S. JORGENSEN is an independent music teacher in the Provo/Orem, UT area. She is an active adjudicator and lecturer across the Wasatch Front. She has held several positions in the Utah Music Teachers Association, including State Certification Chair. She currently serves as the Provo/Orem chapter treasurer. Emily grew up in Tacoma, WA, earning her International Baccalaureate diploma in high school. She was awarded a Trustees Scholarship at BYU, and graduated from BYU with a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance and a Master of Arts in Elementary Music Education. She holds a PhD in Early Childhood Development from the University of South Africa. She taught group piano classes at BYU, and has operated a private studio for 27 years. Her students have earned many accolades, and a few have made their careers in music as well.
She has also worked in the public schools, teaching kindergarten, fourth grade, and general music. She is currently the K1 director of Franklin Discovery Academy, a school that focuses on play-based learning and the arts. She is still married to her high school sweetheart. They are the proud parents of four beautiful children.

2024

EMILY EZOLA, NCTM is a dedicated musician and educator, currently serving as the Director of the USU Youth Conservatory and the Admissions and Recruitment Coordinator for the Utah State University Music Department. She has taught a range of courses, including Pedagogy Practicum, Keyboard Harmony, and Individual Piano Instruction. Emily is also an active pianist, enjoying both solo and collaborative performances. Recently, she had the opportunity to perform ‘Concerto for My Family’ with Emmy award-winning double bassist Ranaan Meyer. Emily is the Executive Director of the Fry Street Chamber Music Festival and previously served as the Program Chairman for the Chamber Music Society of Logan from 2018 to 2022. She also contributed to the collegiate committee of the Utah Music Teachers Association (UMTA) state board from 2019 to 2022. Her efforts have been recognized with awards that include the Utah State University Community Engagement Presidential Award in 2020 and the Caine College of the Arts Community Engaged Faculty of the Year in 2023. Emily has also worked on educational projects, including co-creating piano activity books for The Perfect Start series with Kevin and Julia Olson and co-writing an online piano course with Per Danielsson for the Educational Advantage School of Music. She earned her master’s degree in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from Utah State University, graduating magnacum laude, and has been a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music since 2019. She has also shared her expertise at events like the Utah Music Teachers Association state conference and the National Conference of Keyboard Pedagogy

2023

LISA FLINDERS has been a music teacher for 25 years. In 2017 she decided to join UMTA and immediately started to reshape and refine her teaching. One year later during a monthly meeting with the Nebo chapter, she was prompted to start taking piano lessons. The guest speaker was Sharalyn Heath whose topic was “Terrific Technic From the Start.” Lisa felt as if this was an area she needed to improve in and at the end of the meeting she asked Sharalyn if she would be willing to accept her as a student. During her first lesson, the AIM program was introduced to her and she immediately recognized that this program would help her students be well-rounded musicians and give them the skills they needed to participate in and enjoy music throughout their lives. Outside of teaching piano, Lisa is the AIM chair for the Nebo chapter, is a choir conductor, a professional accompanist, and an occasional guitar player and vocalist. Lisa and her husband, Scott, are the parents of 3 sons and 3 daughters and are the grandparents of 2 grandchildren.

2022

ROWENA BUNCE has been teaching piano for over 10 years. She is a proud product of the AIM program (although it was called Student Achievement way back when it was taught to her!) She always remembered the valuable, well-rounded curriculum that AIM gave her as a student, and she knew when she started teaching that she needed to give her students the same experience.

She is a big believer in the AIM program and feels it has made her a better teacher and made her students better musicians. Rowena has taught AIM to many students over the years, including all 4 of her own children. She loves to hear from former students how AIM has helped them in other musical avenues whether it be choir, band, orchestra, guitar or college music courses.

She is constantly looking for teaching tools and techniques to make music fun and engaging. She has created YouTube ear training videos, Kahoot quizzes, and Gimkit games for herself and other teachers to use.
Rowena loves being involved in UMTA. She has served as the Bridgerland Chapter President and is currently on the State Membership Committee as the Local Chapters/New Members Chair. She truly values the camaraderie of her fellow chapter and state members and enjoys learning and sharing with the members.

2021

CAROLINE JENNINGS received her master and bachelor degrees in piano performance from the University of Utah. Ms. Jennings became a Permanent Professional National Certified Teacher of Music in 2020. She has enjoyed serving in UMTA as the president of the St. George chapter, a member of the State AIM Board, and as local AIM chapter chairman. Caroline maintains an active private studio and is a part time professor at Dixie State University.

 

 

2020

SHARALYN HEATH, NCTM, has 39 years of teaching experience. Her students have participated in AIM for the past 23 years. Many of her students have been awarded FAIM scholarships and received Level 10 Awards. Her students have performed with local symphonies, won numerous competitions, received college music scholarships, and become independent music teachers.

Sharalyn served the past six years as the Provo-Orem AIM Chairperson, and 10 years as the FAIM Chairperson for the South-Central Region. She is also the acting region chair for UMTA performance evaluations, and is a past president of the Nebo chapter. She has given presentations throughout the state on topics including terrific technique, developing aural awareness, surveying methods, and Kindermusik.

She is a symphony pianist with the Utah Valley Symphony and plays the celeste with The Utah Metropolitan Ballet Orchestra. She founded the Mountain Peaks Players chamber ensemble and performed multiple recitals in the Springville Arts Commission Concert Series. She is an active accompanist and music judge. She has been a soloist with the Utah Valley Symphony, San Diego Regional Orchestra, Utah Valley Civic Orchestra, Mormon Youth Symphony, and the Utah Valley Youth Symphony. Heath graduated magna cum laude in Piano Performance from BYU where she studied with Irene Peery-Fox and Robert B. Smith.

In addition to her training as a pianist, she has been a member of the women’s vocal ensemble Cantus, and a percussionist with the Utah Valley Symphony, Mormon Youth Symphony, BYU Percussion Ensemble, and Panoramic Steel Band. A mother of five and grandmother of two, Sharalyn lives in Orem with her husband John.

2019

LORNA KUJANPAA, NCTM, has been a member of the Timpanogos Chapter of UMTA for 15 years. She has served as Chapter President twice as well as AIM Chairman for 4 years. Lorna became a Nationally Certified Teacher in 2012, a goal she was excited to complete! She studied piano under Mona Smith and earned her Associates Degree in Piano Pedagogy from BYU Provo. Lorna has taught for 35 years and says that UMTA is the best thing that ever happened to her teaching! She especially loves the AIM program and firmly believes that students who participate in AIM become well rounded musicians, ready to use their skills to enjoy music and serve for a lifetime. Lorna maintains her studio in Highland, UT and has been thrilled to help 5 students complete level 10 AIM in the last 3 years. She has also loved her role as accompanist for the Highland Children’s Choir for the last 11 years, and plans on continuing for many more. Outside of teaching, she frequently accompanies church choirs and ensembles, and enjoys sewing, camping, walking and family gatherings. Lorna and her husband, Paul, are the parents of 6 sons and 1 daughter, and the grandparents of 8 grandchildren.

2018

SUANN ADAMS does not remember ever learning to play the piano. By the time she began formal lessons, she was already playing fairly difficult repertoire. Maggie Gammel accepted Suann as a piano student when she was 9 years old. She has studied with with John C. Weis, Mary Rae Johnson, Reid Nibley, N. Jane Tan, Paul Pollei, and Seymour Bernstein.

Suann accompanied many choirs and musicals, played horn in many symphonies, and won top honors in various festivals on both piano and horn while going through school. She was the first runner up in music at the State Sterling Scholar competition for Utah in 1981.

Suann studied music, organ, and horn at BYU for five and one-half years, majoring in composition, she won an ASCAP award for composition. She was featured soloist on horn with the BYU concert band and toured with many different orchestras, including a trip with one of the first American groups to be allowed into China, the BYU Chamber Orchestra.

Suann runs a very successful music studio where she offers training in piano, french horn, organ, voice, pedagogy, composition, and music theory. She is one of the top five piano team specialists in the country, having received her training from N. Jane Tan.

Suann performs in the New American Philharmonic Orchestra, played in the pit orchestra for the Utah Musical Theatre for 10 years or more, and is a founding member of the Rocky Mountain Piano Team. She founded the annual Utah Piano Team Festival and has been AIM chair for the Ogden Chapter of the UMTA.