A Rome native and Georgia College music professor has been elected chair of the National Association for Music Education History Special Research Interest Group.

Patti Tolbert is the daughter of Patti A. Tolbert and the late Marshall M. Tolbert of Rome. She will serve a term from 2014-2016.

NAME, the professional organization for music educators in the U.S., has more than 75,000 members.

A member of the Georgia College Music department faculty, Tolbert earned the school’s Excellence in Teaching award in 2007.

She’s an active professional percussionist, performing with orchestras throughout the Southeast including a recent appearance with the Rome Symphony Orchestra.

She previously played in the RSO from 1966 to 1970 while studying for a Bachelor of Music degree from Berry College.

Tolbert has made presentations at numerous professional conferences, including the International Society for Music Education conference in Beijing, China in 2010.

She began her career as a middle- and high-school band director in Rockmart and earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Music Education from the University of Georgia in 1997.

Tolbert has been teaching at Georgia College in Milledgeville since her graduation in 1997.