Dr. Adler’s professional background and experience encompasses music performance, scholarship, teaching, and administrative positions at some of the most esteemed cultural institutions and universities in the United States. Dr. Adler’s vision is to sustain the arts through robust inclusivity and diversity, superlative artistry, and innovative approaches to audience engagement and retention.

With degrees from Princeton University (A.B.), the Juilliard School (M.M.), and the Eastman School of Music (M.A., D.M.A., Ph.D.), Dr. Adler currently serves as Assistant Professor of Arts Administration at the University of Houston where she also teaches in the graduate Nonprofit Management program. Previously, she served as Dean of the Conservatory at Michael Tilson Thomas’ New World Symphony, as Dean of the School of Music at DePauw University, and as Executive Director of the world-renowned Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. As a nonprofit consultant and executive coach, her clients include small and large nonprofit cultural organizations as well as individual administrators, board members, artists, academics, and entrepreneurs. Dr. Adler is a Chief Executive Global Fellow of National Arts Strategies and a research affiliate of the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project. She serves as an accreditor for the National Association of Schools of Music and as a director on the board of the College Music Society. She has recorded for the Harmonia Mundi label and is a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (Grammy Awards).

A frequent speaker and panelist, Dr. Adler regularly gives presentations at national and international arts and culture forums that address issues of civic and economic relevance, power and privilege, entrepreneurship, leadership, and new technologies. Her academic research focuses on the history of orchestral institutions and the role of arts and culture in society. Her current book project, Orchestrating Whiteness: Serge Koussevitzky, Arthur Fiedler, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, is under contract with the University of Illinois Press.