Meet the Dean

Dr. Charles A. McAdams

Dr. Charles A. McAdams, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, began his tenure at Northwest Missouri State University in 2004. He formerly served in the positions of acting dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, chair of the Department of Music, and Professor of Music at Central Missouri State University.

A musician, Dr. McAdams received his bachelor’s degree in music education from Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, where he studied tuba with R. Winston Morris and performed in the Tennessee Tech Tuba Ensemble. He received his master’s degree from the University of Illinois where he studied tuba with Daniel Perantoni and Fritz Kaenzig; and music education with Charles Leonhard and Richard Colwell. He completed his doctorate in music education from the University of Illinois in 1988.

He has performed in more than 500 concerts and recitals as a soloist or with brass quintets and brass bands. He was a frequent clinician, soloist, and music adjudicator throughout Missouri and was the director of Merry TubaChristmas in Kansas City for 20 years. In 1988, he performed as a guest soloist at the Mid-West International Band and Orchestral Clinic in Chicago.

Dr. McAdams was an author and assistant editor of the Tuba Source Book, the most comprehensive reference on any single instrument ever written. He co-authored a chapter on music for multiple tubas in the second edition of Guide to the Tuba Repertoire: The New Tuba Source Book. He was also co-author of the book, The Tennessee Tech Tuba Ensemble: A 40th Anniversary Retrospective. Dr. McAdams has published more than 30 articles on tuba performance, pedagogy, and music education in the Missouri School Music Magazine, the Missouri Journal of Research in Music Education, the T.U.B.A. Journal, the NACWPI Journal, and the Music Educators Journal. He also has arrangements for tuba/euphonium ensemble published by Encore Music. Dr. McAdams was elected College/University Vice President of the Missouri Music Educators Association and served as president of the Missouri Association of Schools and Departments of Music.

After coming to Northwest, Dr. McAdams chaired the executive team that developed and implemented the University’s Kansas City Center located in Liberty in partnership with the Liberty Public School District.

Additionally, he has traveled extensively promoting student and faculty international exchanges with Northwest Missouri State University and advocating the importance of internationalizing the curriculum on the Northwest campus.

Currently, Dr. McAdams chairs the academic space group designed to help set academic space priorities on campus and is co-director, along with Dean Tom Billesbach, of a team that oversees development of the business incubator in Northwest’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Dr. McAdams successfully completed the Institute for Management and Leadership in Higher Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2007.