Parkland Professor Wins Statewide Community College Faculty Award

Dr. Franklin Gallo Awarded 2020 "Outstanding Adjunct Faculty Member"

Parkland College choral director Franklin Gallo, DMA, has been selected by the Illinois Community College Trustees Association (ICCTA) as the 2020 Outstanding Adjunct Faculty Member Award.

Gallo was one of three recipients of the 2020 ICCTA Outstanding Faculty Awards in October. Parkland’s Faculty Professional Development Committee had selected Gallo to be Parkland’s ICCTA Outstanding Part-Time Faculty winner earlier this spring, which nominated him for statewide consideration. Gallo will be presented with this statewide award during Parkland's October 21 Board of Trustees meeting.

Gallo is the director of Parkland’s Chamber Singers, a group that has grown from six students to more than 25 in three years and includes music majors, non-majors, high school students and adult community members. Gallo described the benefits students receive from participation in the musical group.

"In classrooms where the three artistic processes—creating, performing, and responding—are central to the enacted music curriculum, students develop lifelong musical skills and understandings that foster social and cultural understandings, respect, and self-awareness,” he said.

Beyond his work with the Chamber Singers in the rehearsal studio and on stage, Gallo teaches Introduction to American Music and Music Appreciation courses. He has provided professional development for primary and secondary educators, recently presenting sessions at a state choral music conference for pre-service educators at the University of Illinois and attending an international symposium on music education.
 
An accomplished instructor, director, and composer, Gallo led mass choirs at Parkland’s first-ever High School Choral Festival in January 2019 and again in January 2020. He has initiated and helped to implement two innovative programs used by the college’s music department for recruitment, ongoing collaboration with local high schools, and as a charity fundraiser.