Trailblazing is nothing new to Dr. Toni-Marie Montgomery. The dean of Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music was the first woman in the role and first African American dean at the university in general.
Montgomery, who joined Northwestern in 2003, said she was also the first African American dean at the University of Kansas, serving in its School of Fine Arts.
Montgomery plans to step down from the role after 20 years as leader of Northwestern’s music programs. Her term ends Aug. 31, 2023. She said she expects to return to campus as a tenured professor in piano after a year. 
Dr. Toni-Marie Montgomery
“I feel like it’s really time to move on,” Montgomery explained. “We’ve accomplished a lot during my tenure. And I think it’s time for someone new to move the school hopefully in that upward trajectory that we have been going – and I’m sure that that will happen – but also to invest in other areas that may not have been my areas of interest.”
Of the veteran academic leader’s accomplishments, one of her proudest is her work in vehemently advocating for and making reality Northwestern’s Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Center for the Musical Arts, she said. The new music building was completed in 2015.
“I refer to the building as my 12-year-old baby,” Montgomery remarked with a laugh.
Another achievement is that she managed to hire two-thirds of the music school’s faculty during her time as dean, said Montgomery, who also expresses regret in not being able to recruit more faculty members of color, primarily Latinx and African American faculty.
