Founder of UA Music Therapy Program Receives Lifetime Achievement Award

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Dr. Carol Prickett, professor of music therapy and music education at The University of Alabama, has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Music Therapy Association.

The award was announced at the AMTA national conference held recently in San Diego, Calif. The Lifetime Achievement Award is the highest honor given in the music therapy profession.

Prickett began the music therapy program at UA in 1985. She teaches music therapy courses, music therapy practica and music education research, as well as a graduate course that prepares music students in all areas for a career in college teaching.

“To be allowed to spend my professional lifetime doing work I love is a great privilege. Being a music therapist, teaching young people who will become music therapists, and doing research which contributes a little more knowledge to my discipline and to do these things at the University of Alabama, that’s as good as it gets.

“I am deeply grateful for the opportunities I’ve been given, but I’m also looking ahead because the best is yet to come,” Prickett said.

In 2007, Prickett received the UA College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Commitment to Students award. She also served as a Distinguished Teaching Fellow in the college from 1999-2001.  She has received awards for outstanding research as well as for service from the Southeastern Chapter of the American Music Therapy Association.

A member of the editorial review boards of the Journal of Music Therapy and the Journal of Research in Music Education, she has also edited two books, has published in national and international journals, and has regularly presented sessions at American Music Therapy Association and national music education conferences and seminars.