Chris Gleason is the Art and Creativity Consultant for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. He recently concluded twenty-five years as an instrumental music educator in East Troy, LaCrosse, and most recently Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. He is the 2017 Wisconsin Teacher of the Year, 2017 and 2022 semi-finalist for the GRAMMY Music Educator Award and the first Wisconsin teacher to be named a finalist for National Teacher of the Year in 50 years. He was recently selected as one of five educators for the prestigious 2022 Horace Mann Award for Teaching Excellence by the NEA Foundation as well as a Top 50 Finalist for the 2021 Global Teacher Prize sponsored by the Varkey Foundation and UNESCO. Mr. Gleason was selected from 8,000 nominations from 121 countries around the world. He was recently honored with the Wisconsin Badger’s Outstanding Educators Award and the Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award from his alma mater, UW-Eau Claire where he earned his BME degree in 1997. Gleason earned his Masters Degree from UW-LaCrosse in 2002 and is a Conn-Selmer Education Clinician In 2009 Mr. Gleason created the ComMission Possible Project which to date has commissioned new works for band by renowned composers such as Samuel R. Hazo, Michael Sweeney, Brian Balmages, John Mackey, Alex Shapiro, Pierre LaPlante, Andrew Boysen Jr, and Michael Markowski. He has been guest conductor of numerous camps and festivals across the country, including the Music For All National Band Camp. He has presented workshops at the VanderCook College of Music, NAfME National In-Service Conference, Midwest Clinic. He is the past-chair of the Wisconsin Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance (CMP) Committee and the Wisconsin State Middle Level Honors Project. In 2017-2018 he served as an Engagement Specialist for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction delivering presentations at universities, school districts and conferences across Wisconsin.