Dr. Lauren Onkey: Vice President of Education & Public Programs

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As Vice President of Education and Public Programs, Dr. Lauren Onkey is responsible for developing educational programs and materials in the Museum’s award-winning K-12, university and adult programs, on site and through distance learning. These programs reach more than 30,000 people annually. She is executive producer of the Museum’s American Music Masters series, conducts interviews for the Museum’s many public programs and teaches rock and roll history courses at Case Western Reserve University. She is also developing programs for the Museum’s Library and Archives, which will open on the Metro Campus of Cuyahoga Community College in 2012.

Onkey joined the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in 2008 after fourteen years as an English professor at Ball State University in Indiana. Her research and teaching explores the intersection of popular music with cultural studies, literature, and women’s studies. She has published essays and book chapters on Van Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, U2, and Bruce Springsteen, and has presented numerous papers at national and international literature, cultural studies, and pedagogy conferences. Her book, Blackness and Transatlantic Irish Identity: Celtic Soul Brothers, was published by Routledge Press in 2009. Lauren received her master’s and doctoral degrees in English from the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, and her B.A. in English and Government from the College of William and Mary.

Onkey lives in Cleveland with her husband, Bob Nowatzki.