Originally from South Africa, Monique Van Willingh is an educator, musician, and advocate for social and racial justice with cultural humility and brave dialogue as her central approach. As the Director of Cultural Equity and Belonging at the New England Conservatory of Music, Monique is committed to creating and sustaining spaces of belonging that are culturally responsive and assets based.
In her past position as Director of Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) Program at Longy School of Music of Bard College, Monique supported the Longy mission of preparing musicians to make a difference in the world. She oversaw Longy’s one-year music education credential program in Los Angeles, that focused on music pedagogy, performance, and social justice. Monique has taught graduate level courses such as Historical and Social Foundations of Education, Social Justice Music Research Project, Culturally Responsive Teaching, Non-profit Management, and El Sistema-inspired Programming. She led presentations at universities such as CalArts, Goshen College, Luther College, Clarke University, Morehouse College, Occidental College, and Whittier College.

Monique serves as the Vice Chair of the El Sistema USA national board. In this capacity, she co-leads the ESUSA Equity-centered Pedagogy Working Group, recently co-led ESUSA’s 5-year strategic planning process and serves on the Racial Diversity and Cultural Understanding Committee. She also serves on the Advisory Board of the Inter-generational Orchestra at Heart of LA (HOLA), an after-school El Sistema inspired youth program that partners with the LA Philharmonic to serve under-resourced youth with high quality music programs. Monique has been a panelist, presenter or facilitator at conferences and organizations such as El Sistema USA, Sphinx, YOLA National, YOLA at HOLA, iTAC, Global Leaders Program, Global Arts, Miami Music Project, and From the Top.

A graduate of the Sistema Fellows Program at the New England Conservatory of Music in 2013, Monique explored the Venezuelan El Sistema music for social change program model. She then completed the Master of Arts in Teaching Degree at Longy School of Music of Bard College situated at the Youth Orchestra LA (YOLA) at Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA). Returning to the HOLA family as Music Director just over a year later, Monique was dedicated to activating student and community voice in addition to supporting students to achieve their best musically. The HOLA Music Program served over 275 youth, and it was her greatest joy to lead this program. Monique has completed the Community Counselor Course through the Southern California Counseling center, which uses social justice as the central lens through which to understand and support communities dealing with trauma and has been trained in Restorative Justice Councils (Talking circles).

Monique is committed to deepening her impact as an arts education leader through culture building, strategic visioning, developing frameworks for educational and racial transformation, training music teachers and teaching artists to embody Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies, and creating brave and safe spaces where all can bring their full selves to the creative process. She is a “bridge-builder” and is passionate about exploring courageous dialogue that is at the intersection of inclusion, access, belonging, collaboration, socio-cultural awareness, student voice and musical excellence.