
Berklee Online is paving the way for a new era in a music industry that has historically lacked female representation and leadership. Over the past decade, Berklees award-winning online school has been making conscious efforts to increase its rates of female students, staff, and instructors.
At Berklee Online, we recognize our potential impact on the next generation of artists and music professionals, says Debbie Cavalier, CEO of Berklee Online. Increasing the rate of female students, staff, and instructors is a necessary step to ensure that more women are represented in the future of the music industry and those who lead it.
In the last two years, female enrollment at Berklee Online has increased by 65 percent. This is more than two times that of male enrollment, which is at 32 percent. Over the last five years, female enrollment has grown steadily, from 24 percent to 31 percent.
Cavalier was appointed by President Roger H. Brown as the CEO of Berklee Online in 2012. Since then, she and her leadership team have restructured the organization by hiring more female instructors and staff. As a result, the growth rate of female instructors has increased from 28 percent in fall 2012 to 33 percent in fall 2018.
Berklee Online began as a very male-dominated enterprise in 2001, says Cavalier. By 2006, I was one of only two female leaders on staff. Today, we have nine women in key leadership roles. Our team is gender-balanced, collaborative, and strong.
A few of the women in key leadership roles at Berklee Online include Carin Nuernberg, recently named vice president of academic strategy; Darcy Winer, senior director of finance; Corina DeCandia, director of operations; and Molly Tomlinson, director of technology, who is the first female to hold this role at Berklee Online.
Some of the female instructors at Berklee Online include Bonnie Hayes and Tonya Butler. Hayes, chair of Berklees Songwriting Department, has worked with Billy Idol, David Crosby, Cher, and Bonnie Raitt. Butler, assistant chair of the Music Business/Management Department, has worked with clients such as Rhino Records, MGM Music, and Global Disc Records.
Alison Plante, former chair of Berklees Film Scoring Department, was appointed as program director for Berklee Onlines new Master of Music in Film Scoring program. Pinar Toprak, the first female composer to score a major superhero movie, Captain Marvel, is among Berklee Online's film scoring instructors.
With female enrollment at an all-time high, more female instructors, and a 97 percent student satisfaction rate, Berklee Online's certificate, undergraduate, and graduate degree programs teach students the skills and help build the confidence to meet and exceed music industry demands. With more than 11,000 annual enrollments in credit-based courses and 2.4 million enrollments in massive open online courses, Berklee Online is the largest online music college in the world. Learn more at online.berklee.edu.
Related categories:
News
Most Popular
Students Find Rainbow Connection at Newport Folk Berklee Instant Strings joined headlining musicians such as Trey Anastasio, Robin Pecknold, I'm With Her, and Kermit the Frog at Newport Folk Festival 2019.
Latest
Berklee Online Increases Rates of Female Students, Staff, and Instructors In the last two years, female enrollment at Berklee Online has increased by 65 percent.
Summer Student Pens Song for South African Womens Day South African singer Alutha Taho partnered with women-focused arts organization the Mama Project to release the song Together We Can.
Feel the One: Terri Lyne Carrington and Others Get Mystical with Jazz Advice The drum legend and Berklee professor put together a special ensemble to perform and field questions from students.
Read All
Subscribe The latest sounds, stories, and ideas, sent to your inbox weekly.
Berklee Blogs
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram
Snapchat
Soundcloud
Spotify
North America Stories
19/04/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced the ATEM 4 M/E Constellation IP and ATEM 4 M/E Constellation IP Plus, two SMPTE 2110-native live production switchers. The ATEM ...
19/04/2026
Grass Valley is finding the right balance between its hardware heritage with an ...
19/04/2026
Oracle's strategy rests on the foundational strengths of Oracle Cloud Infras...
19/04/2026
Program Productions, the live sports production industry's leading crewer, i...
19/04/2026
At the 2026 NAB Show in Las Vegas, SVG sat down with Joe Scionti, Account Manage...
19/04/2026
At its 2026 NAB Show keynote event, Ross Video came out swinging with one of its...
19/04/2026
Evertz (Booth N817) is set to present new services within its evertz.io platform...
19/04/2026
Evertz (Booth N817) will showcase its IPMX-certified NUCLEUS platform alongside ...
19/04/2026
Evertz (Booth N817) is set to showcase ENX at NAB 2026, a media core platform designed to support hybrid SDI and IP infrastructures in production facilities and...
19/04/2026
Evertz (Booth N817) will introduce Studer VistaVUE Touch at NAB 2026, a control surface designed to integrate audio, video and control workflows within a custom...
19/04/2026
Evertz (Booth N817) will highlight X-CALIBER at NAB 2026, an encoding and decodi...
19/04/2026
Cobalt Digital (Booth N1340) will introduce the blueCORE family of standalone si...
19/04/2026
Chyron and Asport (Booth N2441) will demonstrate an integrated sports video work...
19/04/2026
MediaKind (Booth W1743) provided an update on its Multiview deployments at NAB S...
19/04/2026
Calrec (Booth C6907) and Grass Valley (Booth C2408) announced a long-term broadc...
19/04/2026
Oracle is bringing a multi-partner demonstration of Media over QUIC (MoQ)-based live streaming to NAB Show 2026, showcasing how independent systems from multipl...
19/04/2026
Encompass Digital Media announced an expanded partnership with Oracle Cloud Infr...
19/04/2026
The NAB Show is in full swing, and the SVG and SVG Europe editorial teams are chasing down the hottest stories from all over the Las Vegas Convention Center. He...
19/04/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced the ATEM 4 M/E Constellation IP and ATEM 4 M/E Constellation IP Plus, two SMPTE 2110-native live production switchers. The ATEM ...
19/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/04/2026
Amagi, the agentic industry cloud platform for unified broadcast, streaming, and monetization, today announced that AccuWeather , the most trusted source of wea...
19/04/2026
Calrec (Booth:C6907) and Grass Valley (Booth: C2408) are today announcing a long-term broadcast audio technology partnership at NAB Show 2026. The companies are...
19/04/2026
Ikegami announces a further expansion to its range of on-camera viewfinders. Scheduled for introduction on Ikegamis Central Hall booth C3819 at the April 19th -...
19/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
18/04/2026
MultiDyne Video & Fiber Optic Systems has begun shipping the C16-AM-12G audio mo...
18/04/2026
FOR-A America is set to detail AI functionality for its software-defined IMPULSE...
18/04/2026
Cobalt Digital and SineSix Media have announced a partnership to integrate the v...
18/04/2026
The ATSC, the broadcast standards association, is highlighting the status of the ATSC 3.0 internet protocol-based broadcast standard at the 2026 NAB Show. The e...
18/04/2026
Bolin Technology has introduced a new range of hardware for live production envi...
18/04/2026
KMH Integration is participating in the 2026 NAB Show, focusing on its AV Casti...
18/04/2026
Appear has appointed Mike Burk as vice president of business development for North America. Burk brings over two decades of experience in the broadcast and live...
18/04/2026
Skyline Communications is showcasing its DataMiner platform and the new DataMine...
18/04/2026
Telos Alliance is exhibiting its portfolio of broadcast audio products at the 20...
18/04/2026
TAG Video Systems has announced an integration with the AWS Elemental MediaConne...
18/04/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced DaVinci Resolve 21, with a public beta available now for download. The update will be demonstrated at NAB Show 2026 (Booth N2502...
18/04/2026
Calrec (Booth C6907) and Grass Valley (Booth C2408) have announced a long-term broadcast audio technology partnership at NAB Show 2026, integrating Calrec's...
18/04/2026
The first signs of spring in March led to Poles spending significantly less time in front of their screens, leading to a sharp 22-minute drop in average viewing...
18/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
18/04/2026
Clear-Com announced FreeSpeak Cell , a cellular-based wireless intercom system that uses LTE and 5G infrastructure to support large-scale production communicat...
18/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
18/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
18/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
18/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...