Lily Chen-Hafteck is currently Professor of Music Education at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. She is the Head of Music Education and Special Assistant to the Inaugural Dean for Curricular Reform. She is a Fulbright Scholar who holds Ph.D. in music education from the University of Reading, U.K. and received postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Pretoria, South Africa and University of Surrey Roehampton, U.K. She also taught at Kean University, USA, Hong Kong Baptist University, University of Hong Kong, and at preschool, elementary and secondary schools in Hong Kong and Mozambique.

She has published numerous journal articles and book chapters, and is featured in Oxford Handbook of Music Education and Oxford Handbook of Children’s Musical Cultures. She has served on the editorial board of the International Journal of Music Education, Asia-Pacific Journal for Arts Education, Music Education Research International, Global Science and Technology Forum (GSTF), Perspectives: Journal of the Early Childhood Music & Movement Association, Media Journal in Music Education, International Journal of Music in Early Childhood and Malaysian Journal of Music. She has held leadership positions of International Society for Music Education (ISME) as member of its Board of Directors, chair of its Young Professionals Focus Group and Early Childhood Commission, and is currently chairing its Music in Schools and Teacher Education Commission. She has also served as the Eastern Division Representative of the Early Childhood Special Research Interest Group, National Association for Music Education (NAfME) and the World Music Representative of California Music Educators Association (CMEA) State Council. She is the founder and director of the Educating the Creative Mind project, funded by National Endowment for the Arts; and a co-investigator and team leader of Advancing Interdisciplinary Research in Singing (AIRS) project, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada.