Bio

Leah Waldo is the Curriculum Manager for MOOCs with the online division of Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. After completing her studies at Berklee, Leah received her Masters in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. An alumna of the Arts in Education program, Leah focused her studies on curriculum design, edtech, and educational neuroscience. Her deep belief that increasing access to the arts inspires us to stand together as a community is central to her work at Berklee. In collaboration with Grammy–winning faculty, international non-profit organizations, and distinguished foundations, she designs rigorous and meaningfully relevant courses steeped in project-based learning, inquiry-based learning, and learning by design. Leah is also a rock n roll country musician and, when performing, goes by the name Elisa Smith. She was enraptured by her grandmother's stories of Nashville and the Ryman in the 50's and 60's, her father's love of classic rock from the 70's, and her mother's lullabies. Rock n roll and vintage country run in her blood. Her songs elicit feelings of nostalgia, pride, wanderlust, heartbreak, and good ol' fashioned boot-stompin' mischief. She recently completed recording her debut EP in Nashville (while wearing a piece of her grandmother's jewelry every day she was in the studio) and her sound has been likened as Loretta Lynn meets Led Zeppelin.