Matthew D. Thibeault is Associate Professor of the Department of Cultural and Creative Arts. Thibeault received his BME in music education and psychology at Florida State University before completing MA and Ph.D. degrees in Curriculum Studies and Teacher Education at Stanford University. He taught general music in the United States of America in California public schools at the elementary and high school level. He previously taught at San José State University, the University of Illinois, and the University of Florida.

Thibeault was a 2012-13 Faculty Fellow at the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities and the 2013 recipient of the Outstanding Emerging Researcher Award presented by the Center for Music Education Research at the University of South Florida. He serves on the editorial or advisory boards of Action, Criticism and Theory for Music Education, The Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, The International Journal of Education & the Arts, Music Educators Journal, the Media Journal of Music Education, and the Journal of Music, Technology, and Education. From 2010–14 General Music Today published his column for practitioners, “Secondary Scene.” Thibeault is Chair-elect for the NAfME Philosophy SRIG.