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Jerry Henry recently became the president elect of the Iowa String Teachers Association. In 2008 he finished his sixth year as a teacher with the Davenport Community Schools working at both North High School, and Wood Intermediate School, and is now running his own consulting business for public school orchestra programs as well as for small businesses. He graduated from Wartburg College in 1980 with a BME and received his Masters degree in Education from Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford, Oklahoma in 1981. He received his MBA from the University of Iowa in 2001.

He has been a public school string and studio violin and viola teacher for most of the past 27 years. His teaching resume includes 2 years of teaching beginning orchestra in Edinburg, Texas, seven years in Cedar Rapids at Washington High School, Franklin Junior High and several associated elementary schools, 2 years of teaching English in Qingdao, China, 8 years as the director of orchestras for the Linn-Mar Community School District in Marion, Iowa teaching grades 5-12 and his most recent stint in Davenport. Jerry worked with string education majors at Coe College and was an adjunct professor at the University of Dubuque. He was honored as an outstanding high school teacher by the University of California at San Diego in 2000, and was in the Who’s Who of American teachers in 2001. He received the award as ASTA with NSOA State of Iowa string teacher of the year for the 2001 school year and was recently inducted into the Washington High School Performing Arts Hall of Fame.

He has been active as a clinician, guest director, and adjudicator in Iowa and Illinois and has been a contributor to the Iowa String Teachers journal. Throughout his career he has maintained a consistent schedule of performance and is presently a member of the Cedar Rapids Symphony, the acting concertmaster of the Clinton Symphony, and the 2nd violinist and part time violist in QUARTRIO, a flexible quartet from the Clinton and Quad Cities corridor.

Most recently Jerry has become an advocate and presenter on string teaching in the public schools. He has presented at the Iowa String Teachers convention, at the Iowa Music Educators convention, and to the State School Boards of Iowa. He has sat on panels at Augustana College in Rock Island, IL, and at the State Arts Mentoring forum in Ames, IA.

Jerry has a remarkable record of building and rebuilding orchestra programs. He is in the process of writing his ideas and teaching concepts into a book entitled, "The Fluffy Continuum". He has an unmatched ability to see and assess the needs and deficiencies of string programs and individual teachers and suggest workable ways to fix those problems.