Dr. Dara Gillis is Director Emeritus of the Rutherford B. Hayes High School Choral Program in Delaware, Ohio and the director of both Consort and Cantabile ensembles at Capital University in Bexley, Ohio. She received her undergraduate and master’s degrees in music education from Ohio University and her Doctor of Musical Arts in conducting from Ohio State University. Her article, “African American Spirituals in the Public-School Classroom: Our Most Powerful Weapon Against Racism” was published in the October 2021 edition of the Choral Journal and was excerpted from her dissertation on the same subject. 

During Dr. Gillis’s tenure with the Delaware City Schools, the choral ensembles at Rutherford B. Hayes High School received consistent superior ratings at both district and state adjudicated events and performed at such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the Cathedral of St. Paul the Apostle, and Lincoln Center. Under her direction, the Rutherford B. Hayes High School Theater Program produced large-scale musical performances such as Les Misérables, Damn Yankees, Mary Poppins, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical, Legally Blonde, and Something Rotten.  

Gillis is an active member of the American Choral Directors Association and its state affiliate, the Ohio Choral Directors Association. Since 2004, she has served as region chair, membership chair, repertoire and resources chair, and in July of 2025, Dr. Gillis assumed the office of president of OCDA for the second time. She is only the second individual in the state’s history to serve in this position twice. She is also an active adjudicator and clinician with the Ohio Music Education Association. She is frequently sought as a guest conductor. In May of 2026, Gillis returns to Carnegie Hall to conduct a national festival chorus performance of Faure’s Requiem in D Minor, Op. 48. 

When not sharing her love of choral music, Dr. Gillis enjoys reading, traveling, and playing golf with her husband.