YPO is privileged to honor Stefanie Sagaro as this year's recipient of the Educator of Note Award. 

Stefanie Sagaro is the music director and Visual and Performing Arts Department Chair at the Academy for Innovative Education Charter School in Miami Springs, Florida, where she teaches chorus, musical theatre, piano, and modern band to 3rd through 12th grade students.

Stefanie’s award-winning vocal and instrumental ensembles have performed at venues such as the Adrienne Arsht Center, the FIU Wertheim Concert Hall, Nashville Worldstrides Heritage Festival, Carnegie Hall, Terminal 5 Club in New York, Disney World, and the FMEA Conference at the Tampa Convention Center. Her students have collaborated with artists such as Jon Secada, Marina Elali, Sam Moore, Graham Nash, Renecito Avich, and Los Lobos.

Stefanie is a past Dade County Music Educators Association president, a Music Will (Formerly known as Little Kids Rock) Ambassador, and a former FEMEA district chairperson. She has presented professional development in voice, Orff Schulwerk, modern band, and songwriting at the local, national, and international levels. She has been published in School Band and Orchestra Magazine and the Florida Music Director.

Stefanie is a two-time Grammy Music Educator of the Year Quarter Finalist, a Florida International University School of Music Alumni of Note, a Music Will featured educator, and a two-time recipient of the Educational Innovator Award at her school.

Stefanie has also had the pleasure of serving as a clinician and coordinator for the Miami Dade Superintendent's Honors Music Festival for twelve years. Stefanie believes music education is meant to be inclusive, allowing all students to express themselves, their cultures, and their generation through storytelling. Her life’s mission is to foster lifelong music-makers and serve her community through music education.