Samantha is a dual master's student in Theory and Orchestral Conducting, a graduate teaching assistant in Theory, and a member of the Cognitive and Systematic Musicology Laboratory at Ohio State. She also serves as the assistant conductor of the Ohio State Symphony Orchestra, and was previously the music director of the Ohio State Community Orchestra. Her theory research focuses on emotional responses to music, particularly as they pertain to the relationships between the conductor, audience and performers. Currently, she is working on a project that examines the effects of visual cues on the auditory stream segregation of music. Her other research has focused on synchronized movement and various musical characteristics on social bonding between members of a group, quantitative analysis of expressive timing in performance, cognitive methods of musical analysis that measure participants’ responses to music in real time, and the relationship between orchestral conductors’ facial expressions and musicians’ emotions as mediated by emotional contagion. Her research has been accepted for presentation at the Society for Music Theory Midwest Conference, Future Directions of Music Cognition, and the Oxford Conducting Institute International Conducting Studies Conference. In her free time, Sam enjoys spending time outdoors, whether it be hiking, biking, rowing or skiing.