CMA EDU Holds 11th Annual Leadership Summit

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Brittany Schaffer, Tucker Wetmore and Wetmore’s team with students at the 11th annual CMA EDU Leadership Summit. Photo: Zach Whitmore/CMA

The Country Music Association’s industry development program, CMA EDU, held its 11th annual Leadership Summit this week.

The latest CMA EDU membership class—made up of 49 students from 32 universities across the country—participated in professional development training, industry education and community building at the CMA headquarters in Nashville for three full days.

The event kicked off on Sunday (July 28) with a panel hosted by Black River Entertainment that consisted of songwriter McCall Chapin, Black River’s Rebekah Gordon and country artist MaRynn Taylor. Students then attended a show at the Grand Ole Opry, featuring Scotty Hasting, and were given a backstage tour during intermission.

Monday (July 29) started with a presentation from CMA’s Sarah Trahern, followed by a welcome speech from CMA’s Tiffany Kerns, before Belmont University’s Brittany Schaffer moderated a conversation with country artist Tucker Wetmore and his team, including UMG Nashville’s Cindy Mabe, Back Blocks Music’s Rakiyah Marshall and WME’s Carrie Murphy and Braeden Rountree. The panelists gave students an in-depth look at what each of them do in their separate roles to help an artist achieve success. CMA’s Catharine McNelly then spoke about marketing and personal branding before WME’s Kylie Gambone moderated a panel of professionals from the agency, including Agent Trainees Lauren Cunningham and Kallie Rhea as well as Agents Carter Green and Lara Christie.

Yesterday (July 30), students rotated to different rooms to sharpen their interview skills, have a conversation surrounding empathy and cancel culture with CMA’s Mia Jones, build a strong resume and take quality headshots. A discussion on touring with Parkwood Entertainment’s Kaleb Steele and a streaming panel with UMG Nashville’s Vipin Reddy, Sandbox Entertainment Group’s Lucia Kaminsky and Spotify’s Claire Heinichen took place before KP Entertainment’s Kerri Edwards offered the closing keynote to conclude the summit.

“These past few days have been another fantastic opportunity for our CMA EDU program to pour into the music industry professionals of tomorrow and give them a glimpse at what their future careers could offer,” says Kerns. “The CMA EDU Class of 2024-2025 has some of the most ambitious and hard-working students we‘ve ever seen. We are beyond excited to watch what they do, and how they bring the knowledge they picked up from this experience into their careers.”

Applications for the 2025–2026 CMA EDU program are now open. For more information, click here.

Liza Anderson
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