Concept Schools competitors

Helen Eaton has served as Settlement Music School’s Chief Executive Officer since 2010. One of the largest community schools of the arts in the country, Settlement has a 112-year history of arts education without barriers, providing over $2.6 million in financial aid every year to its students. In Helen’s 10-year tenure, she has grown programming, diversified funding sources, strengthened the balance sheet, and championed partnerships, both locally and nationally. In 2020 Helen received one of the highest honors in the field - the Arts Education Award from the Americans for the Arts. The award recognizes transformational leadership through strategic planning, strong programming, and the engagement of partners to achieve community goals. Helen’s work at Settlement has been featured in Harvard Business Review and is a case study in Scott Anthony’s book, Eat, Sleep, Innovate: How to Make Creativity an Everyday Habit Inside Your Organization, published by Harvard Business Review Press -- both for her work in building systems of innovation at a legacy institution. In 2016 she was named one of the Top 30 Innovators by Musical America Worldwide. Speaking nationally about her work in building partnerships, Helen has presented at conferences including Innosight’s CEO Summit, Executive Leaders Radio, B.PHL Innovation Fest (Philadelphia), Americans for the Arts, National Guild for Community Arts Education, American Association of University Women, and SphinxConnect. In 2018 Settlement was named one of the top 10 music charities in the country working to preserve and expand music education and access to the musical arts by Charity Navigator blog. Since 2012, when she and other music education providers launched the Philadelphia Music Alliance for Youth collaborative, the focus on service to music students and educators alike across Philadelphia has resulted in expanded collaborations and shared professional development for in-school and out-of-school time teachers. With Settlement as the lead partner, this collaborative also gave rise to the region wide PMAY Artists’ Initiative, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which supports students from underrepresented communities in becoming professional classical musicians. Helen has served as the Vice Chair of the Board of the National Guild for Community Arts Education and currently serves on the Board of the Tompkins VIST Bank.