Nate Olson is the Academic Director of the Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Roots Music Studies program at East Tennessee State University, where he teaches bluegrass and progressive acoustic bands, music theory, career seminars, private lessons, and teacher education courses. He earned his doctorate in music education from Teachers College, Columbia University and his dissertation focused on the institutionalization of fiddle music in higher education. He has presented at ISME, ASTA, NAfME, CDIME, CMS, and other national and international conferences and published in American String Teacher, Strings Magazine and with MelBay publications.