Leah Hamilton is an educator, researcher, and PhD student in Arts Administration at the University of Kentucky. Her thesis, Arts Facility Emergency Preparedness in the State of Missouri, was awarded the Top Thesis Award and Academic Excellence Award by Drexel University (USA) in 2016. Since then, she has dedicated her research to arts emergency preparedness, including presenting her research, teaching and management models at the International Conference on Social Theory, Politics, and the Arts (2016), the European Network for Cultural Management and Policy Conference (2018), and the Association of Arts Administration Educators (2019, 2020). Prior positions include Instructor/Director of Arts Administration at Drury University (USA) and Executive Director of the leading arts agency in Southwest Missouri, the Springfield Regional Arts Council. Hamilton is a member of the Arts Administration Educators Association (AAAE) and Americans for the Arts. She is a contributing writer for the Kulturmanagement Network. In addition to her Master of Science degree at Drexel University (USA), Hamilton holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Music from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and a Bachelor in Music from the University of Kansas (USA). Hamilton is a former Ambassadorial Scholar for the International Rotary Foundation, and was a founding singer of the professional chamber ensemble, Octarium.