As Murchison Professor of Music Education at Trinity University, Diane Persellin teaches courses in elementary music education, the music courses in the Trinity Master of Arts in Teaching program, and conducts the Trinity Handbell Ensemble. In 2017 she was awarded the Z.T. Scott Faculty Fellowship for Outstanding Teaching and Advising, Trinity’s highest teaching award. During the summers she is the Director of the Trinity University Orff Schulwerk Certification Course and serves on the staff of the Associated Colleges of the South Teaching and Learning Workshop at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.

Prior to receiving her doctorate at Arizona State University and her masters at the University of North Dakota in music education, she taught in elementary schools, preschools, and colleges in North Dakota and Minnesota. She is an active music education clinician throughout the country and has also presented workshops and papers in China, Hong Kong, South Africa, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, England, Italy, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Canada. Her research and workshops focus on effective teaching practices of music skills and applications of recent brain research in music classrooms. An author of over 100 research articles and chapters of books, Persellin served as Editor of the journal, General Music Today, from 2004-2010 and as President of Texas Music Educators Conference from 1998 - 2000. Her co-authored book, A Concise Guide to Improving Student Learning was published by Stylus Publishing in 2014.