Dr. Mellonee Burnim, an internationally respected authority in African American religious music, is Associate Professor in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University. She earned a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from Indiana University in 1980, M.M. in Ethnomusicology from the University of Wisconsin in 1976, a B.M. in Music Education from North Texas State University in 1971.

She has successfully combined her expertise in choral music, piano, and ethnomusicology to establish an international forum for her work. Dr. Burnim has conducted choral workshops on African American religious music across the United States, in Cuba and Malawi, Central Africa. She has served as choral music teacher in the Texas school system, Chair of the Department of African American Studies (1991-1993), and Director of the Ethnomusicology Program at Indiana University.

In 1996, Dr. Burnim received the Distinguished Alumna Award from North Texas State University. She served as Minister of Music at Bethel A. M. E. Church in Bloomington, Indiana from 1982-2000. She currently holds the position of Music Director at Fairview United Methodist Church in Bloomington. Dr. Burnim’s publications include: guest editorship of Music and the Experience of God (1989), a special issue of Concilium: International Review of Theology; chapters in the collections African American Religion: Research Problems and Resources for the 1990's (1992), Leading the Church’s Song (1998), and African Americans and the Bible (2000); and journal articles in Ethnomusicology, Western Journal of Black Studies, and The Music Educator’s Journal, among others.