KAREN MELLINGER POORMAN, President
Karen Mellinger Poorman has been President of the South Jersey Area Wind Ensemble since its inception in 1997 and plays clarinet with the band. While at Council Rock High School in Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, she received the John Philip Sousa Band award and participated in County, District and All State Bands. Karen received her Education degree from Lebanon Valley College where she studied music with Dr. James M. Thurmond and Frank Stachow. She attended Cornell University for graduate school, taught in Middletown, Pennsylvania and the Pleasantville, New Jersey Schools as well as teaching gifted and talented students in the Somers Point Schools. She coached the band front and assisted with the marching band at Southern Regional High School for 14 years and has been a color guard consultant for numerous local high schools as well as woodwind advisor for the Egg Harbor Township High School Marching Band. Karen was on the staff for American Music Honor Bands European tours for ten years. She has over 25 years of experience as a Real Estate Broker, sales trainer and manager. She is the Past Scholarship Chair for the Atlantic County Branch of the American Association of University Women as well as Past Vice President of the Atlantic Woman’s Charitable Organization. She teaches clarinet privately.
Since our inception, SJAWE was awarded the John Philip Sousa Sudler Silver Scroll Award, commissioned 14 works, and played over 150 concerts, including concerts at Stockton University, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, Temple University, Longwood Gardens, The Association of Concert Band convention in Allentown, Pa, as well as Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, and three New Jersey Music Educators conventions. SJAWE is currently a national finalist for the American Prize in Band/Wind Ensemble Performance. Karen organized the specialty ensembles, which consist of members of the band and continues to move forward with the vision of virtual music enrichment for the performing arts.
She is married to Ronald Poorman and has two children, Melinda Sweeney (husband Michael), Jennifer Hodgson (husband Keith) and two grandchildren, Justin and Jordan Sweeney.
Since our inception, SJAWE was awarded the John Philip Sousa Sudler Silver Scroll Award, commissioned 14 works, and played over 150 concerts, including concerts at Stockton University, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, Temple University, Longwood Gardens, The Association of Concert Band convention in Allentown, Pa, as well as Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, and three New Jersey Music Educators conventions. SJAWE is currently a national finalist for the American Prize in Band/Wind Ensemble Performance. Karen organized the specialty ensembles, which consist of members of the band and continues to move forward with the vision of virtual music enrichment for the performing arts.
She is married to Ronald Poorman and has two children, Melinda Sweeney (husband Michael), Jennifer Hodgson (husband Keith) and two grandchildren, Justin and Jordan Sweeney.