Dr. Hughes earned both her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI and her Ed.D. from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. To keep current in the field, she spent her career balancing K-12 teaching with Music Education positions in a number of Universities. She maintained her performance skills in several community band and orchestras. Upon moving from a position overseas, Hughes relocated to Columbus OH where she worked in the area of charter schools as a consultant with the Ohio Department of Education. In 2005, she was recruited to establish the Charter Schools office for a statewide authorizer and remained in that position for a number of years. Before her retirement, Dr. Hughes returned to PreK-12 music education for the Kwangju Foreign School in Gwangju, South Korea.