Susan Pettus Cottrell has a B.A. in Early Childhood Education and extensive undergraduate and graduate work in music education. She has worked in day cares and preschools and taught first grade for Fairfax County Public Schools from 1986-1998. Since 1998, when her fourth child was born, she has been director of Cottrell Piano Studio in Centreville, Virginia. Mrs. Cottrell is a fully licensed and certified Musikgarten teacher and is also state-certified as an Early Childhood teacher. Mrs. Cottrell was given the Musikgarten Achievement Award in April 2008. She is a member of Music Teachers National Association, the National Federation of Music Clubs and the Early Childhood Music and Movement Association. Susan is Worship Leader and Pianist for Fairfax Circle Baptist Church and lives in Centreville with her husband, Mark, and her four children.