Dr. Megan Murph is the Director of the Budds Center for American Music Studies and a musicologist at the University of Missouri. Her research explores the life and career of experimental percussionist and sound artist Max Neuhaus, as well as broader questions about how sound and environment are experienced through American music and sound art. As the Director of the Budds Center, Murph organizes programs focused on American and Missouri music, oversees publications and recording projects, maintains the Center's collections and archives, and manages the endowment and grant application process. Her teaching areas include Music of the United States, Missouri Music, Approaches to Ecomusicology, Women in Music, Global Popular Music Traditions, African American Music, Graduate Research Methods in Music, and Mindfulness for Musicians. Murph is a faculty member of the "Hearing Place" faculty research group (2025-2027) via the Center for Humanities at the University of Missouri, where she also co-facilitates the "Mindfulness in Teaching" Community of Practice at the university's Teaching for Learning Center. She has presented research at national and international conferences, including the American Musicological Society (AMS), the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM), the Society for American Music (SAM), and the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM). She currently serves as Associate Conference Manager for the Society for American Music and has held numerous leadership roles, including co-chair of the AMS Ecomusicology Study Group (2020–2022), co-chair of the SAM Experimental Music Interest Group (2017–2019), and virtual conference manager for AMS–Midwest (2022, 2024). Murph earned her Ph.D. in Musicology and Ethnomusicology from the University of Kentucky, her M.M. from Louisiana State University, and her B.A. from Brevard College.