Vicki MacFarlane

As director of youth programs, Vicki is responsible for the operations of the Colts Youth Organization, which includes the World Class Colts Drum & Bugle Corps, the Open Class Colt Cadets, and the Colts Summer Band. At the 2018 Drum Corps International World Championships, Vicki was awarded the George Bonfiglio Chairperson's Award. She was also honored with a Women of Achievement Award for service and support of nonprofit work in May 2018.

Vicki began working for the Colts in May 2001, and was director of the Colt Cadets from 2002-2012. Besides making sure everyone was in the right place at the right time, she spent valuable time working with the Cadets instructional team and strengthening the visual program. In her time as director, she saw the membership grow from a perfectly-proportioned ensemble of 18 (six each of brass, percussion and color guard) to become a DCI Open Class Finalist for the first time in 2010, and repeating that distinction again in 2011 and 2012. The Colt Cadets were named Most Improved Corps in DCI's Division II in 2006.

Vicki served six terms as chair of Drum Corps International's Open Class Advisory Committee where she acted as liaison between the Open Class directors and DCI's Board of Directors. She resigned that position in January 2013, when she became director of the Colts.

Vicki played baritone for the Colts in 1994 and 1995. She also marched baritone in the 2009 Presidential Inaugural Parade in Washington, D.C. Her favorite bit of musicianship was on the clarinet as a member of the Wartburg College Concert Band on their 40-day tour of Europe where she soloed during Rhapsody In Blue

She moved to Dubuque in May 2001 from the English Valleys Community School District, where she served as the 5th-12th grade instrumental music director (as well as "coach" for a variety of sports) from 1998-2001. She earned her degree in music education from Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. Vicki serves as an active educator, clinician, and adjudicator in Iowa and the Midwest. She has taught clarinet privately, and has performed with the Waterloo/Cedar Falls and Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestras.

Vicki is currently pursuing her masters degree in the Arizona State University Nonprofit Leadership Management program.