Joy Dumas is not southern by birth. She was raised in the Appalachian mountains of West Virginia and Maryland. In 1993, she graduated as Valedictorian with her class from Fort Hill High School in Cumberland, MD. She followed her father's work to Georgia, and attended the University of Georgia as a biology major with the intention of becoming a marine biologist. It only took a few months (and way too many chemistry classes) for her to decide to follow her other lifelong passion for music instead.. While at UGA, she sang as a member of Women's Glee Club, the Hodgson Singers, and African American Choral Ensemble. She graduated magna cum laude with honors in 1998, receiving her bachelor's degree in music education. Mrs. Dumas then attended East Carolina University and earned her master's degree in music education in 2000, the same year she started her teaching career at Crawford County High School and married her husband, Chuck.

During her 20 year teaching career, Mrs. Dumas has taught every grade level from Kindergarten to college age students, but developing high school singers is her passion. She has trained thousands of students in music and singing. Her choirs have performed at Disney World, Arlington National Cemetery, the Governor's mansion, and Braves games. Her choirs have also consistently earned superior ratings at GMEA events like Large Group Performance Evaluations and she has consistently had students perform with GMEA's All-State chorus.

Mrs. Dumas is still a choral singer as well. She is active in the choir at First Baptist Church of Christ in Macon. The profile pic above is from a performance that ensemble gave at Carnegie Hall in New York City three years ago. She is mom to 2 daughters and caretaker for her mother. Life is very busy, but it is good. 

This is Mrs. Dumas' third year at PHS, but Perry is where she has raised her family. It is where her heart is. She is looking forward to building a strong tradition of excellence in choral music that will last for years to come, and she would love to have as many students as possible join her on that journey.