Efrain Casillas, coordinator of music programs for Tolleson Elementary School District (TESD) in Phoenix, has had a tremendous impact on his students. A public-school music teacher for 24 years, he currently teaches both general and instrumental music at two district schools. 
 
He holds a bachelor’s degree in music performance and education degree from Western Connecticut State University. While wearing both a classroom teacher and department coordinator hat at TESD, he created the district’s first mariachi, jazz, marching, concert and Latin jazz bands. The Tolleson Elementary School mariachi band has competed at the Tucson International Mariachi Conference and won first and second place in the Choice Awards for three years in a row. The band has also performed at Disneyland and in the Disneyland Parade. His Latin jazz band opened for Pete Escovedo and played alongside him. It has also participated in the Fiesta Bowl Parade for three consecutive years. 
 
Casillas is an active member of the Arizona Music Education Assocation and a candidate for the National Board Certification. He also has been a presenter for the National Symposium on Multicultural Music at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville in 2004. In 2015, Casillas was selected TESD’s Teacher of the Year and nominated for the Life Changer Award in 2017. He was selected to receive an Esperanza Latino Teacher Award from Chicanos Por La Causa in 2018 and a Music Teachers of Excellence from the CMA Foundation. His dedication as a music teacher also had him featured on The Kelly Clarkson Show in 2020.