Founder and Director

DR. MONIQUE SALINAS founded the Girls Choral Academy in 1997 in order to give the young women of West Michigan an opportunity to sing music of the highest quality in an atmosphere that encourages leadership and self-esteem.

Through the years, her choirs have distinguished themselves in a number of ways. In 2001 and again in 2004, the Chorale won first place at MusicFest Orlando in Walt Disney World. The Girls Choral Academy has participated in the Music in the Parks competition in 2000 through 2007. Her choirs have numerous first place awards and two prestigious "Judge's Choice Awards.  In 1996, her select group of singers was chosen to perform in the Grand Rapids run of the Broadway musical "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor DreamCoat." She founded, produced and directed all thirteen productions of the Summer Theatre.

Dr. Stauffer has completed Level 2 toward a Master Conductor Certification through Doreen Rao's Choral Music Experience Institute. She holds degrees from Aquinas College, Central Michigan University, and a Doctorate in Music Education from Michigan State University and has held positions on the faculty of Aquinas College, Concordia College, Ferris State University, Michigan State University, and Muskegon Community College. Dr. Stauffer was the 2002 recipient of the YWCA TRIBUTE! Award for Arts and Communications. In 2005, she was one of four American conductors chosen to study with renown Toronto Children's Chorus director Jean Ashworth Bartle.