Why do so many young women drop out of the jazz band pipeline? Bell received a Diamond Research Scholars Award, typically granted to undergrads majoring in hard sciences, to investigate that question. For her resulting paper, “Gender and Jazz: The Experience of Women in Jazz,” Bell interviewed 16 high school girls and found their love for jazz was commonly contradicted by the cultural sexism in the social dimension of jazz band.

Making a difference. With fellow trumpeter Yuval Tessman-Bar-On, Bell co-founded The Future in Music Program, an initiative through which she and Tessman-Bar-On arranged for mentor opportunities with female and nonbinary brass players in high school and helped them navigate the transition to college.

Bell met her mentor, Boyer Chair of Instrumental Studies Terell L. Stafford, by chance when he taught at a band workshop outside Seattle. “I never heard someone play like that,” Bell says. His skill —and approachability—helped draw her to Temple. There, she found more mentors among the faculty and also hit it off with students, forming bands to perform at the Kimmel Center and at various local jazz clubs.

Playing it by ear. Bell also learned from Temple faculty how to put together a career in jazz by combining musical gigs with paid positions. After earning a master in global jazz from the Berklee College of Music, Bell has relocated to Brooklyn to take a position as program manager for the New York Youth Symphony while performing professionally at venues across the city.