Debra Spurgeon is associate professor of music at the University of Mississippi where she conducts the Women's Glee and teaches choral methods and conducting. She has conducted high school and collegiate honor choirs in Oklahoma, Tennesse, Georgia, and Texas. In 2011 she conducted the Louisiana Music Educators All State Women's Choir. Prior to moving to Ole Miss she taught at Southwestern Oklahoma State University for eighteen years and in 1999 was named Oklahoma Choral Directors Association's "Director of Distinction." Her choirs have performed on state and division conventions; recently the Women's Glee performed on the southern division ACDA conference in Louisville, Kentucky.

She has been actively involved in leadership roles in the American Choral Directors Association. From 2007-2010 she served as the National Chair for women's choirs repertoire and standards with the American Choral Directors Association. She was president of the Oklahoma Choral Directors Association and president-elect of the Southwestern Division of ACDA before moving to Ole Miss in 2001. Dr. Spurgeon's numerous articles have appeared in the Choral Journal, Teaching Music, The Journal of Singing, and The Journal of Music Teacher Education. She is the editor, compiler, and co-author of the 2012 GIA publication Conducting Women's Choirs: Strategies for Success, which features the writing of many conductors and composers.

Dr. Spurgeon holds the doctor of musical arts degree in vocal performance from the University of Oklahoma where she was a recipient of the Benton Schmidt Voice Award; the master of music education from the University of Arkansas; and the bachelor of music education from Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri.

An active soprano soloist, her choral/orchestral solo work includes the Bach Mass in B Minor, Mozart Requiem, Haydn Heiligmesse, Faure Requiem, Honneger King David, Rutter Requiem, Monteverdi Vespers, Handel's Messiah. She is a frequent soloist with the Ole Miss choral groups and and the Mockingbird Early Music Ensemble.