Stories from a String Puller: Meet Leigh Lafosse

Join us for a meeting with a special presenter, Leign Lafosse, the President of a  National Capital Puppetry Guild. 

MSG Leigh Lafosse joined The U.S. Army Band "Pershing’s Own" in 2007 as a clarinet player in the Concert Band and has spent her career deeply involved in the development and implementation of the unit’s educational programming. MSG Lafosse attended Texas Tech University for her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees, and she was the recipient of a Chancellor’s Fellowship from Indiana University where she served as an Associate Instructor and received a Doctorate of Music.

MSG Lafosse was the recipient of the USO’s 2018 C. Haskell Small Award for Volunteerism and has been active in multiple education centric non-profits throughout Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. In 2019, MSG Lafosse was selected to serve as the first Subject Matter Expert in the Ceremonial and Outreach Directorate at the Military District of Washington’s Headquarters on Ft. Leslie McNair. She was inducted as an honorary member of the Psychological Warfare Regiment at Fort Bragg in November 2021 after her lyrics were chosen as the new PSYOP Regimental March, and in 2022 was selected for induction into The Sergeant Audie Murphy Club and now leads as volunteer coordinator.

Leigh has been active in the National Capital Puppetry Guild for the past 5 years and is currently serving as the Guild’s president. One of her proudest puppetry moments was producing a two-person puppet production of "Hamilton" that Lin-Manual Miranda sent a personal letter of regret for not being able to attend. She was also responsible for developing a puppet feature for the 2019 U.S. Army Birthday Ball, which included caricatured puppets of the Army Senior Leaders; an event that required her to escort the puppets through Pentagon security for likeness approval by both the Chief of Staff and Secretary of the Army.

www.nationalcapitalpuppetry.org

www.usarmyband.com

www.rainbowridgestudio.com