Gretchen Shae

Gretchen Shae teaches writing in Berklee's Liberal Arts and Sciences Department. In addition to teaching, she also enjoys performing, singing, and writing original music with her band Gretchen Shae & The Middle Eight. Shae also fronts Gretchen and the Banshees, a Siouxsie and the Banshees tribute band. In 2015, she performed with U2 at TD Bank Garden—a career highlight. This connection provided another opportunity: to help launch U2's SiriusXM channel as one of the first guest DJs, in 2020.

Another passion of Shae's is working as a board member with New Beginnings Reentry Services, a nonprofit organization that partners with community agencies to empower and provide supportive services to formerly incarcerated women and help them successfully rejoin their communities. New Beginnings received a grant from John Legend's Unlocked Futures Fund in 2023. She teaches a course at Berklee, LENS: Mass Incarceration, that combines her passion to end mass incarceration, educate others, and inspire artists to create thoughtful works in response to this topic, often featured at Shae's annual "Music of Mass Incarceration" concert at the Berklee Performance Center. She received a Berklee Urban Service Award for her work in 2019 and the Dean's Award for Pedagogical Collaboration and Resource Development in 2024.