The identity transition from music teacher to music teacher educator has been described as a roller coaster ride (Kastner, et al., 2019), in which individuals struggle to maintain their expertise as K-12 music teachers while developing new identities as researchers and college professors (Murray & Male, 2005; Williams, Ritter, & Bullock, 2012). While several studies have described characteristics of this transition and the importance of mentorship, participants have come from similar backgrounds following traditional pathways to the profession (Bond & Koops, 2014; Kastner et al., 2019; Kuebel et al., 2018; Pellegrino et al., 2014). With the goal of better understanding alternative routes to becoming a music teacher educator, the purpose of this narrative study is to explore the identity of Julie, a performing opera singer, elementary music teacher, graduate student in music education, and emerging music teacher educator. The questions guiding this inquiry are (a) What are some milestones in Julie’s development as a music teacher educator? (b) How, if at all, do her various identities intersect in this development? and (c) What benefits and challenges does she see in her nontraditional pathways into the profession? To explore these questions, we utilize Connelly & Clandinin’s (1984) concept of a “personal practical knowledge,” which is defined as a teacher’s “body of convictions, conscious or unconscious, which have arisen from experience, intimate, social, and traditional, and which are expressed in a person's actions” (p. 362) Data includes biweekly journal entries as Julie was a teaching assistant in an undergraduate elementary music methods course for two semesters, three semi-structured interviews, informal conversations, and teaching artifacts, including slideshows and lesson plans. Data collection is ongoing and will conclude in December 2025. Analysis will include reading and rereading the data, analyzing the data for key components, and engaging in collaborative “restorying” (Clandinin & Connelly, 1989) to create a narrative, or representation, of Julie’s identity story. To ensure trustworthiness, we are employing frequent member checks, data triangulation, and peer review. We anticipate findings about how Julie’s nontraditional pathway led to unique skills and perspectives that she draws on in her current practice. Discussion may include commentary on alternative teacher certification, the performer-teacher identity dyad, and the role of contextual factors in emerging music teacher educator identities.