Dr. S. J. Monks is currently (2017–2021) President of the European Voice Teachers Association (EVTA), she was Chair of the Association of Teachers of Singing UK (AOTOS) from 2004–2006. She was awarded her PhD for research in the Perceptions of the Singing Voice in 2007 from University of Sheffield UK. She currently lectures and teaches Voice at the University of Chichester.
Her research has been presented at International Congress of Voice Teachers (ICVT) in London, Vancouver, Helsinki, Paris, Vienna, Riga, Princeton, Stockholm and at PEVOC in London, Prague, Florence, Ghent and Copenhagen. Her particular interest is in the Psychology of Singing, and developed from her studies into identity and adolescent voice to the way singers perceive their timbre. Her research has been published in several journals including British Journal of Music Education (2004), Singing, the Journal of Singing and Contemporary Music Review (2018). She helped to set up the EVTA Voice Clinic at the Europa Cantat Festival with over 4,500 singers in Tallinn in 2018.