Anita Louise Steele holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Florida State University with a major in music therapy (piano principal). She obtained her Master of Music Education majoring in music therapy from the University of Kansas. She is Board Certified and a member of the American Music Therapy Association. Professor Steele was the creator and Director of Music Therapy as well as a practicing clinician at The Cleveland Music School Settlement from 1966 until 2003. In that position she managed a large department of music therapists and developed service contracts with schools, hospitals, treatment centers and nursing homes. She designed the community-based model for delivery of music therapy services and a community based training model for music therapy interns. In addition, Professor Steele was instrumental in the development of a music therapy degree program in the greater Cleveland area and was its first instructor.

Professor Steele has over 40 publications and numerous national presentations on subjects including music therapy community based service and education, music therapy and pervasive development disorders (including autism), and the development of data based evaluation systems in music therapy. She also presents frequently on subjects including the training and preparation of music therapy college students for effective leadership in the field and the effect of music on physiologic, emotional, and behavioral responses of medically compromised individuals. She has authored and co-authored research articles in the areas of autism and pain management, community based music therapy, and adaptive teaching techniques for individuals with special needs.  Since 2004 Professor Steele has engaged in a line of research concerning the similarities and differences in personality types and demographic markers between music educators and music therapists.  Professor Steele was the first to publish on this topic as a single author and with research partner Dr. Sylvester Young.  A current interest is advancing knowledge of  the biomedical foundations of music as related to the field of music therapy, particularly the use of  ‘music re-instruction’ and functional recovery from traumatic brain injury.

Professor Steele was appointed Associate Professor and Director of the Music Therapy Department at Ohio University in 2003. Ms. Steele has served since 1972 as a music therapy consultant to the Kulas Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio. She served a number of years as Chair of the Music Therapy Scholarship Committee of the Ohio Federation of Music Clubs and the National Federation of Music Clubs.  She has served twice on the Editorial Committee of the Journal of Music Therapy and the Continuing Education Committee of the Certification Board for Music Therapy. She was invited to be a member of theGerontology Board in the College of Health and Human Services  and is one of the co-developers and instructors for a course in rural gerontology.  Professor Steele is affiliated with the Cleveland- based Kulas Foundation as a consultant to review music therapy research proposals for grant support.

Professor Steele was presented the Professional Practice Award of the National. Association of Music Therapy in 1988, the Honorary Lifetime Membership of the Great Lakes Regional Association in 1999, and the 2002 Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Professional Contributions by American Association for Music Therapy. In 2007, The Cleveland Music School Settlement honored Professor Steele with the Music Therapy Trendsetter Award on the 40th anniversary of the Settlement’s Music Therapy Department (the first community-based music therapy service in the country) created by Professor Steele in 1966. The Association of Ohio Music Therapists presented Professor Steele with the 2008 Past-President's Award in recognition of contributions made to the profession of music therapy in the state of Ohio.