Colonel Vernon Scarbrough (retired) taught band in the Washoe County School District for twenty-two years and recently retired in 2021. In 2006, he and his wife Karen Scarbrough founded the Reno Youth Jazz Orchestra (RYJO), a non-profit organization with a mission to provide the top student musicians in the area opportunities to perform and further their study in jazz. Vern graduated with a Bachelor of Music, with a minor in Music Education from one the country’s most prestigious jazz colleges, the University of North Texas. He received his Master’s Degree in Fine Arts, Music Education from Southern Oregon University and earned a Master’s Degree in Strategic Studies from the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. (Read More about the RYJO.)