Included among her influential teachers are Eugene Basabe, Sidney Foster, Hans Boepple, Robert Hamilton and Robert Weirich. Dr. Hwalek has taught at Illinois State University and Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, Michigan. She has served as the music director of the MacPherson (Kansas) Symphony Orchestra and the Central Maine String Orchestra (MUSE.) She has also conducted several piano monster concerts at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire as well as in Essex Junction, Vermont, sponsored by the Greater Burlington Music Teachers Association. In collaboration with soprano Nancy Ellen Ogle, Dr. Hwalek has performed and recorded three CDs of contemporary American art songs under the Capstone Records label.

At the University of Maine, Dr. Hwalek teaches class piano, keyboard musicianship, co-directs the chamber music program and is the director of Maine Summer Youth Music. She also conducts the Ceremonial Brass, a 24-member student group which performs at Commencement. Her piano studio in Bangor is made up of 12 pre-college students who come from Bangor, Hampden, Winterport, Blue Hill, Camden and Presque Isle. She has been active in Music Teachers National Association as both a division president and board member and was recognized by that group as its "Teacher of the Year" for 2006. She is presently finishing up her third term as Senior Performance Competitions Coordinator for MTNA.

Dr. Hwalek resides in Bangor with her husband, John who teaches in the Biological and Chemical Engineering department. They have two college-aged children, Heather and Joseph.