Tara Rynders (she/hers)
A clinical nurse educator, dancer, and the founder of The Clinic: a nurse-led, arts and play-based company that provides workshops, performances, and research around healthcare provider burnout and secondary traumatic stress. She is also an Advanced Certified Grief Recovery Specialist. Tara’s innovative melding of art with nursing and science was recognized through the highest level of nursing recognition in Colorado when she was given the Nightingale Luminary Award in 2019 after creating with local artists and performing in First, Do No Harm, an immersive theater performance that was open to the general public and performed in Rose Medical Center Denver, CO. Upcoming Tara is partnering with over 40 hospitals nation-wide to offer and research the impact of her latest creation “Resiliency Moments”, a virtual one-on-one artistic experience with artists, writers, musicians, dancers and healthcare providers. Lastly Rynders is grateful to have just received The Hamilton International Arts in Health Award: first place in Arts in Resiliency, presented by the National Organization of Arts in Health (NOAH). For more information please visit: www.theclinicperformance.com
Dr. Amy B. Zelenski (she/hers)
Assistant Professor and Director of the TEACH Program, Department of Medicine University of Wisconsin. Dr. Zelenski specializes in graduate medical education, including curriculum design and education research. With a background in theater, Dr. Zelenski has designed courses that use improv techniques to help healthcare providers and scientists hone their expertise in storytelling, spontaneity, and using observational skills to adjust to patients and team members. Dr. Zelenski is a member of the Association for Program Directors in Internal Medicine, the American Educational Research Association, and the American Academic Internal Medicine. She serves as the chair of the Internal Medicine Residency Curriculum Committee, and is an affiliate of the UW-Madison Arts Institute.
Jill Sonke (she/hers)
Director of the Center for the Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida (UF) and Assistant Director of UF Health Shands Arts in Medicine. She serves on the faculty of the UF Center for Arts in Medicine, and is an affiliated faculty member in the School of Theatre & Dance, the Center for African Studies, and the Center for Movement Disorders and Neurorestoration. Jill is also an Entrepreneurship Faculty Fellow in the UF Warrington College of Business, a College of Fine Arts Teaching Fellow, and a Distinguished Fellow of the Global Alliance for Arts & Health.Her current research focuses on dance and Parkinson's disease, the impact of arts programming on medical-surgical care and nursing retention, and the effect of music on cost and quality of care in emergency medicine. Jill is the recipient of a New Forms Florida Fellowship Award, a State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship Award, an Excellence in Teaching Award from the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development, a UF Internationalizing the Curriculum Award, a UF Most Outstanding Service Learning Faculty Award, and over ninety grants for her programs and research at the University of Florida.
Julia Langley (she/hers)
Faculty Director, Arts and Humanities Program Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. Since she started serving as the director of the Arts and Humanities Program at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in 2014, Julia Langley has created therapeutic experiences for patients, caregivers and hospital staff using professional artists, musicians and dancers. In Langley’s course at the National Gallery, medical students critically analyze original works of art to build skills that support visual literacy, communication and empathy. Through interactive exercises in the galleries and group reflection, the students think through how they can apply what they’ve learned to their work, enhancing relationships with patients, other members of medical teams, caregivers and colleagues.
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Susan Magsamen (she/hers)
Founder and Executive Director of the International Arts + Mind Lab, a pioneering neuroaesthetics initiative from the Brain Science Institute at John Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her body of work lies at the intersection of brain sciences and the arts - and how our unique response to aesthetic experiences can amplify human potential. Magsamen is the author of the Impact Thinking model, an evidence-based research approach to accelerate how we use the arts to solve problems in health, well-being, and learning. In addition to her role at IAM Lab, she also serves as co-director of the NeuroArts Blueprint initiative in partnership with the Aspen Institute.
Dr. Jandel Allen-Davis (she/hers)
Jandel Allen-Davis, MD, is the President and CEO of Craig Hospital in Denver, Colorado, a world-renowned rehabilitation hospital that exclusively specializes in the neuro-rehabilitation and research of patients with spinal cord and traumatic brain injuries. Dr. Allen-Davis is board certified in obstetrics and gynecology and was in active practice for 25 years. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Medical School, Dr. Allen-Davis completed her residency at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. Following her training, she spent four years in the Indian Health Service in Tuba City, Arizona prior to moving to Colorado. Dr. Allen-Davis is an active participant in the community and currently serves on the boards of Dartmouth Geisel Medical School, Denver Botanic Gardens, the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, National Jewish Health, Colorado Thrives, the Colorado Hospital Association; and serves as a Commissioner on the Colorado State Economic Development Commission.
Dr. Sarada Krishnan (she/hers)
Director of Horticulture and Center for Global Initiatives at Denver Botanic Gardens, where she is responsible for directing the design and maintenance of the horticulture displays and collections, and for developing and leading global projects. She is a faculty affiliate with Colorado State University’s Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture and a member of the Board of Directors of Plant Select®, and the Ulaanbaatar Denver Sister Cities Committee Executive Board.
Dr. Jess Bone (she/hers)
A Research Fellow in Epidemiology/Statistics in the Research Department of Behavioural Science and Health at University College London (UCL). She is currently working in the EpiArts Lab, a collaboration between UCL and the University of Florida Center for Arts funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and the Pabst Steinmetz Foundation. This work aims to understand the population-level public health benefits of the arts by exploring associations between arts and cultural engagement and longitudinal health outcomes in US cohort studies. Jess has a background in mental health research and her PhD investigated explanations for the gender difference in depression during adolescence. Among other projects, she has also worked on a feasibility trial developing and testing a community-based social prescribing intervention. This intervention focussed on increasing engagement in the arts and other social groups in order to reduce loneliness in individuals with complex depression and anxiety. Jess can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jessicakbone.