Nisha Sajnani (she/her) is a Professor and Director of the NYU Steinhardt Graduate Program in Drama Therapy, Chair of the NYU Creative Arts Therapies Consortium, and Founder of Arts & Health @ NYU. She also holds faculty roles at NYU Abu Dhabi, where she created the interdisciplinary course Can Art Save Lives?, linking arts’ health benefits with practice and policy; the NYU Stern School of Business, teaching improvisation and leadership; and the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma, lecturing on arts’ role in supporting displaced individuals’ wellbeing. She is a founding co-director of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, established with the WHO to measurably improve lives through the arts. 

Alexandru I. Berceanu, PhD in Theatre and MA in Neurobiology, is conducting interdisciplinary research at the intersection of theatre and neuroscience. His research is centered around aggressive and prosocial behaviors developing knowledge on how using drama and play can build emotion regulation and psychological well-being through theatrical representation. He was facilitator and developer of applied theatre projects in different contexts such as intergenerational trauma, drug-addiction or bullying. His results are published in international journals such as eNeuro, Frontiers in Psychology and NeuroImage, Psychophysiology. Alexandru is a director and an associate professor at the Animation and Interaction Department of UNATC IL Caragiale, Bucharest, Romania where he also teaches at the MA Community and Therapy Theatre for. He initiated the Research Centre CINETic at UNATC and the MA programs for Interactive Technologies and Game Design at the same university.  His artistic work includes animation film, virtual reality, installations, graphic novel, performative installations along theatre and was presented nationally and internationally. 

Steven Brown is the director of the NeuroArts Lab and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He got his Ph.D. in the Department of Genetics and Development at Columbia University in New York, and did postdoctoral research at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, and Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. His research deals with the neural basis of the arts, including music, dance, acting, storytelling, cinema, drawing, aesthetics, and creativity. He is author of “The Unification of the Arts” (Oxford University Press) and co-editor of “The Origins of Music” (MIT Press) and “Music and Manipulation” (Berghahn Books).

Elisabeth Bahr is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at Jameel Arts & Health Lab bridging healthcare, research, and the arts. Her research explores intersections between creativity, the arts and well-being. Her background as an occupational therapist specializing in neurological conditions informs her approach to supporting neurodiverse populations. As a transdisciplinary artist, she integrates her clinical expertise with creative practices, developing arts-based health initiatives that offer support to patients and communities alike. She is concurrently pursuing a Master of Creative Writing and Literature degree at Harvard Extension School.

Sanjna Banerjee is a neuroscience researcher and theater worker.  She completed her doctoral studies from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, where she studied perceptual attention and decision making in humans using transcranial magnetic stimulation. She has been engaged with theatre in Bangalore as writer, director, and performer for over 8 years. Sanjna is passionate about helping create new, interdisciplinary scaffolds of well being through bringing together the practice of art with scientific inquiry into the brain, mind, & social connections, and currently conducts research with the Foundation for Arts and Health India (FAHI).