Presenters and Panelists for the Intersection of Music and Mental Health: Veterans and Military

Dr. Joy Allen, Ph.D., MT-BC

Dr. Joy Allen (she/hers) is an accomplished clinician, researcher, and educator with extensive experience in psychological health, pain management, and trauma-informed education and supervision. She has presented on her work at several peer-reviewed conferences, including regional, national, and international music therapy and music- and health-related conferences. She is the editor of Guidelines for Music Therapy: Adult Medical Care, and author of chapters on adult oncology, pain management, and medical music therapy. Allen regular consults with community and higher education leaders on music therapy programs and curriculum development. She continues to serve in numerous capacities for the American Music Therapy Association, including as the executive board chair for the New England region, as well as serving on the Research Committee, Assembly of Delegates, and the Judicial Review Board. Lastly, she has served as a reviewer for the following journals: Nordic Journal of Music Therapy; Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy; and Music and Medicine: An Interdisciplinary Journal.   

Allen routinely collaborates with educational, health care, and community leaders on the design and implementation of music and health-centered programs that incorporate music experiences to make an impact on the overall quality of life. This includes identifying health-related outcomes being addressed within these programs, as well as identifying the resources to ensure sustainability outside of structured individual and group experiences, whether this would be done through the process of trained community musicians, music therapists, and advocates, or through technological advances. In addition to chair responsibilities, Allen is the founding and acting director of the Music and Health Institute. 

Vic Artiga, MS, Major (Retired), U.S. Army, Berklee Alum

Vic Artiga is a retired Army officer, municipal police officer, professional musician and teacher, and security consultant. While in the army he was an intelligence and counterintelligence officer. He served in Iraq as a human intelligence company commander and culminated his career as the deputy director of intelligence for the California National Guard. As a police officer he served as a patrol officer, training officer, community liaison, terrorism liaison officer, and hostage negotiator. He studied guitar at the Musicians Institute and, thanks to the GI Bill®, studied guitar and bass at Berklee Online. He has a master's degree in terrorism and counterterrorism studies (summa cum laude) from Henley-Putnam University. He performs all over the U.S. with VIP Music Duo and the all military veteran Weekend Tsunami Band. He teaches guitar, bass, and ukulele in the San Francisco Bay Area and is a senior law enforcement consultant with Aanko Technologies, a safety and security company. His military awards include the Combat Action Badge, the Parachutist Badge, and the Bronze Star Medal. 

In his free time he enjoys scuba diving and traveling the world.

Mack Bailey, MT-BC

Mack Bailey is an award-winning singer-songwriter and a board-certified music therapist. After a career as a professional touring musician with the Limeliters, A Musical Tribute to John Denver, and the Hard Travelers, Bailey earned his master’s degree in music therapy with a focus on neurologic music therapy. He completed his internship at Children’s Colorado Hospital in Aurora working in the psychiatric unit. Bailey's combined passion for communication and expression, along with his desire to learn more of how the brain works with music, drives his dedication to researching new techniques in addressing music and the PTSD brain with military veterans and at-risk populations. He achieves this through his nonprofit organization, Music Therapy of the Rockies. Bailey also has a private practice, where he works with the Aspen School District with students ranging from preschool to graduating seniors in high school.

Dr. David Bogen

As provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, David Bogen serves as Berklee’s chief academic officer. Bogen oversees all of the college’s academic programs and facilities, has lead responsibility for academic governance and the administration of the faculty contract, and collaborates with the president and academic leadership to forge key partnerships and innovative programs across Berklee’s many local and global communities. 

Throughout his career, Bogen has pursued a vision of higher education institutions as catalysts for economic and cultural development within the cities and the regions that they serve. Prior to Berklee, he served as vice president for academic affairs and provost at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, where he worked closely with MICA’s president to position the college as an active community partner in the city, and to build reciprocal and authentic partnerships aimed at long-term impact and sustainability. Before joining MICA, Bogen was vice president academic and provost at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, Canada. At Emily Carr, he was the academic lead on the development of the institution’s new campus at Great Northern Way, an emerging culture and innovation district in the heart of Vancouver. Bogen also served as the associate provost for academic affairs at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) from 2007–2011, and as the executive director of the Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies at Emerson College from 1997–2007.

Bogen holds a Master of Arts and Ph.D. in sociology from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is the author of Order Without Rules: Critical Theory and the Logic of Conversation and the co-author of The Spectacle of History: Speech, Text, and Memory at the Iran-Contra Hearings. He is an avid cyclist, bike builder, cross-country skier, wood worker, and human-centered design practitioner.

John Bradley, MD, DFAPA, Colonel (Retired), U.S. Army

Dr. John Bradley serves as the director for mental health at the VA Boston Healthcare System. He is appointed as associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Bradley joined the VA in 2011 after retiring from active duty in the United States Army, where he served as chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and clinical professor of psychiatry and vice chair at Uniformed Services University.

A native of Massachusetts, Dr. Bradley earned his B.S. in zoology at the University of Rhode Island, and his M.D. from the Uniformed Services University. He completed his residency in psychiatry at Letterman Army Medical Center in San Francisco, where he served as chief resident. His military career included operational assignments for peacekeeping, stability and support operations, and combat operations in Operation Iraqi Freedom with the 528th Medical Detachment. He has also served in academic appointments with UC San Francisco, the Medical College of Georgia, Uniformed Services University, and Boston University School of Medicine. He is board certified in psychiatry.

Dr. Bradley has been honored to serve on a number of national committees and advisory councils. He was cochair of the 2013 VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guideline for the Management of Suicidal Behavior. He served as the clinical subcommittee chair and Army representative for the DoD Task Force for the Prevention of Suicide by Members of the Armed Forces. He served as an advisor to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences, Board on the Health of Select Populations. Dr. Bradley has provided expert testimony to the U.S. Congress and served on numerous scientific advisory committees. He has published extensively on the treatment of combat trauma and PTSD, and the management of suicide risk.

Brittany Costa, MA MT-BC, Soldier, 101st Army Band

Darla Hanley, Ph.D.

Dr. Darla Hanley holds a Ph.D. and M.M. in music education research from Temple University and a B.M. in music education and vocal performance from the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. She is an experienced arts leader who specializes in educational administration, vocal jazz, popular music education, music for children, and creative movement.

Hanley has previously worked as a pre-K-12 music educator, and, as an author, clinician, and consultant, she has extensive experience working with teachers and students all over the world. She is an active member of numerous professional organizations and associations. Hanley enjoys leading Berklee’s Professional Education Division and facilitating students’ education.

Ron Hirschberg, M.D.

Dr. Ron Hirschberg is director of health and wellness at Home Base, assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) at Harvard Medical School, and director of the PM&R Consultation Service at Massachusetts General Hospital. Hirschberg founded the Division of Arts and Neuroscience at American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine in 2016. He is a lifelong musician and has written and produced three albums, including the Acadia National Park documentary, Second Century Stewardship. Hirschberg is cofounder of the 2020 Boston Music Award–winning podcast, Above the Basement. In 2016, he began working at Home Base as a consultant to work with post-9/11 veterans with traumatic brain injury. His research work at Home Base includes collaborative songwriting intervention along with Dr. Louisa Sylvia and the Nashville-based organization SongwritingWith:Soldiers.

Jon Kaufman

Jon Kaufman is a filmmaker, media educator, photographer, and musician. A lifelong Philadelphian, he understands the power and influence of media, and uses film to challenge the established, often harmful narratives perpetuated by mainstream media. He has led productions in Nigeria, Brazil, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, the Netherlands, and across the U.S.

In 2014 he cofounded Media in Neighborhoods Group (MING) along with El Sawyer, and has worked extensively with foundations, nonprofits, government agencies, and brands across the country. In 2018 the pair cofounded Shooters: Narrative Shift, a 501(c)3 organization that trains and equips formerly incarcerated men and women for careers in digital media. Their feature documentary, Pull of Gravity, which focuses on re-entry after prison, has screened hundreds of times nationally, and is used as a training and awareness tool within the criminal justice reform community. Music Vets is their newest documentary feature.

Nomi C. Levy-Carrick, M.D., M.Phil.

Nomi C. Levy-Carrick is a medical psychiatrist who currently serves as vice chair for clinical programs in the Department of Psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, as well as cochair of the BWH Trauma-Informed Care Collaborative and assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Levy-Carrick joined BWH in 2016, serving for over two years as a psychiatrist embedded in the medical ICU, as well as liaison to the burn and trauma unit. She continues to serve as psychiatric consultant to the Critical Illness Recovery Program and the Functional Outcomes and Recovery After Trauma Emergencies (FORTE) project at the Center of Surgery and Public Health. She served as associate vice chair for ambulatory services, tapping her experience in outpatient psychiatric services and leadership first honed as mental health director of the World Trade Center-Environmental Health Center in NYC (2011–2015). Through the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to her clinical responsibilities, she focused on innovative work developing trauma-informed approaches to program development that advance mental health access and equity amidst the mental health pandemic still under way. Her abiding interest in is integrating mental and physical health approaches in ways that are mutually reinforcing and developing programs that support health equity in low-resource contexts through multidisciplinary, team-based approaches.

Kim Perlak, D.M.A.

With performances that are deeply personal and express a breadth of tradition, guitarist Kim Perlak has been recognized as an inspired voice in American classical music. Perlak's versatile and inclusive approach to the instrument embraces new composition, education, and public service. Her performances of new classical works and collaborations with jazz and traditional players have been featured on National Public Radio, at the Yale Guitar Extravaganza, and at Boston GuitarFest. Her work combining performance, American music history, and outreach has been funded through grants from the Center for African American Southern Music and Yale Alumni Ventures.

Perlak's collaborative guitar work with American veterans was honored by the PBS program From the Top as part of its Arts Leadership series, and was recognized by the U.S. House of Representatives.

Perlak is the chair of the Guitar Department at Berklee College of Music. She holds degrees from the University of Texas at Austin (D.M.A. ’08), Yale University School of Music (M.M. ’01), and Stetson University (B.M. ’98).

Perlak plays guitars by Thomas Humphrey and Kirk Sand and endorses D’Addario Strings.

Terry Radigan

Grammy-nominated songwriter Terry Radigan mixes her gritty Brooklyn girl sensibility with a deep respect for classic American roots, country, and soul. Her solo releases have been often played andwell received. She has had her songs—which can be heard on big and small screens—covered by a wide variety of artists.

El Sawyer

El Sawyer is a filmmaker and social justice advocate whose personal experience with poverty and incarceration informs his international consulting and public speaking practice on the challenges of reentry, recidivism, and neglected communities. In 2014, along with Jon Kaufman, he cofounded Media in Neighborhoods Group (MING), a film company that specializes in the multimedia documentation of criminal justice issues and marginalized communities. The pair also codirected the feature documentary Pull of Gravity, produced in collaboration with the Department of Justice, and established the SHOOTERS program as a vehicle to engage returning citizens in the production of short films that reflect their personal journeys through the justice system and the communities to which they are returning.

Lt. Col. (retired) Lynn Smith-Henry

A native of Texas, Lynn Smith-Henry spent 28 years serving in the Army, with half of those years spent in special ops and nine years of command time. He is also an ordained member of the Lutheran Church and serves veteran ministries in Austin, Texas. He formed the Veterans Guitar Project with Kim Perlak, chair of guitar at Berklee, in 2013 and continues to lead groups today. The Veteran's Guitar Project and Women's Veterans Guitar Project each meet weekly at Armstrong Community Music School for fellowship and music-making. Free group guitar lessons are coled by ACMS teaching artists and a chaplain. Performances combine storytelling and song to bring healing to the musicians and audience.

Kristin Starling

Kristin Starling has a career spanning more than 25 years across the worlds of entertainment, arts and culture, and nonprofit grantmaking and advancement. In the fall of 2017, Starling’s experience combining music and service brought her to SongwritingWith:Soldiers (SW:S), a nonprofit organization that transforms lives by using collaborative songwriting to expand creativity, connections, and strengths.

Grounded in the belief that veterans and their families carry experiences they need to share and that the world needs to hear, SW:S uses songwriting and creative practices to build community and positively impact the lives of veterans and their families. As executive director, she has steered the organization's growth over the past five years, offering veterans and their families creative tools to find hope in the face of challenges bridging military and civilian lives and communities.

K. Maya Story, Ph.D., M.T.-B.C.

Dr. K. Maya Story is a music therapist and a core investigator at the VA Center for Health Information and Communication. Her research has explored music and imagery interventions for Veteran Women with PTSD and veterans with chronic pain, the relationship between arts participation and public health, and the use of technology in music therapy training and creative arts therapy delivery. In collaboration with Dr. Matt Bair, Story is currently conducting the FAMILIA trial to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of music imagery and music listening for veterans with chronic musculoskeletal pain.

Rebecca Vaudreuil, M.S.W., Ed.M., M.T.-B.C.

Rebecca Vaudreuil is a board-certified music therapist employed by the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine in support of Creative Forces: NEA Military Healing Arts Network. Vaudreuil earned a bachelor’s degree in music therapy at Berklee College of Music, a master’s degree in education with a neuroscience concentration at Harvard University, and a master’s degree in social work at Fordham University. She holds specialty certifications in neurologic music therapy, neonatal music therapy, and music therapy assisted childbirth.

In 2010, Vaudreuil founded a sustainable model of music therapy programming while working for Resounding Joy, Inc., a nonprofit organization in San Diego. To date, this model has been replicated on multiple military installations and veteran clinics in Southern California, Indiana, and Massachusetts. Since 2014, Vaudreuil has worked in support of Creative Forces, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). She currently serves as the Creative Forces lead music therapist and clinician supervisor. In this role, Vaudreuil provides clinical and research mentorship for the Creative Forces music therapy team, supports increased access to creative arts therapies research across military and veteran healthcare systems, and promotes arts-based partnerships in clinical and community settings.

In 2021, Vaudreuil edited a book, Music Therapy with Military and Veteran Populations—a comprehensive compilation of perspectives from subject matter experts across this area of work. Vaudreuil is an advocate for music therapy and the creative arts therapies-at-large especially regarding how these services heal our nation’s heroes.

Gabriel Wiener

Gabriel Wiener is a multimedia professional and social justice advocate specializing in post-production, producing, and writing. Based in the Philadelphia area, he's worked on all sides of the production environment and brings hands-on camera and design experience into his work. Some of his credits include nationally aired commercials, multimedia training programs, and editing and cowriting the feature-length documentary, The Great Flip-Off. Weiner joined the MING Media team in early 2018 and manages all stages of production while working with nonprofits, major foundations, and agencies to develop engaging and powerful story-driven content to help clients reach their goals. Most recently, he has been a producer, writer, and editor of the documentary film, Music Vets.