Suzanne Hanser

Suzanne B. Hanser Ed.D. MT-BC is founding chair emerita of Berklee's Music Therapy Department and president of the International Association for Music & Medicine. She is past president of the World Federation of Music Therapy and the National Association for Music Therapy. Her Individual National Research Service Award from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) launched a research agenda to develop and investigate the effects of music therapy on pain, anxiety, physiological changes, indicators of stress, and quality of life. She has conducted randomized clinical trials of the impact of music therapy protocols in oncology, geriatrics, cardiac rehabilitation, and family medicine. She established the music therapy program at the Zakim Center for Integrative Therapies at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Hanser is the author of The New Music Therapist's Handbook, and co-author of Manage Your Stress and Pain, with Dr. Susan Mandel. Her latest book, Integrative Health through Music Therapy: Accompanying the Journey from Illness to Wellness, explores the use of ancient and contemporary music-based interventions in people who are suffering. In 2006 Dr. Hanser was named by the Boston Globe as one of 11 Bostonians changing the world. She is the recipient of a Sage Publications Prize, a Model of Healing Award from the Children’s Music Fund, and the American Music Therapy Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.