Dr. Nisha Sajnani, NYU Steinhardt/ NYU Stern/ NYU Abu Dhabi (Founding Director)
Nisha Sajnani, PhD is an Associate Professor and Director of the Graduate Program in Drama Therapy at NYU Steinhardt and a co-founding co-director of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, established in collaboration with the World Health Organization to measurably improve lives through the arts. Dr. Sajnani leads research on the mechanisms and outcomes of drama therapy and related arts-based interventions. An award winning author, artist, educator, and advocate, her body of work explores the unique ways in which aesthetic experience can inspire equity, care, and collective human flourishing across the lifespan.
Dr. Andrew Feigin, NYU Langone (Co-Director)
Andrew Feigin is a Professor of Neurology at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, where he directs the Marlene and Paolo Fresco Institute for Parkinson’s and Movement Disorders. He received his medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and has been involved in research and clinical care for patients with Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, and related movement disorders for more than 25 years. Dr. Feigin’s research focuses on clinical trial design and conduct, and he has also worked extensively on the use of neuroimaging as an outcome measure in clinical trials for movement disorders. He has been an investigator on more than 30 clinical trials of potential treatments for Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease, including therapeutic innovations in the arts therapies.
Dr. Mary Bitel, Tisch School of the Arts (Co-Director)
Mary Bitel is the former Chair of Tisch Open Arts and the founder of the Collaborative Arts BFA where she teaches the integration of the arts with the theories, skills and dynamics of group work. Mary also teaches acting at Tisch with a focus on Shakespeare’s texts as well as scene study. She is a senior faculty member in Tisch’s International Theatre Workshop, Amsterdam, having taught script analysis in that program since 1998. Dr. Bitel holds a BFA in theatre from Wayne State University, an M.S.W. with a concentration in group work from the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, and a PhD in Social Welfare from the Graduate Center, City University of New York.
Prof. David Purdy, NYU Stern School of Business (Co-Director)
David Purdy joined NYU Stern School of Business as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Management Communication in September 2012. He teaches both MBA and undergraduate courses through Stern's Management Communication Department, as well as facilitating seminars through Stern's Executive Education program. Professor Purdy draws on more than 25 years of experience and education in business and the arts to help students, executives and entrepreneurs think and communicate more effectively both in person and online. His research in Aesthetic Intelligence draws on the arts and humanities – and insights from neuroscience – to help others connect, communicate, and create effectively.
Prof. Kristin Horton, NYU Gallatin (Co-Director)
Kristin Horton is an Associate Professor of Practice at NYU Gallatin. She is a theater director who works on new plays, re-imagined classics, and community-engaged practices. Recent work includes the world premiere of AFTER/LIFE: DETROIT '67, a community-engaged drama about the '67 Detroit rebellion focusing on the experience of women and girls with playwright Lisa Biggs and the premiere of Chiori Miyagawa’s IN THE LINE. Horton’s new play collaborations have appeared at the Contemporary American Theater Festival, Working Theater, HERE, NYC Summerstage, Lark Play Development Center, William Inge Playwrights’ Festival, New Dramatists, The Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, Workhaus Collective, id Theater, Commonweal Theatre, NYU’s Skirball Center, Riverside Theatre, Iowa New Play Festival, Lied Center for the Performing Arts, Edinburgh Festival Fringe and National Black Theatre Festival.