We are excited to introduce Abigail Perelman and Josephine Millard, two of the AHP's newest team members. Below, each of them shares a bit about their backgrounds and their new roles.
Josephine Millard:
Could you tell us a bit about your background and how you became interested in the field of arts and humanities in health and medicine?
I was always interested in science. The concept of furthering human knowledge is very exciting to me. I did my undergraduate in biology at the University of Washington. There, I worked at
Seattle Children's Research Institute for 2 years. Then I got my master’s in bioinformatics, which is basically coding for biology. I graduated from Georgetown University’s program this May.
My family has always encouraged artistic expression. This led me to explore the arts via ballet and piano for 10 years. Recently, I haven’t focused on the arts explicitly, but they have implicitly always been in my life through my passion for music, exploring the beauty in nature, and creative scientific communication.
I’m very interested in mental health and the therapeutic aspect of healing, including non-pharmaceutical alternatives. That’s a large reason that I'm doing this work. It's exciting to be involved in research exploring this aspect of the human experience.
Could you tell us more about your role with AHP?
I’m a researcher with Dr. Jagmeet Kanwal's
Neurophysiology and Behavior Lab here at Georgetown University. Through this study, we are hoping to understand more about how listening to music affects electrical activity in ICU patients’ brains while they are recovering. I will be involved in the data collection and analysis parts of this study.
Is there an inspiring quote or idea that you would like to share with others?
My main mantra is “work hard, be brave.” It comes from a creator and movie maker named Casey Neistat. When I first heard it, I really liked the simplicity of it. Those two things are essential for achieving your goals and your dreams. I think having dreams in itself is a brave act.
Abigail Perelman:
Could you tell us a bit about your background and how you became interested in the field of arts and humanities in health and medicine?
I graduated from Brown University last spring. But I'm from the DC area, so working with AHP has been a really nice opportunity to be back. At Brown, I studied cognitive neuroscience. I’m very interested in the aging brain.
I’m also a dancer. I joke that I've been dancing since those “Mommy and Me” classes when I could barely walk. I was co-director for two dance groups in college.
One of the groups was part of the
DAPpers program, which stands for “Dance for All People.” It’s directed by Rachel Balaban, who has been a big mentor for me. They offer dance classes for people with Parkinson’s Disease and aging bodies and were motivated by
David Leventhal’s Dance for PD.
Could you tell us more about your role with AHP?
I am the program manager for the AHP. My position involves bringing art and movement breaks to hospital doctors, nurses, and other staff, and we're working to return to indoor programming for staff and patients alike. I will also be helping out with research on the benefits of music in the ICU, and supporting classes for medical school students offered by AHP Director, Julia Langley.
In addition to my work as program manager, I have been monitoring
AHP classes. I love how each teacher can add their own creative spin on an activity based on their personality and their training. It just makes everything so interesting.
Is there an inspiring quote or idea that you would like to share with others?
While working with the DAPpers, we did a joint performance that included older adults, college students, who are dancers in my group, and high school students from Central Falls, R.I. We all learned a piece of repertory and performed it together. It was incredible.
I was partnered up with Lois, a 92-year-old, who started coming to the classes after she fell and hurt her hip. I’m trying to embody some of Lois' energy in my life. She loves dancing, she takes memoir classes, and she has a busier social life than I do. I’m trying to put some of that energy into the things I love. Just dive right in.