Eric Nestler, neuroscientist and Director, Friedman Brain Institute at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Anna Deavere Smith, actor, playwright, and University Professor at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, co-chaired the independent committee that evaluated the 75 proposals applying for the 2025 Renée Fleming Neuroarts Investigator Awards.
The review committee, a prestigious interdisciplinary team of eminent researchers and arts practitioners, represented expertise in the arts and sciences. Meet the reviewers:
Applications Review Committee
Joy Allen
Director, Music and Health Institute; Chair, Music Therapy, Berklee College of Music
Emmeline Edwards
Director, Division of Extramural Research
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health
National Institutes of Health
David O. Fakunle
Assistant Professor, Department of Public and Allied Health, Morgan State University School of Community Health & Policy, Associate, Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Jane Golden
Founder and Executive Director of the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program
Assal Habibi
Associate Research Professor of Psychology and Neurology at the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California
Girija Kaimal
Professor and Interim Chair Department of Creative Arts Therapies
Past-President, American Art Therapy Association Drexel University CNHP
Emilio Maldonado
Visual Artist, Educator and Artist Relations Director, Mural Arts Philadelphia
Patrick McNamara
President and CEO of Palm Health Foundation
Janice Merendino
Educator, painter, ceramic artist, co-founder of The Clay Studio, Philadelphia PA
Indre Viskontas
Associate Professor of Psychology, University of San Francisco, President, Society for the Neuroscience of Creativity