Join us for an insightful webinar on how engaging in the arts can significantly enhance physical and mental well-being. We will introduce the growing body of research demonstrating the therapeutic benefits of arts participation and the impact of community-based participatory research. The session will provide an overview of social prescribing, a progressive approach where healthcare providers recommend community-based, non-clinical and non-pharmaceutical activities, including the arts, to support health and well-being.

This program series is sponsored in part with support from The Music Man Foundation.

Dr. Alan Siegel is a co-founder and medical director for Social Prescribing USA, concentrating on strategy, communication, and development of their Community of Practice and building a network of health professional champions. In 2023, he completed a grant for the California Health Care Foundation to create a model for social prescribing in a county health system.

Alan will be starting as a Family Physician at Kaiser Oakland in mid-August and plans to initiate and spread social prescribing at Kaiser. He worked within the Bay Area’s Contra Costa Health for the last 25 years, with a concentration on medical education. Alan pioneered many new programs related to social prescribing for his county health system, including directing an Arts in Health program for patients and staff, as a member of the Staff Wellness Team, and helping to start one of the first West Coast Health Leads Program to address social determinants of health As a 2019 UCSF Champion Provider Fellow, Alan ran a grant-funded full-spectrum Nature Rx program. He was a founding board member of the National Organization for Arts and Health, where he concentrated on bringing the arts to healthcare workers and building regional networks.

Jill Sonke, PhD, is Director of Research Initiatives in the Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida (UF), Director of National Research and Impact for the One Nation/One Project initiative, and Co-director of the EpiArts Lab, a National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab in partnership with University College London. She serves as an Affiliated Researcher in the Jameel Arts & Health Lab and served during the COVID-19 pandemic as a senior advisor to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She an affiliated faculty member in the UF School of Theatre & Dance, the Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases, and the Center for African Studies, as well as an editorial board member for Health Promotion Practice journal. Dr. Sonke is a dancer and an amateur musician, a mixed methods researcher with over 70 publications, and has 30 years of leadership in the field of arts in health. She is the recipient of numerous awards and over 350 grants for her programs and research in the arts and health.

Christina D. Eskridge, MPH is the founder and executive director of Elevate Theatre Company LLC, a company dedicated to creating space for audiences and artists to explore health and well-being through the art of storytelling. She is a performing artist, teaching artist, director, playwright and public health professional, holding a Master’s Degree in Public Health from UC Berkeley. Christina has worked to fuse her two passions of health and theater through her performances, teaching artistry, and her extensive work in health care at Kaiser Permanente. Elevate has worked with a variety of health and arts partners including organizations like the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, and the American Sexual Health Association.

In addition to her role as the National Mapmakers Coordinator for One Nation/One Project and the Arts for EveryBody campaign, Christina also serves as a Board Member for the National Organization for Arts in Health (NOAH). Christina believes live theater and arts participation are healing tools, ripe with opportunity to build community and improve well-being for all.

Ivory is an occupational therapist and poet. Some of her favorite occupations (meaningful activities) include writing, spoken word poetry, walking in nature, and horseback riding. She has always been drawn to the healing and care of others. Ivory has been writing since she was 7 years old and credits the development of her imagination as a writer to her greatest childhood complaint: growing up in rural Van Zandt, Washington without a television. Eager to experience the world outside of her hometown, Ivory has lived in Atlanta, New York City, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic before settling in the greater Los Angeles area.

Ivory holds a master’s in occupational therapy from NYU and a post-professional doctorate in occupational therapy from Boston University. Her passion for “prescribed volunteerism” led her to the field of social prescribing. She has volunteered in various capacities for Social Prescribing USA and also enjoys raising awareness amongst occupational therapists about the “hot topic” of social prescribing.