Julene Johnson, PhD
Network Co-Director

Dr. Julene K Johnson is a cognitive neuroscientist with an undergraduate degree in music. She is a Professor Read more... in the UCSF School of Nursing's Institute for Health & Aging and co-director of the Sound Health Network. She has a long-standing interest in studying music and health in both healthy aging and persons living with dementia. Her previous work investigated preserved music skills in persons with Alzheimer disease and understanding the relationship between brain and music recognition in various neurodegenerative diseases.  In 2010, she was a Fulbright Scholar in Jyväskylä, Finland where she studied how community choirs help promote wellbeing among older adults. Funded by the National Institute on Aging, Dr. Johnson recently completed a large cluster-randomized trial that examined the effects of a community choir on the health and wellbeing of culturally diverse older adults.  Dr. Johnson also examines the historical roots of music in nineteenth-century neurology and psychology literature, which helps frame interdisciplinary research questions about music, brain, and health. She is a co-author of the NEA Guide to Community-Engaged Research in the Arts and Health (2016).  In her spare time, she plays the flute and kantele and sings in a community choir.

Charles J. Limb, MD
Network Co-Director

Dr. Charles Limb is the Francis A. Sooy Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and the Chief Read more... of the Division of Otology, Neurotology and Skull Base Surgery at UC San Francisco. He is also the Director of the Douglas Grant Cochlear Implant Center at UCSF and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Neurosurgery. Dr. Limb has studied the neuroscience of musical creativity for the last 15 years as Principal Investigator of the Sound and Music Perception lab, first at Johns Hopkins University, and now at UCSF.  Throughout his career, Dr. Limb has combined his interests in music, auditory science, and the clinical treatment of hearing loss in diverse ways relevant to education, learning, neural plasticity and higher order cognition. Dr. Limb has published papers in a variety of peer-reviewed journals and given talks at various scientific conferences. His work has received international attention and has been featured by National Public Radio, TED, National Geographic, the New York Times, PBS, CNN, Scientific American, the British Broadcasting Company, the Smithsonian Institute, the Library of Congress, the Sundance Film Festival, Canadian Broadcasting Company, the Kennedy Center, San Diego Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the American Museum of Natural History.

Sheri L. Robb, PhD, MT-BC
Music Therapy Co-Investigator

Dr. Sheri L Robb is an Indiana University School of Nursing professor with international recognition for Read more... her expertise in pediatric music therapy and behavioral intervention research. She is a member of the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, and serves as Director for the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI) KL2 Young Investigator Program. Dr. Robb is a board-certified music therapist with degrees in music therapy and early childhood special education. She also completed a post-doctoral fellowship in behavioral oncology and cancer control at Indiana University, followed by a training award in clinical and translational research from the Indiana CTSI. Dr. Robb’s program of research focuses on development and testing of music interventions to manage distress and improve positive health outcomes in children and adolescents with cancer and their caregivers. Most recently, her team has begun incorporation of biomarkers to understand more fully how active music interventions work to mitigate cancer-related stress and its potential to improve immune function. Dr. Robb is an established investigator with fifteen years of continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health. She also led publication of Reporting Guidelines for Music-based Interventions to address calls for more transparent and accurate reporting in music intervention research.

Indre Viskontas, MM, PhD
Communications Core Co-Investigator

Dr. Indre Viskontas is a neuroscientist, opera stage director and science communicator across all Read more... mediums. Combining a passion for music with scientific curiosity, she is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of San Francisco where she runs The Creative Brain Lab, and the Creative Director of Pasadena Opera. Dr. Viskontas recently published a white paper advocating for music to be a part of every child’s education. Dr. Viskontas has published more than 50 articles and book chapters related to the neural basis of memory and creativity. Her scientific work has been featured in Oliver Sacks’ book Musicophilia, Nature: Science Careers and Discover Magazine. She has also written for American Scientist, MotherJones.com, Vitriol Magazine and other publications. Her first book, How Music Can Make You Better, was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. She has co-hosted several TV and web series, and has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, PBS NewsHour, major radio stations across the US, including NPR’s City Arts & Lectures and the CBC’s The Sunday Edition. She is the host of the popular science podcast Inquiring Minds, downloaded more than 13.5 million times. Her other podcast, Cadence: what music tells us about the mind was a finalist for the Science Media awards and is in its third season. She often gives keynote talks, for organizations as diverse as Genentech, the Dallas Symphony, SXSW, TEDx and Ogilvy along with frequent invited talks at conferences and academic institutions. She has created three 24-lecture courses for The Great Courses: Essential Scientific Concepts, Brain Myths Exploded: Lessons from Neuroscience and How Digital Technology Shapes Us.

Sarah Thompson, PhD, MT-BC
Executive Director

Dr. Sarah Thompson is an award-winning, board-certified music therapist with extensive experience in Read more... leadership positions. She has innovated in a number of spaces, including service design and delivery, reimbursement, and advocacy. Dr. Thompson created and led a music therapy services organization in Denver for 17 years where she established novel partnerships, created new clinical programs, developed research projects, and co-founded a professional networking group to break down silos in community-based care. She advised the Colorado Division of Worker’s Compensation in their inclusion of music therapy in the medical treatment guidelines for the treatment of traumatic brain injury, marking the first time this service has been formally included in worker’s compensation in the United States. Dr. Thompson completed her Ph.D. in the interdisciplinary Clinical Science program at the University of Colorado Anschutz medical campus and has additional training in user research and human factors approaches. She collaborates with research teams at various institutions. Dr. Thompson’s primary areas of research are dementia, brain injury, stroke, and other neurologic injuries and disorders.