University of Florida

Dr. Colleen Rua (she/hers) is Acting Associate Dean of Research and Strategic Initiatives for the College of the Arts and Associate Professor of Theatre Studies in the School of Theatre and Dance at the University of Florida. She is also Affiliate Faculty in the Center for Latin American Studies, the Center for Arts in Medicine, and the Center for Arts, Migration, and Entrepreneurship. Her research interests include Latinx Theatre/Contemporary Puerto Rican Theatre, Immersive Theatre, the American Musical, and Theatre for Youth. Her forthcoming book (August 2023), Performance, Trauma, and Puerto Rico in Musical Theatre, puts commercial theatre in conversation with community-engaged practice in Puerto Rico, and considers the Y no había luz theatre collective as “performers of care,” as they mobilize joy and belonging in response to natural disaster, trauma and healing. Dr. Rua’s recent conference presentations have included co-chairing a panel, “Disaster and the Body,” at the 2022 ASTR Conference, “And There Was No Light: First Response, Defiant Joy, and Belonging in Arts Activism,” at the 2021 ATHE conference  and “Theatre, Trauma, and Healing in Response to (Un)natural Disaster in Puerto Rico” at the 2021 IFTR conference. She also presented alongside Y no había luz’s Joel Guzmán at Imagining America 2022. Additional publications include “El Poder y Educación,” in Delos Journal of World Literature and Translation,  “Navigating Neverland and Wonderland: Audience as Spect-Character,” in Theatre History Studies Journal, “Pop Operas, or, Broadway sells T-shirts!” In American Literature in Translation 1980-1990 published by Cambridge University Press and a review of Y no habia luz’s Cruzando el charco and Zefirante en quarentena  in Teatro Magazine. Her recent directing credits include Yemaya’s Belly, Marisol, …And Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi, Conference of the Birds, Assassins, Pilgrims of the Night and the family-centered immersive experiences An Awfully Big Adventure, Alice in Wonderland and The Skin of Our Teeth, as well as staged readings of Nosotras que los queremos tanto by Hugo Salcedo, Lomas de poleo by Edeberto Galindo, and Red Bike and In the Time of the Butterflies by Caridad Svich. Dr. Rua was the Artistic Director of Arlington Children’s Theatre, where she worked with youth and families, and Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of SouthCity Theatre, in residence at Boston’s Factory Theatre. In 2014, Dr. Rua co-founded and directed Bridgewater State University’s Acting for Justice theatre troupe which addressed issues of equity and inclusion on college campuses. She has taught courses at MIT, Northwestern University, Tufts University, and UMASS Lowell. She is the recipient of UF’s College of the Arts Teacher of the Year Award (2021-2022), Bridgewater State University’s 2019 Presidential Award for Distinguished Teaching and was the 2015 recipient the New England Theatre Conference’s Leonidas Nikole Award for Theatre Educator of the Year. Dr. Rua holds a PhD in Drama from Tufts University and an MA in Theatre Education from Emerson College.

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 is an affiliated faculty member in the UF School of Theatre & Dance, the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases, the Center for African Studies, and the STEM Translational Communication Center, and is an editorial board member for Health Promotion Practice journal.

Dr. Sonke served during the pandemic as a senior advisor to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Vaccine Confidence and Demand Team on the COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence Task Force and currently serves on the steering committee and as an Affiliated Researcher in the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, established by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Steinhardt School at New York University, Community Jameel, and CULTURUNNERS.

With 28 years of experience and leadership in the field of arts in health and a PhD in arts in public health from Ulster University in Northern Ireland, Jill is active in research and policy advocacy nationally and internationally. She is an artist and a mixed methods researcher with a current focus on population-level health outcomes associated with arts and cultural participation, arts in public health, and the arts in health communication. She is the recipient of a New Forms Florida Fellowship Award, a State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship Award, a NISOD Excellence in Teaching Award, a UF Internationalizing the Curriculum Award, a UF Most Outstanding Service Learning Faculty Award, a UF Public Health Champions award, a UF Cross-Campus Faculty Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and over 350 grants for her programs and research at the University of Florida.

Ferol Carytsas is the Director of the UF Center for Arts in Medicine. She has co-authored the articles, The effects of arts-in-medicine programming on the medical-surgical work environment; Arts in health: Considering language from an educational perspective in the United States, and contributed to the White Paper, Talking about arts and health.

Ferol’s interest in curriculum design led her to co-develop the Undergraduate Certificate in Music in Medicine at UF. Her Music and Health course was runner-up winner for an UFIT Exceptional Course Development award, and the course received an Internationalizing the Curriculum grant from the UF International Center.  In addition, she was one of the 2019 recipients of the UF Office of Teaching Excellence’s Rising Star Award. In 2020, she was selected to participate in the inaugural cohort of UF’s OER Learning Community for her upcoming OER textbook, The Impact of Music on Health. She was also awarded a 2022 UF Division Three Superior Accomplishment Award and selected to be a 2022-2023 UF Teaching Excellence Fellow. Inspired by similar programs, she established the UF Health Music Ensemble fostering community, team building and a peer-to-peer environment among UF Health faculty, staff, students, and alumni.

Ferol was a founding board member with the National Organization for Arts in Health (NOAH) and served on the board for 5 years. She was the chair of the NOAH Professionalization Committee and assisted with the development of the nationally endorsed Code of Ethics and Standards for Arts in Health Professionals. In addition to being on the leadership team, she was an editor and contributing author to the Core Curriculum for Arts in Health Professionals. In partnership with the Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru), Ferol is leading a national initiative to establish a Community of Arts in Health Educators. This community aims to articulate the priorities in the field of arts in health in higher education.

Ferol graduated from the University of Florida with a M.M. in music education after receiving an Undergraduate Diploma in viola performance from Longy School of Music and a B.A. in music with a minor in psychology from Florida State University.  Additionally, she completed an Undergraduate Certificate in Arts in Healthcare. She has experience working in arts administration assisting in the management of youth orchestras, volunteers, and database maintenance for non-profit music organizations.

Ferol’s research interests include: arts in health pedagogy, curriculum design, and assessment.

Oṣubi  Craig is an arts administrator, artist and engineer possessing comprehensive experience as a higher education administrator, ensemble director, performing artist, presenter, arts center director, arts integration advocate, and education facilitator. Oṣubi brings a great deal of experience and energy to his role as the inaugural director of the recently launched Center for Arts, Migration, and Entrepreneurship (CAME) in the College of the Arts at the University of Florida (UF).

Most recently at UF, Oṣubi served as Advisory Council member for Center for African Studies and has served as the college representative on several campus-wide working groups: the UF Equitable AI group, the Advanced AI Faculty Learning Community, and the AI and Society workgroup.  Nationally, last year Oṣubi  was elected as a member of the Executive Committee to the Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities(A2ru). 

His current work focuses on the intersections of arts, science, technology, entrepreneurship, and diasporic communities. This includes the creative economy space and directly supporting Artists’ and Creatives’ entrepreneurial efforts in their communities with a view towards global impact. As the director of CAME, he brings together faculty, artists, and community organizers from around the world to more broadly connect, collaborate, and create.

In particular, Oṣubi has supported the center’s former Maker in Residence Qudus Onikeku in developing his Atunda project. Atunda seeks to use AI technology to build a database of dance movement on blockchains to protect the IP rights of African Diasporan artists and ensure they are paid equitably when their art, works, and IP are commodified. Atunda is one example of the exponential possibilities of interconnected networks that CAME endeavors to cultivate and accelerate.

Oṣubi is co-founder and Co-PI of the  SPARC352 Initiative: A Space for People, Art, Research, Community, Creativity, and Collaboration:  SPARC352 seeks to activate spaces where community members can collaborate with artists, creatives, and researchers to develop programs, ideas, research and solutions using the arts as a resource for positive change at the intersections of creativity, health, entrepreneurship, and arts engagement.

In his 20+ years of experience as an arts administrator, Oṣubi has developed and implemented programming, cultivated relationships, established collaborative partnerships, crafted shared visions and strategic directions, and worked effectively with arts programs and organizations nestled under the umbrella of higher education institutions. Oṣubi’s diverse skill sets have served him in a variety of roles such as: Construction Project Manager and Research Coordinator for the College of Engineering, Sciences, Technology and Agriculture at FAMU; Director of Grants and Sponsored Research/HBCU Title III at Florida Memorial University; and Director of Arts and Cultural Affairs at Polk State College. Oṣubi additionally served at Virginia State University as Special Assistant to the President for Strategic Initiatives and Assistant Vice President  for Government and External Relations.

As a third-generation percussionist growing up in Brooklyn, NY, Oṣubi was immersed in the emerging African Diasporic cultural arts movement. His passion for science and technology led him to earn a B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering while minoring in Jazz Studies at Florida A&M University (FAMU). Oṣubi went on to earn an M.A. in Arts Administration from Florida State University. As an artist, he worked for major performing arts organizations, such as the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and National Dance Institute’s Arts in Education programs; as a lead drummer, for Kulu Mele African Dance & Drum Ensemble (Philadelphia, PA); and as a teaching artist, for the Philly Pops (Philadelphia, PA), New Jersey Performing Arts Center (Newark, NJ), Lincoln Center Institute (New York, NY), and Urban Bush Women (Brooklyn, NY).

Heidi Boisvert is an interdisciplinary artist, experience designer, creative technologist and academic researcher who interrogates the neurobiological and socio-cultural effects of media and technology. Simply put, she studies the role of the body, the senses and emotion in human perception and social change. Boisvert is currently mapping the world’s first media genome, while taking great care with its far-reaching ethical implications. She founded futurePerfect lab, a creative agency and think-tank that works with social justice organizations to design playful emerging media campaigns to transform the public imagination. She also co-founded XTH, a company creating novel modes of expression through biotechnology and the human body. Presently, she is working with David Byrne on Theater of the Mind, a new immersive theater piece and co-curating EdgeCut, a live performance series. Boisvert, who holds a Ph.D. in Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is an Assistant Professor of AI and the Arts within the School of Theatre + Dance. She is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Norman Lear Center (based at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication), a research affiliate in the Open Documentary Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member of NEW INC, the cultural incubator at The New Museum of Contemporary Art. She serves on the advisory board of American Documentary POV Spark and was selected by ZERO1 and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to represent the United States in Turkey.