Keynote Speaker:  Dr. Barbara Wheeler

“Modulations: Connecting Legacy and Innovation in Current Practice.”

Keynote biography:  Barbara L. Wheeler, PhD, MT-BC, is Professor Emeritus at Montclair State University in New Jersey, where she taught from 1975 to 2000. Dr. Wheeler initiated the music therapy program at the University of Louisville in 2000, retiring in 2011. She presents and teaches in the United States and internationally, with recent faculty appointments at the Department of Social Studies, University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt, Würzburg, Germany; and the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music, Katowice, Poland. Barbara has been an active clinician throughout her career, working with diverse clientele. Dr. Wheeler has edited and authored a number of chapters, articles, and books, including editing Music Therapy Research (now in its third edition, with Kathleen Murphy as associate editor) and Music Therapy Handbook (soon to be published in its second edition, with Michael Viega and Andeline Dos Santos as co-editors), and coauthoring Clinical Training Guide for the Student Music Therapist (with Donna Polen and Carol Shultis, now in its second edition). She is a past president of the American Music Therapy Association and former Discussion and later Interview Coeditor for Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy. Barbara was honored to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the World Federation of Music Therapy in 2017 and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Music Therapy Association in 2019.