Our MD/PhD Advisory Board
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Dr. Concetta Tomaino is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function and former Senior Vice President for Music Therapy at CenterLight Health System (formerly Beth Abraham Family of Health Services), where she worked from 1980 to 2016. In 2017, she and the IMNF relocated to the campus of Wartburg, a senior residential and healthcare facility, in Mt. Vernon, NY.
Dr. Tomaino is internationally known for her research in the clinical applications of music and neurologic rehabilitation. She lectures on music therapy throughout the world.
Her work has been featured in national programs including 48 Hours and 60 Minutes; in international programs including theBBC; and in books on health and healing. Musicophilia, by Dr. Oliver Sacks is dedicated to her.
Dr. Tomaino is Past-President of the American Association for Music Therapy and Past-Vice President and Founding Board Member for the International Association for Music and Medicine.
She received the Award of Accomplishment from Music Therapists for Peace at the United Nations. In 2014, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association for Music Therapy. In 2011 she received in inaugural Burton Grebin Innovator of the Year Award from the NY Continuing Care Leadership Coalition (CCLC ). She was honored with the 2010 Professional Practice Award from the American Association for Music Therapy and also as one of “Three Wise Women” by the National Organization of Italian American Women. In 2004 she received the Music has Power Award from the IMNF and the Zella Bronfman Butler Award which is given by the UJA-Federation of New York in partnership with the J.E. and Z.B. Butler Foundation to professionals in the UJA-Federation agency network for their outstanding work on behalf of individuals with physical, developmental, or learning disabilities. In 1999 she received a Touchstone Award from “Women in Music” for her visionary spirit.
She is an Adjunct Professor at Lehman College, CUNY.
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Dr. Joseph LeDoux has worked on emotion, memory, and consciousness in the brain since the mid 1970s. He is a Professor of Neural Science at New York University, and an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received numerous awards for his work and is the author of several books, including The Emotional Brain, Synaptic Self, Anxious, The Deep History of Ourselves, and The Four Realms ofExistence. Dr. LeDoux is the lead singer and songwriter in the rock band, the Amygdaloids He is also the subject of a documentary on Amazon called Neuroscience and Emotions: The Life, Work and Music of Dr. Joseph LeDoux, and his music has been the subject of a play called Map of Your mind. He and his music are also featured in Werner Herzog’s film, Theatre of Thought.