As a child, music was and remains a vital part of each day for Nancy Zilker. When asked, there was no hesitation, no illusions, she wanted to be a music teacher. To that end, in and out of school, lessons and performances on various instruments began. The University at Buffalo was the location of an Undergraduate degree in Music Education. Upon graduation, Ms. Zilker began teaching in private schools, while also taking on a church music director position. As a substitute teacher, she was assigned several classes containing special education students and discovered a particular interest in providing music instruction tailored to their unique abilities and needs.

An older family member recommended the pursuit of a Music Therapy degree in addition to a Master of Music Education, which began a completely new and fulfilling aspiration. Ms. Zilker attended SUNY Fredonia for graduate studies, while taking additional course work at Canisius and Buffalo State Colleges. After an internship at the West Seneca Developmental Center and receipt of the CBMT credential; she began a career as a Music Therapist and never looked back.

Ms. Zilker took a position as a part-time MT at a skilled nursing facility, followed by a position within a school program for children and young adults with Autism. In 1997, she was hired to provide Music Therapy to students with disabilities in the Buffalo Public Schools and continues her work there. She has also engaged in private practice music therapy in various capacities as well as continuing as a church music director.

Upon retirement from the Buffalo Public Schools, she would like to continue to share her love of music with individuals with special needs part-time and plans to maintain her MT-BC designation.

It's World Music Therapy Day!  In honor of today, Jenna and Hannah discuss education, certification, and accreditation in the field of music therapy!

Learn More:

https://www.musictherapy.org/

https://www.cbmt.org/

https://www.aplacetobeva.org/

Dr. Suzanne B. Hanser is Founding Chair Emerita & Professor of Music Therapy at Berklee College of Music and President of the International Association for Music & Medicine. She is Past President of the World Federation of Music Therapy and National Association for Music Therapy. Her books include: The New Music Therapist's Handbook, Integrative Health through Music Therapy: Accompanying the Journey from Illness to Wellness, and Manage Your Stress and Pain through Music, book and CD, with Dr. Susan Mandel. Her most recent book, Music for Wellness: Feel the Music, See the Light will be published this year. Her courses on music and wellness may be found on Coursera and Berklee Online. She has published research in multi-disciplinary journals, and is recipient of many awards, including the American Music Therapy Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Kathleen Howland, MT-BC, PhD has worked with a variety of clinical populations using music to enhance speech, language, cognition and movement in habilitation and rehabilitation settings.  She has also developed protocols to reduce stress and anxiety for general wellness, surgical preparation, oncology treatments and child birthing.  Howland's doctoral studies in music and cognition have informed and supported her interest in bridging the communities of science and art in order to identify best practices.

In addition to her training in music therapy, Howland is also a Speech Language Pathologist (CCC-SLP). This certification has advanced the theoretical and clinical foundations from which she works and problem solves.  She seeks to find entry points to abilities nested in disability and be innovative to engineer skill advancement for improved function and quality of life. 

Howland currently teaches undergraduate and graduate courses at Berklee College of Music and The Boston Conservatory in music therapy, music education and liberal arts, providing her the opportunity to bring clinical work into the classroom and academic resources to clinical work.  She lectures locally and internationally about the neurological foundations for music perception and performance and the power of music as a therapeutic intervention.

Suzanne Oliver is the Founder and Executive Director of Neurologic Music Therapy Services of Arizona/NMTSA, a nonprofit organization that has provided clinical music therapy services to the Phoenix community for over 40 years. She also founded a school for nonspeaking students with autism, approved through the Arizona Department of Education, in 2007. Suzanne is a Board Certified Music Therapist who received her NMT training in 1999, and additionally has completed five fellowships since that time. Suzanne assisted in developing the Academy for Neurologic Music Therapy and co-authored the Medical Coding and Records Manual: Neurologic Music Therapy. Her passion is to educate the community on current research regarding the impact of rhythm on the brain and how this knowledge can positively impact the treatment of individuals with neurologic differences and improve their everyday life. She has mentored countless private practice MTs and NMTs over the years, and is grateful to partner with others to assist them in discovering their own passion and treatment focus.

Jayne M. Standley, Ph.D., MT-BC is a Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor at Florida State University and Director of the National Institute for Infant and Child Medical Music Therapy, a network affiliation of universities and medical centers to promote research and training in NICU-MT. In 2014, she received the first Research Award given by the World Congress of Music Therapy for her pioneering research on music therapy for premature infants. She is the Editor of the new AMTA publication, Evidence-Based Music Therapy for Premature Infants.

Toby Williams is the director of the music therapy program at The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, which provides music therapy to nearly two thousand children, teens and adults in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan through outreach and onsite programs. In 2005, Toby started a music therapy program at Reach for the Stars Learning Center and continues her clinical work and intern training working with children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders there. An accomplished jazz vocalist, Toby spent many years singing in clubs, recording and doing educational outreach on jazz singing through Carnegie Hall. A graduate of NYU and of Diane Austin’s certificate training in Vocal Psychotherapy, Toby uses voice as a primary instrument to promote growth, development and healing. Toby has offered workshops on how to use the voice and body to promote emotional and physical healing at such institutions as The Kessler Institute, Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center; New York University; Voices of September 11th and My Time, Inc. Through partnerships with Friends Health Connection, Citicorp and Carnegie Hall, Toby developed music therapy programs at New York Presbyterian Hospital on the cardio-thoracic unit and at the Herbert Irving Cancer Center’s Infusion unit. At NYU, Toby is an adjunct professor teaching Introduction to Music Therapy and Clinical Vocal Improvisation.

Joe Thompson is a Neurologic Music Therapy-Fellow currently living in Seven Hills, NSW. After earning his Masters in Creative Music Therapy at Western Sydney and working at a Penrith-based music therapy organization for several years, he decided to travel for international work opportunities to gain further skills. He now specializes in the use of NMT for cognitive-motor connectivity in Autistic populations.

On top of his work as a clinician Joe hosts and produces the podcast Baselines In Music Therapy and is a guest lecturer at Western Sydney University. He has previously served as Chair of the Australian Music Therapy Association NSW branch.

Outside of work, Joe lives with his even-more-skilled-and-clever music therapist wife, and his Minecraft-loving, lightsaber-weilding, Pokemon-genius neurodivergent stepson.

Megan Brunner is a board-certified music therapist, working with children with disabilities, inner city female teens and adults. Megan has supervised undergraduate students in their older adult and adult clinical placements as part of her graduate assistantship. She takes pride in seeing her students grow into well-rounded student music therapists in preparation for future internships and job opportunities. Megan is an advocate for accessible and affordable music therapy services for underrepresented and marginalized persons in the city of Buffalo and strives to make a difference in her community. Utilizing a multi-modal and humanistic approach, Megan makes connections through music to provide a safe space for individuals to thrive.

Katurah Christenbury is a board-certified music therapist and Fellow of the Association for Music and Imagery. Senior lecturer of music therapy at Appalachian State University, she maintains a clinical practice providing Bonny Method of GIM sessions and supervising advanced trainees in GIM. Additionally, she is completing advanced training in the Austin Vocal Psychotherapy Method. She holds the Master of Music Therapy degree from Appalachian State University and has published in Music Therapy Perspectives and the Journal of the Association for Music and Imagery