Ivonne Chand O’Neal Ph.D. is the Founder and Principal of MUSE Research, LLC, a creativity and arts impact research firm which provides arts impact assessment, research design, and arts evaluation services for multinational companies, community and government development programs, and educational institutions. She currently serves as Chief Research Strategist for Crayola, and is also Senior Research Fellow for Creativity Testing Services, a creativity assessment firm examining creativity with such organizations as Red Bull, Lego, and Disney. Prior to her current position, Chand O’Neal served as founding Director of Research and Evaluation for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts where she created the Center’s first comprehensive research agenda of over 25 research studies designed to examine the impact of the arts on society on local, national, and international scales. Her work has been featured by the National Endowment for the Arts, The Washington Post, and various news outlets. Preceding her tenure at the Kennedy Center, she held a joint appointment as Co-Investigator and Research Director at the David Geffen UCLA School of Medicine, where she examined the effects of acute cocaine administration on the creative process. Her work in creativity research also led to her term as Associate Curator for the Museum of Creativity where she led in the development of exhibits and interactive experiences to make the public more creative. Chand O’Neal earned her Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology with emphasis on creativity, arts integration, and program evaluation from the Claremont Graduate University where she worked with Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, Ph.D., a co-founder of the positive psychology movement. Her recent book, Arts Evaluation and Assessment: Measuring Impact in Schools and Communities has been recognized by school districts, art museums and national performing arts centers as an influential guide to conducting research in the arts. She currently serves as the Co-Chair for the Arts, Culture, and Museums division of the American Evaluation Association, sits on the Editorial Board for the Creativity Research Journal, the Research Advisory Board for the University of Pennsylvania’s Human Flourishing Initiative, the AP Research Development Committee for the College Board, and has worked actively with the entertainment industry (Disney Channel, NBC, TNBC) to increase creative thinking skills in educational television programs for children and teens.

Merryl Goldberg is a Professor of Music at California State University San Marcos and Director of the ART=OPPORTUNITY campaign of Center ARTES, a university center dedicated to restoring arts to education. Her publications include Arts Integration: Teaching Subject Matter Through the Arts in Multicultural Settings 5th edition (2017) as well as other books, articles, chapters, editorials, and blogs. She has received numerous research and programmatic grants including Federal Department of Education Arts in Education Program, Fulbright-Hays Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, Stuart and Panta Rhea grants. Merryl's undergraduate degree is from New England Conservatory of Music, and her doctorate is from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Prior to entering academia, she recorded numerous CDs and was on the road for 13 years playing the saxophone with the Klezmer Conservatory Band. Merryl's hometown is Boston. Go Red Sox!

Julie Kendig, B.F.A., M.A., is pursuing a Ph.D. in education with a focus on social justice at Claremont Graduate University in Los Angeles, CA. Over the past 17 years, Ms. Kendig has worked in arts education as a teacher, administrator, professional development trainer, and researcher. She was a student of James S. Catterall and served as a Research Associate at the Centers for Research on Creativity. She was the lead researcher assigned to the California Arts Council's arts for incarcerated youth programs and worked with the Alameda County Office of Education's Integrated Learning Specialist Program through a U.S. Department of Education Arts Education Model Development and Dissemination grant. Currently Ms. Kendig serves as the outside evaluator to two regional arts education initiatives in San Diego County: ART=OPPORTUNITY at California State University, San Marcos and the San Diego Creative Youth Development Network. She also volunteers with social support programs for youth and families experiencing homelessness and stays active in a local reader's theatre group.