Michael Patterson
Michael C. Patterson, a founding principal in mindRAMP & Associates, LLC, is an educator who specializes in the areas of gerontology, cognition, brain health and creativity.
Patterson has produced and presented brain health forums and workshops across the country as Director of the award-winning Staying Sharp program, a joint project of NRTA: AARP’s Educator Community and the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives.
During an early career as a professional actor and director, Patterson led the Creative Outreach Program for the Elderly a theatre program for older adults and founded a Grey Panthers chapter in Santa Cruz, CA. Patterson developed a successful career in public television then returned to gerontology, working with AARP and NRTA: AARP’s Educator Community.
Patterson is a board member of the National Center for Creative Aging, chairs the NCCA Research Committee and served on the Communications Committee for the CDC/Alzheimer’s Association Roadmap for Brain Health. Patterson has a degree in Theatre from Antioch College and a Masters of Liberal Studies (MALS) from Georgetown University and years of self study in neuroscience, cognition and evolutionary psychology
Anne Basting (Ph.D.)
Anne Basting is the Director of the Center on Age & Community and an Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre at the Peck School of the Arts, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where she teaches storytelling and playwriting. Basting has written extensively on issues of aging and representation, including two books: Forget Memory: Creating better lives for people with dementia (Johns Hopkins UP, 2009) and The Stages of Age: Performing Age in Contemporary American Culture. Her numerous articles and essays have been published across multiple disciplines including journals such as The Drama Review, American Theatre, and Journal of Aging Studies, and anthologies Figuring Age, Mental Wellness in Aging, the Handbook for the Humanities and Aging, and Aging and the Meaning of Time. Basting is the recipient of a Rockefeller Fellowship, a Brookdale National Fellowship, and numerous major grants for her scholarly and creative endeavors. Her creative work includes nearly a dozen plays and public performances. Basting received her Ph.D. in Theatre Arts and Dance from the University of Minnesota in 1995. Basting continues to direct the TimeSlips Creative Storytelling Project, which she founded in 1998.
Laurel Humble
Laurel Humble is Assistant Educator for The MoMA Alzheimer’s Project. In that role she regularly teaches MoMA’s programs for individuals with dementia and their caregivers and leads trainings for museum and care professionals, as well as individual caregivers. She is co-author of the award-winning publication Meet Me: Making Art Accessible to People with Dementia and has presented nationally and internationally on issues related to developing and implementing programs for individuals with dementia. She and her colleagues have received awards from the Alzheimer’s Association, Family Caregiver Alliance, and American Association of Museums in recognition of their efforts to make art accessible to people with dementia.
Cathy DeWitt
An eclectic professional musician since the 1970’s, Cathy DeWitt has shared the stage and the airwaves with Tom Paxton, Pete Seeger, Garrison Keillor, Florida folk legend Will McLean, jazz pianist Rob Bargad, Afro-Cuban percussionist Bobby Sanabria, and others. She is a nationally published writer, concert producer, and bandleader for the jazz quartet MoonDancer and the all women’s folk/bluegrass band Patchwork, a Florida favorite. A Board member for The Gainesville Friends of Jazz and Friends of Florida Folk, she produces and hosts the show, “Across the Prairie,” on the University of Florida’s NPR affiliate station, WUFT. In 1995 she found an unexpected setting for her musical versatility: Shands Arts in Medicine program in Gainesville, Florida, where she is the Music Program Manager. From piano playing in the hospital lobby to elevator singalongs, from hallway concerts to bedside harp in the ICUs, Cathy uses music to transform the hospital environment and the patient experience.
In 2005 and 2006 she worked with the Florida Center for Creative Aging, and remains active in music and aging, through studies and programs.
Through her work with the Florida Center for Creative Aging, the University of Florida was chosen as a host site for the NIH/NEA funded Vital Visionaries project in 2006-08. She presents workshops and seminars at universities, hospitals, seminars and events including conferences for the Society for the Arts in Healthcare, gatherings and retreats for Unity. Her consultant clients include Vanderbilt University, San Diego Hospice, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, Chelsea & Westminster Hospital and the Royal Hospital in London. Along with several international songwriting awards, she is the winner of a Fetzer Grant for her Healing Music Programs, a Florida Arts Council Individual Artist Enhancement Grant, and the National League of Penwomen Branch Award for Music, Gainesville branch (2005). She has been a consultant for the Society for the Arts in Healthcare since 2006, presenting webinars, consults and site visits.
Earlier this year (2010) Cathy was honored to receive Gainesville’s Musician of the Year award from her classical colleagues and music educators throughout the community.