OUR TEAM
Joyce M. Bonomini, Vice President Education and Community Engagement
Joyce Bonomini has spent over four decades championing the integration of the arts into healthcare and community settings. Her journey began in the classroom, where she saw firsthand how trauma and poverty impacted learning—insights that inspired her shift into the presenting and arts-in-health sectors. Early in her career, she worked alongside visionary leaders like Sr. Joan Leonard, Gay Hanna, and Susan Perlstein, and working relationships with Dr. Gene Cohen, and Dr. Jill Sonke all of whom helped shape the creative aging and arts-in-health movements.
A pioneer in advocacy and education, Joyce has been instrumental in developing training and ethical standards for artists in healthcare environments. Her leadership has aligned with the National Organization for Arts in Health (NOAH), where she contributed to the 2023 Code of Ethics, reinforcing her commitment to professionalism and impact.
Amy Dennison, Musician Teaching Artist
Amy is the Associate Director and the Director of Education for Preparatory and Community Engagement for the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) at the University of Cincinnati. In addition to being an experienced teacher, Ms. Dennison is a professional musician, specializing in woodwinds with additional experience playing several folk instruments. She is learning cello in the CCM New Horizons String Orchestra and performs in a variety of venues and groups. She has been active in the field of music and wellness for several years. Amy received her Bachelor’s of Music Education from Eastern Michigan University, a Master of Music from Michigan State University and a Master of Music Education from CCM.
Amy Tuttle, Pones Specialist and Creative Art Making
Through her MA Arts in Transformation, Amy Tuttle is a passionate practitioner of Arts & Healing. She views art-making (visual arts and creative movement) as a beneficial tool for communities and individuals to process difficult experiences, build resilience, and cultivate their sense of purpose. She loves guiding art-making experiences for individuals and groups with a range of themes like: community-building, storytelling, trauma-healing, celebration, processing grief, and working with life's various transitions.
Amy has worked internationally in the Arts & Healing field, providing workshops around the world, guiding public art installations in Haiti & Philadelphia, developing and teaching curricula for "Arts-Based First Response" for disaster-relief scenarios with BuildaBridge International, and training arts practitioners in trauma-informed best practices via UNICEF Haiti and various organizations in the US.
Locally, Amy has worked with WordPlay as their Executive Director, Baker Hunt Art & Cultural Center as Education Director, Price Hill Will as Community Engagement Coordinator, and Indigo Hippo as the Director of Programming. Currently Amy is part of the faculty at The Hive. Amy is thrilled to be teaching with the Cincinnati Arts Association's Arts & Healing Initiative as it provides a wonderful service to the community and directly engages her deepest interests.
Brandon Hawkins, Visual Artist & Instructor
Brandon "Illzotic" Hawkins is an experienced visual artist and instructor with over two decades dedicated to the Greater Cincinnati arts scene. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in African and African American Studies and a Fine Arts certificate from the University of Cincinnati.
With a unique artistic technique driven by a love for history, Brandon is also passionate about mentoring young artists. He has led numerous impactful mural projects, including a community center mural in Middletown that earned him the key to the city. In 2016, Brandon co-founded Soul Palette with his wife, Ewaniki Moore-Hawkins, offering mobile painting experiences, mural design, and commissioned artwork.
Brandon has significantly contributed as a Project Manager for ArtWorks Cincinnati and a Team Building Facilitator at Visionaries and Voices. Currently, he serves as an Arts in Healing Facilitator and Artist on Tour with the Cincinnati Arts Association, in addition to being a Visual Arts Instructor within Cincinnati Public Schools. He continues to inspire and uplift through his art and teaching.
Dan Erdman, Musician / Composer
Dan shares his passion for life & love in the songs he writes & in his performances of originals and covers. He has performed for a wide variety of events & in venues, large & small, including in Denmark. He plays guitar, piano, Native American flute, bass guitar & banjo.
He has loved serving as a member of the Arts in Healing Team since 2019, playing for Hospice of Cincinnati patient facilities & UC Medical Center. Dan is also an ArtsWave Artist & volunteer musician for Our Daily Bread.
Dan has composed 80+ songs & released albums on cassette, CDs, and now on streaming sites. In addition, Dan has also authored & published two books: a novel, Caterin’s Story & Yoga & the 21st Century Man (co-authored with Roger Null).
Dan’s intention for those he serves in his Arts in Healing work is for them to feel comforted, soothed, inspired, invigorated, and most of all, honored. May you always have a song in your heart!
Kelly Richey, Musician & Self-Care Provider
Kelly Richey is an award-winning blues musician, poet/songwriter, guitar teacher, life coach, spiritual director, and inspirational speaker. She began life coaching in 2009, earning certifications as a Dream Coach™ and True Purpose Coach™. In 2015, she graduated from the Women Writing for (a) Change (WWf(a)C) Conscious Feminine Leadership Academy, integrating writing into her coaching and teaching. She later founded Women Writing for (a) Change + Mobile, an affiliate school that brings WWf(a)C’s circle practices on the road.
In 2019, Kelly completed training in the Art of Spiritual Direction at Wellstreams, through the Spirituality Network in Columbus, OH. She is a Health and Wellness Professional and member of the International Association for Wellness Professionals, working with clients using a 360 Wellness approach to holistic balance.
Kelly holds certifications and training in:
- Certified True Purpose Coach™ & Group Leader
- Certified Dream Coach™ & Group Leader
- Certified Facilitator, Women Writing for (a) Change®
- Parts Work, Voice Dialogue, and Shadow Work
- Spiritual Director, trained at Wellstreams; member of Spiritual Directors International (SDI)
- Health and Wellness Professional; member of the International Association for Wellness Professionals
Learn more at www.kellyrichey.com.
Kim Popa, Pones Movement Specialist
Kim Popa is the Executive Director/Co-Founder of Pones, a local dance company that uses dance for social change. Kim has studied dance for over 38 years and graduated summa cum laude with a BFA in theatre and dance from Northern Kentucky University. Kim teaches dance/movement classes at The Carnegie, Springer School and Center, Children’s Hospital Medical Center, the Giving Voice Foundation; and leads workshops and professional development for the Northern Kentucky Cooperative for Educational Services, Governor’s School for the Arts, and throughout the region. Kim has worked internationally at the Sri Lankan Institute for Buddhist Studies, the CrisisArt Festival in Arezzo, Italy, the Sibiu International Theatre Festival in Sibiu, Romania, and performed in multiple mainstage productions and modern dance concerts. In addition to teaching and performing, Kim has choreographed for multiple award-winning productions at NKU, New Edgecliff Theatre, and Know Theatre. She is a member of the National Organization for Arts in Health, a certified trauma-informed teaching artist through the Bartol Foundation and has a deep passion for movement and volunteerism."
Kyle Meadows, Hammered Dulcimer
Kyle has worked as a potter, scientist, and teacher. He now plays the hammered dulcimer full time and is known locally and nationally as one of the finest hammered dulcimer players available. A performer with the Kentucky Arts Council, Cincinnati ArtsWave, and the Cincinnati Arts Association, Kyle has shared the stage with such internationally known acts as Mark O'Connor, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Homer Ledford, and Ralph Stanley, Jr.
Kyle plays for a variety of events, including festivals, parties, weddings, and receptions. He also performs healing music in hospices, hospitals, and oncology centers for the Arts in Healing Initiative. Kyle has a comfortable, almost effortless approach to his instrument and to the variety of songs he adapts to it.
To hear his music is to be soothed, uplifted, and delighted: www.kylemeadows.com
Lauren Schloemer, Multi-instrumentalist and Vocalist
Lauren Schloemer is a graduate of Northern Kentucky University, earning a degree in Music Education with an emphasis in Orchestral Studies. She currently teaches lessons at the historic Herzog Studios in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky University where she instructs fiddle, violin, viola, cello, and beginner mandolin.
She is a sought after studio musician as a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist and performs regularly in various bands, mainly Hickory Robot. Hickory Robot is an original newgrass band that has been nominated for several Cincinnati Entertainment Awards for “Best Bluegrass Band” (2011- 2018) and “Album of the Year” (2012) for their sophomore release, “Sawyer”. Lauren joined the Arts in Healing team in late fall of 2015 and enjoys performing a variety of styles of string music for the patients, friends and family, and staff. When not rehearsing or performing, Lauren enjoys gardening, hiking, and camping.
Nora Barton, Cellist
Cellist and CCM alum Nora Barton recently returned to the Cincinnati region from Chicago, where she performed in symphonies, rock bands, avante-garde ensembles, theater productions, and more, for 15 years. As a recent addition to the Arts in Healing team she finds immense purpose providing music to help ease patients and their families, nurses and staff through the day. Outside of AIH, Nora regularly plays wedding ceremonies, accompanies yoga classes, hosts ambient noise jams, and performs out as Planchette, an experimental solo project that enriches spaces with ethereal cello energy. Her recordings are available on Bandcamp at planchettesound.bandcamp.com
Pam Jurgens, Harpist
Pam Jurgens is a Celtic harpist with the Cincinnati Arts Association’s Arts in Healing Initiative. She plays her harp at Hospice of Cincinnati, The Cincinnati Veteran’s Hospital and the Good Samaritan Hospital Infusion Center. Her deepest intention is to offer a healing, comforting, and calming presence, for patients and families as they face a most difficult and stressful time in their lives.
Pam is also a music educator. She taught elementary school music for over twenty-five years and presently teaches at the Wyoming Fine Arts Center. In addition to her solo work she is also the harpist for Midnight Rose, a harp, flute, violin trio that performs in the Cincinnati area.
Roberta Schultz, Musician, HealthRhythms Facilitator
Roberta Schultz, MA, BA and Rank I in Education, is a singer songwriter and poet from Wilder, KY. She performs regionally with critically acclaimed Raison D’Etre, a women’s harmony trio specializing in swing harmonies, cowboy anthems, and American music. Raison D’Etre has nine recordings and one concert DVD to their credit. The group is featured in Kentucky’s Performing Arts Roster.
As a solo performer, Roberta is included on arts rosters in both Kentucky and Ohio. She is a Trained HealthRhythms Facilitator with over two decades’ experience leading wellness drum circles for seniors, veterans, recovery treatment centers, and schools.
Like an original “bard,” Roberta is both singer songwriter and poet. Her work has appeared in Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, Still: The Journal, Kakalak, Women Speak and other anthologies. She has published five chapbooks of poetry and two full-length collections, Underscore, 2022, from Dos Madres Press and Deep Ends, 2025, from Finishing Line Press.
Wild Carrot: Pam Temple & Spencer Funk - Musician
These are the connections that are formed and the intimate sharing that goes on between Arts-in-Healing participants and Wild Carrot (Pam Temple & Spencer Funk). Pam and Spencer are at the "root" of this Cincinnati-based, award-winning group, who has what it takes to please all types of Americana and Roots music fans. With a foot in traditional American music, their repertoire branches in diverse directions: from award-winning original tunes to swing, blues and traditional songs, using guitar, mandolin, dulcimer, concertina, and vocals. Wild Carrot’s entertaining and moving performances have often been described as “honest, soothing, uplifting and fun all at the same time”, moving an audience from laughter to tears and back again in a way that makes the listener feel like they’re in a conversation with old friends. All of this adds up to a musical experience that’s been described as “seamless”, “life-sized complex, subtle and powerful” and “a joy”. They are humbled and honored to be doing this important work.
www.wildcarrot.net | Facebook and Instagram: wildcarrotmusic