Erin Sheehan is a professor of mindfulness studies at Drew University and a PhD candidate at Lesley University - working towards a doctoral degree in Educational Studies with a focus on contemplative pedagogy. She works with children, adolescents, teens, and their parents to bring mindfulness practice into the entire family dynamic. She is passionate about continuing to create digital mindfulness applications in today's world so tethered to technology and devices. She brings mindfulness programs and instruction to businesses, schools, and clinical settings. She is a mother, wife, artist, and student of silence.

As a musician, Cate Byrne sees sound and music as an essential component of climate activism. A violinist, improviser, and composer, music and the importance of sound have always been a large part of Cate’s identity. A recent graduate of New England Conservatory, Cate strives to combine her musical interests with her passions for social and environmental justice. She is excited to start her masters in Climate Science and Policy this fall at Bard college, while still playing as much music as possible. Recent endeavors to connect music with the environmental movement include the composition Plasticity (co-written with collaborators Ryan O’Connell and Henry Wilson), as well as writing music about endangered ecosystems with her duo Half Moon Island. She will be joined later in the episode by her collaborator Jake Zaslav to discuss their electroacoustic music, and the process that went into their upcoming EP Jake Zaslav is a trumpeter, video producer, and researcher based in New York, NY. A graduate of Tufts University, Jake has studied and performed with musicians such as Wynton Marsalis, Ran Blake, Jason Palmer, and William Parker. He currently works in commercial video and television production including programs such as The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and HelloFresh. His research draws upon his background in jazz, film, and immersive technology to explore the intersections of sound, power, race, and community. https://halfmoonisland.bandcamp.com/ https://www.instagram.com/halfmoonisland_band/

Nick Suchecki is a researcher, musician, and educator, having earned degrees from Berklee College of Music and New England Conservatory. Currently, Nick is pursuing a PhD in Educational Studies and Graduate Certificate in Expressive Therapies Studies at Lesley University, focusing on the intersection of ecopsychology, music therapy, and mind-body medicine. Additionally, Nick recently completed a mind-body medicine teaching certification at the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind-Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. As a jazz saxophonist, Nick has performed at the Newport Folk Festival and International Blues Challenge, as well as alongside Martha Reeves, Ronnie Spector, Dave Holland, Funktapuss, and the Cape Symphony. Nick has a passion to combine research and practice from seemingly unrelated fields to create new programs aimed at cultivating physical and psychological wellness for all.

Carolyn Brazil is a second year student in the art therapy and counseling masters program at Lesley University. Her research this past year has examined autism spectrum disorder and how to use art therapy with this population. She has worked with children who live with autism spectrum disorder and will continually work with these populations in her future internship and practice.

Becky Mathers is the post-doc researcher for the USTRIVE project at Arcadia University in Glenside, PA. The USTRIVE project (Understanding STEM Teaching Through Integrated Contexts in Everyday Life) offers professional development on creating lessons grounded in relevant social and scientific problems in the local community for STEM educators in the Philadelphia area. Becky earned her doctorate from Antioch University New England where she studied the effects of what she termed "a profound experience with nature," an experience that shifts an individual's view of or relationship with the natural world. Becky lives in central NJ, serving on her town's environmental commission and the school's wellness and sustainability council. She enjoys spending time outdoors with her two favorite little people.

Kimberly Post is an Assistant Professor and Program Director at Saint Joseph's College of Maine, where she teaches and co-leads the Center for Sustainable Communities. Her research focuses on high impact practices in education, including community-based research, sustainability education, reflective practices, and compassion development. Kimberly is author of A Settled Mind, 2007's groundbreaking curriculum guide for mindfulness and reflection in the classroom. Her most recent peer-reviewed publication, Protecting Little Sebago: A Model College-Lake Association Sustainable Partnership, can be found in the April 2022 issue of Sustainability and Climate Change.

In our first season of this podcast, we will focus on the subjective and phenomenological experience of listening. The foundation of our investigation focuses on making sense of the world through the sounds, and lack of sounds, that we encounter in our daily interactions. How do we hear these sounds and how do we create meaning from them? How does listening help us understand the world and our place in it? As educators, artists, musicians, scientists, contemplative practitioners, scholars, and activists, the individuals highlighted in this inaugural season have tracked the importance of careful and engaged listening in a world that seems to enable scattered attention, disengagement and displacement. Our conversations grapple with topics related to ways of cultivating deep listening; the powers of silence and contemplation; experiences of listening to sounds from the natural world; the restorative aspects of sound; and how traumatic experiences impact our relationship with sound. Each story shared is personal and intimate, but also much larger than each one of us. The insights shared reveal great lessons in the stories of sound. Please join us for Season #1 of Interdisciplinary Investigations-- first episode airs on Monday, October 10th.