Dr. Melody Schwantes is an Associate Professor of Music Therapy and Graduate Program Director at the Hayes School of Music, Appalachian State University. Her clinical background includes work with children with developmental delays, adults with mental health challenges, and Mexican farmworkers in rural settings.

Dr. Schwantes' research focuses on community music therapy and resource-oriented approaches. She has published extensively on topics including empathy in music therapy practice, international service-learning programs, and community-based care. Her current research investigates music therapy interventions for adults with autoimmune disease emphasizing resource-oriented approaches that promote health and wellness.

Beyond her clinical and research endeavors, Dr. Schwantes is deeply committed to excellence in teaching practices and a multiplicity of approaches in music therapy practice. She has presented her work internationally at conferences across Europe, Asia, and North America, and serves as a reviewer for several music therapy journals. As the director of Joie de Vivre Music Therapy since 2004, she continues to provide client-centered music therapy services while mentoring the next generation of music therapists through her academic role.

Dr. Jacob Kopcienski (He/They) is an assistant professor of musicology in the Hayes School of Music and an affiliate faculty member of the Center for Appalachian Studies. An interdisciplinary scholar, teacher, and artist, Dr. Kopcienski’s research blends methods across the humanities and the arts to consider and enrich a wide range of creative practices, cultural traditions, and communities. 

Dr. Kopcienski’s primary research works with community stakeholders to document, contextualize, and interpret LGBTQ culture in Appalachia and the United States. Their current projects consider how LGBT people use music, performance, public events, and media as forms of “cultural organizing” to build communities, as well as creative and care networks from 1970 to the present. Using archival research, oral history, collaborative ethnography, and popular media analysis, these projects seek to cultivate community memory and add nuance to cultural and historical narratives.

Dr. Kopcienski’s broader community-engaged humanities work fosters arts and place-based communities through research and public programming. From 2020-2022, he worked with the Ohio State Center for Folklore Studies, the Rendville Historic Preservation Society, and Black in Appalachia in a multi-year partnership to document rural African American communities in Appalachian Ohio. At App State, Dr. Kopcienski builds relationships across campus and the community through public programming as the coordinator of the Music Humanities Community Conversation Series and an active member of the High Country Humanities Steering Committee. 

Dr. Kopcienski's research has been supported by App State’s University Research Council, the West Virginia Regional History Center, Ohio State University's Global Arts and Humanities program, and the Harriet Hale Woolley Scholarship.

Laura Brown, a music therapist since 2003, is an active teacher, researcher, and clinician. Her clinical experiences include working with children and adults with disabilities in both private practice and public school settings. Dr. Brown holds a Bachelor of Music Therapy degree and a Master of Music Therapy degree from Appalachian State University and a PhD in Music and Human Learning from the Butler School of Music at The University of Texas at Austin. She has served on the faculty at Ohio University and Western Illinois University. Dr. Brown was the recipient of the Ohio University School of Music Outstanding Teaching Award in 2018 and the Hayes School of Music Excellence in Teaching Award for contingent faculty in 2022. 

An avid researcher, Dr. Brown’s primary research interests include music therapy with children with autism and inclusive music practices in school settings. She has presented her research and conducted clinics at regional, national, and international music education and music therapy conferences, and her published research appears in the Journal of Music Therapy, Music Therapy Perspectives, Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, Music Educators Journal, and General Music Today. As an active member of the American Music Therapy Association, Dr. Brown serves on the Academic Program Approval Committee and the editorial board of Music Therapy Perspectives.

Dr. Nicholas Cline is Assistant Professor of Music Composition in the Hayes School of Music at Appalachian State University. As a composer, he makes music for voices, acoustic instruments, and by electroacoustic means. Deeply influenced by the natural world, his music draws on a broad range of subjects and experiences with the belief that music reveals, challenges, and shapes the listener’s understanding of the world. His music is published by E.C. Schirmer and released on Navona, Ravello, and SEAMUS recording labels. For more information about his works, please visit his website: www.nicholas-cline.com

Dr. Robert J. Wuagneux is a music theorist dedicated to advancing interdisciplinary research at the intersection of music theory, phenomenology, and the social sciences. His scholarly work explores how music’s affordances—action potentials perceived through musical engagement—are enacted to facilitate highly affective, shared musical experiences that can work to promote forms of social cohesion and personal transformation. In turn, his work investigates how such shared musical engagements foster world-building, community-building and collective identity.

Central to Dr. Wuagneux’s research is the concept that music’s affective powers extend beyond the moment of performance, influencing ways of being in the world. He emphasizes the social dimension of music-making, highlighting how communal musical activities can strengthen bonds, promote community wellness, and facilitate social inclusion. His work draws on diverse methodologies, including ethnography, cognitive science, phenomenology and music analysis, to unpack how shared musical experiences generate affective resonance that can catalyze forms of social cohesion that are oriented around music.

As an interdisciplinary researcher, Dr. Wuagneux advocates for collaborative approaches that integrate insights from music theory, the cognitive sciences, sociology, anthropology, and music therapy. He actively engages with music communities through outreach and participatory, world-building projects that facilitate positive social transformation. His efforts foster a broader understanding of music, both as an artistic practice and as a vital social tool capable of creating meaningful change. Through his innovative scholarship and community initiatives, Dr. Wuagneux contributes to a deeper understanding of how music shapes human experience and community resilience.