Nancy Gerber, Ph.D, ATR-BC
Nancy Gerber, Ph.D, ATR-BC is Associate Clinical Professor Emerita and founding and former director of the Ph.D Program in Creative Arts Therapies at Drexel University. She currently is Teaching Faculty in the Graduate Art Therapy Program at Florida State University. Previously she was the Director of the Graduate Art Therapy Program at Drexel University. Dr. Gerber has presented and published on doctoral education for art therapists, mixed methods research, aesthetic intersubjective worldview in research and practice, arts-based research, art therapy research, and the mechanisms of change in the creative arts therapies. She was a former vice-chair of the IRB and currently chairs the Doctoral Education Subcommittee for the American Art Therapy Association. She co-facilitates the Arts-Based Research SIG at the International Congress of Qualitative Research. Dr. Gerber has developed the Arts-Based Research Global Consortium to advance socially responsible arts-based research. She has recently published a book entitled Imagination and Arts-Based Practices for Integration in Research. Dr. Gerber was the first recipient of the first Distinguished Educator’s Award from the American Art Therapy Association and received the 2022-2023 University Teaching Award for Outstanding Graduate Teaching from Florida State University.
Theresa Van Lith, Ph.D, AThR, ATR-BC
Dr. Van Lith is an Associate Professor and Course Coordinator at La Trobe University, Melbourne. Australia. Before this she was Associate Professor and Clinical Coordinator at Florida State University. Her research interests began in the area of art therapy practices in mental health recovery. Upon moving to the United States, Dr. Van Lith quickly expanded her interests on art therapy evaluation methods and research approaches across multiple populations. Consequently, she has been the Principal Investigator on several research projects including group art therapy for children with ASD, early intervention art therapy with Latinx farmworker children, as well as mindfulness-based art therapy and technology-assisted approaches to dealing with anxiety and stress with university students. Dr. Van Lith continues to play an active role in the American Art Therapy Association including as Associate Editor of the highly regarded professional academic journal, Art Therapy and as a Board Member for the Research Committee. She is also a Board Member for the Australian, New Zealand and Asian Creative Arts Therapy Association (ANZACATA). Dr. Van Lith has been the recipient of numerous awards including the American Art Therapy Association Seed Grant (2021); National Endowment for the Arts Research Award (2020); Department of Art Education Faculty Teaching Award (2019); the Rawley Silver Research Award from the American Art Therapy Association (2017); and the Transformation Through Teaching Award from Florida State University - Spiritual Life Project (2016).
Madeline Centracchio, MS, LPC-A, ATR-P
​Madeline Centracchio is an art therapist working across populations within the Medical University of South Carolina’s Arts in Healing program. She is from Murrells Inlet, South Carolina where she found passions for art, the beach, and developing community. Madeline graduated from the College of Charleston and completed her Master of Science in Art Therapy from Florida State University. She also works on research teams exploring arts-based research and developing a strategic plan for art therapy research.
