2025 World Voice Day:
Music as medicine

Wednesday, April 16, 2025
4:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m
Music Hall • Corbett Tower
1241 Elm Street • Cincinnati, OH 45202

Discover how music and voice intersect with health and wellness. Admission is free; reservations are required.

This event is at full capacity. To join the waitlist for any tickets that may become available, please click below.

Michael M. Johns III, M.D.  

Dr. Johns is a graduate of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the University of Michigan for Otolaryngology and Vanderbilt University for fellowship in Laryngology. He is the director of the USC Voice Center at the University of Southern California with an interest in laryngeal dystonia and the aging voice.

Quinn Patrick Ankrum 

Mezzo-soprano Quinn Patrick Ankrum performs a wide variety of repertoire spanning the centuries, from the early Baroque period to the works of living composers.  Equally at home on the concert, opera, and recital stages, she has sung with opera companies, orchestras, and festivals throughout the United States and abroad, including the Dallas Opera, Jacksonville Lyric Opera, Mercury Opera (Rochester, NY), National Orchestra of Mexico, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Lubbock Symphony Orchestra, Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Ash Lawn-Highland Summer Festival, Lorn Live Chamber Music Festival (Oban, Scotland), and the East Anglian Academy of Early Music (Framlingham, England). 

In addition to being an active performer and researcher, Ankrum is a successful voice teacher with a deep interest in Musicians’ Health and Wellness. She is a Licensed Body Mapping Educator (LBME), a student of the Alexander Technique, and does further work in trauma-informed pedagogy as a trained facilitator of mind-body practices. She incorporates the principles of these disciplines into her studio teaching. As a LBME, she works with students of all instruments as well as conductors to help them find greater awareness, easefulness, and freedom in their music making. Her students are building careers at the local, regional, and national levels.

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Sian Cotton, Ph.D.

Sian Cotton, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist, founding director of the Osher Center for Integrative Health and the Turner Farm Foundation Chair at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. A Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine and Division Director for Integrative Medicine, Dr. Cotton has an active research lab with ongoing clinical studies focusing primarily on mindfulness-based interventions and integrative medicine practice-based research. She is currently the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Academic Consortium of Integrative Medicine and Health, a group of over 85 leading academic health centers and served as 1 of 8 Congress Co-Presidents for the 2nd World Congress on Integrative Medicine in Rome September 2023. Dr. Cotton is often invited to speak with community organizations and businesses, healthcare audiences, and academics about mind-body medicine for stress reduction, and preventive and wellness-based approaches to healthcare.

Renée Gottliebson, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

Renee Gottliebson, Ph.D., CCC-SLP is Associate Clinical Professor and Externship Coordinator in the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology at Miami University. Her clinical and research interests include the evaluation and treatment of voice disorders, particularly the care and training of the professional voice. Dr. Gottliebson teaches coursework in voice disorders and counseling in communication sciences and disorders. She maintains an active performance career within the community.

Renée Gustin, CCC-SLP

Renée Gustin is a dedicated and compassionate Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) specializing in transgender voice, professional voice and performance voice. With a commitment to providing inclusive and individualized care, Renée has become a leading expert in gender-diverse healthcare, particularly in gender-affirming voice care. As UC Health’s expert in offering gender-affirming voice services, Renée has pioneered the development of the gender-affirming voice care program since joining the team in 2016.

She has earned recognition for her outstanding contributions to patient care. In 2022, she was honored as the recipient of the UC Health PRIIDE award, an acknowledgment of her dedication and exceptional service. In addition, Renée has been published in national journals for her clinical research efforts.

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Rebecca Howell, M.D.

Dr. Rebecca Howell is a board-certified laryngologist with a clinical and academic focus on the comprehensive care of voice, swallowing, and airway disorders. She earned her B.S. from the University of Michigan and her M.D. from Drexel University College of Medicine. She completed her residency in Otolaryngology at George Washington University, followed by fellowship training in Laryngology at the Medical College of Georgia.

Dr. Howell began her career at the University of Cincinnati, where she now serves as Associate Professor, Division Chief of Laryngology, and Director of the Laryngology Fellowship. She also leads the Robin Cotton & Rocco Dal Vera Professional Voice, Swallowing, and Airway Program and serves as the supervisor for the outpatient clinical speech-language pathologists.

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Lauren Mikhail, CCC-SLP

Lauren Mikhail is a speech-language pathologist at UC Health within the Department of Otolaryngology, with a specialty in the treatment of professional and performance voice. Lauren began her studies at Belmont University with a focus on Commercial Voice and eventually transferred into the field of speech-language pathology. She completed her Master's at the University of Cincinnati and has remained there since her fellowship in 2017. Lauren continues to sing and perform professionally in addition to instructing cycling classes on the side.

Betsey Nuseibeh, MM, MEd, MT-BC

Betsey is a board-certified music therapist and PhD candidate in the School of Public Health, Indiana University-Bloomington. She is also an NIH T32 Fellow in Interdisciplinary Training in Biobehavioral Oncology, Indiana University-Indianapolis. Betsey has worked in the field of music and music therapy in Cincinnati for over 20 years, most recently as the founder and Executive Director of Melodic Connections, a music therapy-based non-profit. Betsey’s research focuses on improving health-related quality of life for cancer survivors using music interventions. Currently she is examining the effects of singing on heart rate variability to improve stress response and decrease symptoms of depression and anxiety with breast cancer survivors.

John M. Tew, Jr., M.D.

John M. Tew, Jr., MD, is a true leader in the medical field and his community, internationally recognized for his work in neurosurgery and named a Great Living Cincinnatian in 2011 by the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber. 

Dr. Tew has been a long-time supporter of the Osher Center for Integrative Health at the University of Cincinnati, serving on the original Integrative Health Steering Collaborative in 2009 which ultimately led to the center’s establishment in 2013, and is currently a member of the Osher Center’s Advisory Council. Since its inception, he has served as a cheerleader and health coach, championing the center’s efforts and encouraging everybody to seek to live a transformational life that prioritizes prevention and self-care and to serve as a model for integrating lifestyle medicine with conventional medicine as the platform for a living a long and healthy life.

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