Mary L. Cohen, Ph.D., is a Professor of Music Education at the University of Iowa where she teaches a peacebuilding class, general music methods and materials, research classes, and graduate seminars. Her research area explores well-being through music-making and her scholarly activities explore this area with respect to abolishing the harmful aspects of the prison industrial complex, writing and songwriting, and building caring and collaborative communities. She is the founding director of the Oakdale Community Choir (2009-2020), comprised of incarcerated men and female and male community members who regularly perform original songs inside the Iowa Medical and Classification Center. Now she coordinates the Inside Outside Collaborative Songwriting Project parterning incarcerated and non-incarcerated songwriters to build relationships and create original songs together. She co-leads the International Music and Justice Inquiry Network: IMAJIN Caring Communities, a group of scholars, musicians, and activists that work at the intersection of music-making and prisons.