Mary L. Cohen, Ph.D., is Associate 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, comprised of incarcerated men and female and male community members who regularly perform original songs inside the Iowa Medical and Classification Center.

Devi Wetterer is a transformational facilitator, Ishaya Monk, Priestess of the 13 Moon Mystery School and InterPlay Leader with a passion for leadership in self-expression, creativity, spiritual development and inner awareness. She has dedicated her life to personal and spiritual evolution through varied spiritual traditions. She brings her love for social artistry, performance art and improvisational play as an Artist, Poet, Facilitator and Playgroup leader. Devi is founder of Sacred Residency, dedicated to women discovering their divine feminine essence, their inner magnificence and brilliance that resides within and empowering women as leaders sharing their unique gifts and talents with the world so in need of their medicine. My prayer is that each of us fully embody our divinity while constituting an intimate partnership with our soul, our body, with nature and life itself. Devi also enjoys being a Physical Therapist as well as a Healing Arts Specialist. Her background in the healing arts led her to the discovery of her hidden talents for improvisation and embodied movement for individual and communal transformation. Devi describes herself as “an artist in residence, seeker of truth, fascinated by the day to day wonders of life dancing the joy of being and discovering more of the inner glow that resides in all of us. “Play and being in nature is where I find beauty and grace."