Savneet Talwar, Ph.D., ATR-BC is a Professor in the graduate art therapy and counseling program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her current research examines feminist politics, critical theories of difference, social justice and questions of resistance.  Using an interdisciplinary approach, she is interested in community based art practices; cultural trauma; performance art and public cultures as they relate to art therapy theory, practice and pedagogy. She is the author of Art Therapy for Social Justice: Radical Intersection and has published in Arts in Psychotherapy, Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, and Gender Issues in Art Therapy.  She is also the founder of the CEW (Creatively Empowered Women) Design Studio, a craft, sewing, and fabrication enterprise for Bosnian and South Asian women at the Hamdard Center in Chicago. She is the past Associate Editor of Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association.

Shelly Goebl-Parker, ATR-BC, is an artist, board-certified art therapist, licensed clinical social worker, certified diversity and Associate Professor who has worked with children, youth, and families in residential, education and community settings for over 30 years. She has trained art therapy counselors at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville for over 25 years teaching several courses including research methods, creative process, counseling techniques, fieldwork, social and cultural dimensions and arts in community development. Her scholarship has engaged research based practice inspired by Reggio Emilia and other early childhood educators, liberation pedagogy, training and support for artists in public practice, community development and pedagogy with the art hives model.

Lauren Leone (she/her), DAT, ATR-BC, LMHC is an artist, board-certified art therapist, and licensed mental health counselor working with art therapy participants in clinical and community-based settings in Somerville and Boston, MA. She has been an art therapy educator for a decade and her research interests include the unique therapeutic benefits of craft materials and media for art therapy practice, socially engaged craft practices, and how craft activism can support art therapy practitioners and participants in being change agents. Lauren is the editor of Craft in Art Therapy: Diverse Approaches to the Transformative Power of Craft Materials and Methods. She explores themes of identity, connection, and communication through drawing, textiles, and mixed media in her art, and facilitates collaborative/community art projects with the Crafting Change community art therapy project.

Dr. Emily Goldstein Nolan (she/they) is a board certified, licensed art psychotherapist, professional counselor, and a professor of practice in the Creative Arts Therapy program at Syracuse University in New York. Dr. Nolan has presented nationally and internationally, is a qualitative researcher, and has written many academic publications. Her specialties include working creatively and somatically with people and communities who have experienced trauma.

Ella Bryant is co-founder of The Portable Wellbeing Studio, an art studio on wheels that provides art therapy where it's needed. She is a dual-experience art psychotherapist, having been both a user and provider of mental health services. She is self-employed and does both individual and group work. She has experience working as an art psychotherapist with adults in psychiatric wards, supported housing, universities, and an artistic, therapeutic community. She is a practising artist who uses darkroom photography with found objects to show unsteady states of mind. She also works as an art workshop facilitator and has 15 years of experience running workshops for galleries, festivals, recovery colleges, museums and schools.
 
Alex Burr is co-founder of The Portable Wellbeing Studio, an art studio on wheels that provides art therapy where it's needed. She has experience working as an art psychotherapist with children, adolescents and families, both in the NHS and the third sector and working-age adults in the community setting. Prior to becoming an art psychotherapist, Alex trained and worked as a secondary school teacher and worked in community development, running community-based workshops and arts in health projects. She has over 12 years of experience as a practising artist/maker specializing in textiles and continues to practise art making in her home studio. She participates in regular exhibitions and is part of an eco-art therapy group.

With over nineteen years of experience working with trauma – informed approaches alongside art, Somatic Experiencing, yoga and mindfulness, Atira has a deep commitment and passion in empowering and healing women and girls globally from the inside out. Hailing from Singapore, she has a deep understanding about Asian cross-cultural women’s issues through her own journey of recovery and empowerment from gender discrimination, sex trafficking and domestic violence.
Since 2004, Atira has set up numerous clinical art therapy and trauma recovery programs, researching the benefits of art therapy, somatic therapies, yoga, mindfulness and ritual in trauma recovery and sexual abuse, from the refugee camps in the jungles of Burma, earthquake hit areas in Nepal, to the wide open spaces of rural Aboriginal communities in the desert of Australia.
In addition to her work at Art to Healing, Atira has worked as a clinician and supervisor in Australia and the Asia – Pacific region in the contexts of psycho-social care, mental health services, disaster relief, community health and as an higher educator in Transpersonal Art Therapy in Australia.
A current Ph.D. candidate in Expressive Art Therapies (EXA) at EGS in Switzerland, Atira has been featured on TED X and spoken at numerous international conferences as an advocate against child sex slavery. Her written work on art therapy and sex trafficking has been published by Jessica Kingsley (2012), Routledge (2020) and international peer-reviewed journals.
Presenter's site: www.arttohealing.org