Our Executive Board
dr. david akombo
David O. Akombo, Ph.D. is Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Culture, Creative and Performing Arts at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus in Barbados, West Indies. He was previously served as Associate Dean and Faculty Fellow in several US universities.
Dr. Akombo was a Diversity Fellow at Weber State University in Utah. Intrigued by the peculiarities of music and its interdisciplinary confluence with medical and psychological practices, Dr. Akombo has studied and researched the effects of music on children and young adults both in schools and in hospitals.
As scholar and performer, Dr. Akombo balances his research interests amicably as a music educator, ethnomusicologist, composer and singer/drummer, having worked in Africa, The United States, and Southeast Asia where he studied with Balinese artists. His books, Music and Healing Across Cultures (Ames, Iowa: Culicidae Press, 2006) and Music and Medicine: Connections Found (Seaburn, 2009) unfold the mechanics of the relationships between music, culture, physiological and spiritual states in people from the anthropological and epistemological inquiry regarding music and healing.
Dr. Akombo has worked jointly with the University of Florida’s Center for Arts in Healthcare Research and Education (CAHRE) with which he collaborated to establish the Arts in Medicine (AIM) program in Nairobi, Kenya. Located at Mater Hospital and funded by the Legislature and State of Florida Center for Cultural Affairs in Tallahassee, this is the first known Arts in Medicine program in Africa. Dr. Akombo continues to be active in music education research, and interdisciplinary scholarship having conducted clinics in several countries. He is a 2017 recipient of the NSF Research Training Scholarship. He is member of the Music Educators National Conference, The national Social Science Association and is co-founder and President of ISQRMM.
dr. kent nelsoN
Dr. Kent Nelson has served as an instrumental music teacher at Olympus Junior High School near Salt Lake City, Utah for over 25 years while also teaching as Adjunct of Instructor pf Music at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. His teaching duties include band, orchestra, percussion, jazz band, and guitar. He is also director and conductor of the school district’s youth symphony and also a community orchestra.
The Granite School District Excel Award (2007), the Utah PTA Gingerbread House Festival Teacher of the Year Award (2006), and the Fulbright Memorial Fund (Japan, 2004) are honors he has received for his teaching. Kent received his doctorate from Boston University (2014) in music education. His dissertation topic was on music and dyslexia. He has presented on this issue at the first two ISQRMM conferences in Utah and Georgia. An article, coauthored with Dr. Ryan Hourigan of Ball State University, has been accepted for publication in a forthcoming issue of UPDATE: Applications of Research in Music Education.
Adina dabija
Adina Dabija, L.Ac., MSTOM, Dipl. O.M. is a Licensed Acupuncturist nationally certified in Oriental Medicine by the National Commission for Certification of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine NCCAOM. She holds a Clinical master’s degree from Pacific College of Oriental Medicine New York and formal certifications in Medical Qi Gong, and in Korean Physical Manipulation (Kyo Jung) from the Institute of Classical Asian Studies, New York. Adina also studied classical herbology with Jeffrey Yuen for two years in New York’s Chinatown. Since 2021, Adina is certified with American Board of Anti-Aging Medicine (ABAAHP) to provide the highest standards of care in all aspects of metabolic and longevity holistic health practices.
Adina is also a Certified Hypnotist specialized in anxiety, trauma, addictions and spiritual hypnosis. Adina has been a member of the National Guild of Hypnotists (NGH) since 2019. To deepen her hypnosis practice, Adina trained with Dr. Mario Martinez in biocognitive science and psychoneuroimmunology.
Adina founded Sol Center, a holistic healing center, in 2017, with a focus on top-down (mind to body) approach to wellness and disease. A published author, Adina helped many create the experience of bringing back the sacred into their lives through her poetry and wellness programs.
JULIANA AZOUBEL is a Brazilian Dance artist, teacher, researcher who has been sharing her life between Brazil and the US since 1996. In Brazil, besides her extensive dance training, teaching and performance experiences, Professor Azoubel has served as a Professor of Dance and Head of the Art/Education Department of the Federal University of Parana, from 2009-2013 and has been a Professor of Dance at the Federal University of Minas Gerais since 2014. In Minas Gerais, she has served as a teacher/lecturer at the School of Grupo Corpo from 2015 to present and the Artistic Director of Grupo Aruanda, two of the most renowned Dance Companies in Brazil. Professor Azoubel is currently a Fellow and Ph.D. Candidate while teaching and researching for Texas Woman’s University Dance Division and for the Federal University of Minas Gerais.
Professor Azoubel holds a BFA in Dance and an M.A. in Latin American Studies (University of Florida) and is a Stott Pilates and TAO Pilates Master Instructor. She has served multiple times as an artist in residence at the University of Florida and has performed in the US, in Europe and South America. Her interests blend Dance ethnography, traditional and contemporary dance, social, cultural, pedagogical, community, diasporic, intercultural performance, feminist approaches, migration and Latine aspects of dance making. Trained in Ballet, Jazz, Modern, Contemporary, Latine and Ballroom, and having mastered several Brazilian dance forms, Professor. Azoubel believes in the interconnection of artistry, teaching, and research as well as in the power of interdisciplinarity as tools for dance making. Professor Azoubel has published academic articles and books, and her scholarship is present in Elementary, Middle, and High School, and Young Adult and High Education. In Brazil and abroad, her writings have contributed to decolonizing curricular and intercultural practices, and interconnecting artistry, pedagogy, healing practices, and dance scholarship.
Professor Azoubel is one of the creators of the Centro de Formaçao em Danca do SESC, a dance community project housed in the city of Belo Horizonte that serves as a national model for inclusion and diversity in Dance in Brazil. In her current stay in the United States, since 2019, she has been the recipient of important awards and prizes including the Langston Dance Fellowship, Dance scholarships at TWU and Texas Education Grants. She has also created the Dancing Eagles, a performance Ensemble housed at Evers Park Elementary School, for kids from K-12. In Brazil and internationally, she has been recognized for her committed scholarship towards intercultural performance and creative and healing ways of teaching dance to all ages, abilities, and communities.
PERRY G. FINE, MD
Professor of Anesthesiology
Pain Research Center, School of Medicine
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah
Perry G. Fine, MD, completed medical school in 1981 at the Medical College of Virginia (Virginia Commonwealth University) in Richmond. He served an internship in 1982 at the
Community Hospital of Sonoma County in Santa Rosa, California, and completed his residency in 1984 at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center in Salt Lake City. In addition, Dr. Fine completed a Pain Medicine fellowship in 1985 at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada,
focusing on cancer-related and neuropathic pain conditions. He joined the faculty of the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Utah in 1985. During his tenure, he has been involved in clinical care (Operating Room, Inpatient Consultation, Outpatient Pain Management Center), medical education (including teaching Medical Ethics), public policy, administrative work, and clinical research.
Dr. Fine received tenure in 1996 and he was promoted to Professor in 1998. Much of his time over the past two decades has been spent developing sustainable models of advanced illness coordinated care in community settings, as an integrative component of comprehensive advanced illness care. He was a founding member of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, and served as President of the American Academy of Pain Medicine in 2011 while also representing the Academy on the Steering Committee of the Pain Care Coalition, Washington, DC through 2017. Dr. Fine is widely published in the fields of pain management/medicine and palliative/hospice/end-of-life care. He has served on several scientific advisory boards, including NIH and FDA, and the editorial boards of several peer reviewed medical journals, including Pain Medicine and the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management. He completed three terms on the Board of Directors of Magellan Health (now Centene), focusing on behavioral health and improving health outcomes in special and vulnerable populations. In 2023, after the Utah Legislature legislated formation of the Center for Medical Cannabis Research at the University of Utah, Dr. Fine was appointed to serve on the Executive Advisory Committee. Great progress has been made, with two consecutive years of funding a total of six research projects.
Dr. Fine has been recognized and honored by receiving the 2007 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine Distinguished Hospice Physician Award, and the 2008 American Pain Society John and Emma Bonica Public Service Award. He is the recipient of the American Academy of Pain Management’s 2010 Head and Heart award and the 2011 Nyswander Award, presented at the annual Pain and Chemical Dependency meeting in New York City. In 2012, the Perry G. Fine, MD Endowed Fund in Pain and Palliative Medicine was created at West Virginia University by West Virginia Caring (West Virginia’s leading not-for-profit hospice provider) to honor his contributions to the fields of pain and palliative care. In March 2015, he received the American Academy of Pain Medicine’s Distinguished Service Award, and the “Top Visionaries Award” by the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine in 2018.
As a medical avocation, he worked as a team physician for the University of Utah football team for 18 years (1990-2008) and was a medical officer for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Most recently, Dr. Fine became Faculty Advisor to and a member of the Utah Medical Orchestra (UMO), founded by medical students of the U of Utah Eccles SOM at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Last year, the UMO was endorsed by the VP Health
Sciences Center as one of the U’s major wellness initiatives, and is now an official Sponsored Student Organization. It is comprised of musicians from the U of Utah Health Sciences Center and other regional healthcare organizations. Additional administrative duties include serving as Chair of the University of Utah Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine College Counsel.
During the pandemic, in an effort to create an uplifting experience, Dr. Fine spent much of his “spare time” writing the story and music for a musical that had a successful month-long run at the Grand Theater in Salt Lake City (February, 2024). This production has led to continued developmental work on the musical (entitled FATE?). The newest version of the show will be a staged workshop as part of the University of Utah’s Musical Theater Department sophomore curriculum in October, 2025.
STEVEN CORNELIUS teaches at University of Massachusetts Boston (2011-). Previous positions include Boston University (2008-2011), Bowling Green State University (1991-2008), Pine Manor College (1989-1991), and University of Wisconsin Madison (1984-86). Residencies include New England Conservatory (1993-97) and Bruckner-Konservatorium Linz (1992-97). Working as a journalist, he covered regional music and dance for The Blade, Toledo, Ohio’s daily newspaper (1996-2006). Topics covered in academic journals and book chapters include West African witchcraft, music and trance, music of American presidential politics, commercial music during the Vietnam War, ethics in fieldwork, and music pedagogy. Books include the textbook Music: A Social Experience (with Mary Natvig), Music of the Civil War Era, and The Music of Santería: Traditional Rhythms of the Batá Drums (with John Amira). Serves as editor for both the MRCN Ethnomusicology eJournal and MRCN Musical Practices & Repertoires eJournal (2010-). Performances as percussionist include work with Metropolitan Opera, tours with New York City Opera National Company, Opera Orchestra of New York, Radio City Music Hall, Oklahoma Symphony, Taipei Symphony, Madison Symphony, and others. Degrees from UCLA (PhD, 1987); Manhattan School of Music (MM, 1977); University of Wisconsin-Madison (BMEd, 1975).
PAST BOARD MEMBERS:
Jorge G. Camara, MD