Madeleine Hackney

Dr. Madeleine Hackney is a neurokinesiologist focused on the intersection of dance, mobility, and brain health in aging. She is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine with Tenure, a Research Health Scientist with the Atlanta VA Center for Visual and Neurocognitive Rehabilitation (CVNR) and an Investigator with the Birmingham/Atlanta VA Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center (GRECC). She holds an adjunct position with Emory Department of Rehabilitation Medicine,  is a full member of the Emory Neuroscience Graduate program, affiliated faculty with the Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology Program and recently joined the Emory-GA Tech joint Biomedical Engineering department as faculty. Dr. Hackney earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance Performance at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts in 1994. From 1994-2005, she worked as a professional contemporary social, and ballroom dancer with international performance credits. From 2003-2005, she completed pre-medical curriculum at Hunter College, City University of New York and then worked to earn her PhD in Movement Science from Washington University in St. Louis from 2005-2009, while also working as a dance, yoga and pilates instructor. Dr. Hackney served as a Science Gallery Atlanta faculty fellow from 2022-2023. She has received funding from the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the NIH, the NSF, the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute, the Parkinson Foundation, the CDC, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and several foundations. She reviews grant applications for the VA, the NIH, and the NEA. Her research has received media coverage in the New York Times, Scientific American, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, National Public Radio, CNN, AARP Newsletter and in Musicophilia, by Oliver Sachs. Dr. Hackney has presented her work about music and dance-based exercise and tango for those with PD and older adults nationally and internationally, including at Yale University, the Karolinska Institute Nobel Forum, Sweden, Montreal, in Tel Aviv, Hong Kong, and Kyoto. She is the 2015 lecturer for the Fulbright association Selma Jeanne Cohen lectureship in dance.