Our Team

Julene K Johnson, PhD, BM is a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the UCSF Institute for Health & Aging. She serves as the principal investigator of this Music & Dementia Research Network and looks forward to collaborating with Drs. Belgrave and Contreras-Vidal, Julian Silva, and others to accelerate mechanistic studies of music-based interventions for Alzheimer disease and related dementias as we build the research network and a community of collaborators.

Dr. Johnson has over 25 years of experience studying music and dementia. After completing an undergraduate degree in music, Julene began studying music and dementia as a doctoral student. Her dissertation research examined the preserved memory for music in older adults living with Alzheimer disease. As a graduate student, she also spent two summers as a Herbert van Karajan fellow studying brain mechanisms of music using EEG at the University of Vienna. Her subsequent research focused on understanding the relationship between music recognition and brain atrophy in neurodegenerative diseases. She also studied the processing of music in different dementia syndromes, including Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, and mild cognitive impairment. In 2010, Julene was a Fulbright fellow where she studied the relationship between choir singing and well-being among older adults in Finland. After returning from Finland, she continued to focus on developing and testing music-based interventions to promote health and well-being among older adults with and without dementia. She was the principal investigator of a large, NIH/NIA-funded cluster-randomized trial (Community of Voices) that tested the effects of a community choir on the health and well-being of diverse racial/ethnic older adults. She currently leads another study funded by the NIH/NIA that is determining whether a piano improvisation intervention can improve cognition in older adults with and without mild cognitive impairment. She is the co-director of the Sound Health Network, which is a partnership between UCSF and the National Endowment for the Arts, in collaboration with the NIH, Kennedy Center, and Renée Fleming. Julene plays flute and kantele.

Dr. Jose ‘Pepe’ Contreras-Vidal is Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor, director of the U.S. National Science Foundation Industry-University Cooperative Research Center for Building Reliable Advances and Innovations in Neurotechnology (IUCRC BRAIN) at the University of Houston, and an elected Fellow of the IEEE and AIMBE for his pioneering contributions to development of brain-machine interfaces for controlling wearable exoskeletons for rehabilitation, and for mapping art-evoked brain activity. His work at the nexus of art and science is opening new windows to study the neural basis of human creativity while advancing the understanding of the arts as an active neuromodulator of brain function with applications to the development of personalized arts prescriptions. Dr. Contreras-Vidal is a member of the National Advisory Board for Medical Rehabilitation Research at the U.S. National Institute of Health. His career development in biomedical engineering was highlighted by the journal Science.

Melita Belgrave, Ph.D., received her bachelor’s degree in music therapy from Michigan State University. She also earned her master’s in music therapy, a certification in aging studies, and a doctorate in music education with an emphasis in music therapy at Florida State University.  Belgrave has worked as a music therapist in special education, mental health, rehabilitation, hospice, geriatric, and intergenerational settings throughout Texas, Florida, Kansas, and Missouri. Her research interests are music therapy with older adults and intergenerational programming. She has presented at regional, national, and international conferences, and her research has been published in national and international journals including the Journal of Music Therapy, Music Therapy Perspectives, Frontiers Medicine, Journal of Music Teacher Education. She co-authored the text "Music Therapy and Geriatric Populations: A Handbook for Practicing Music Therapists." Her current service includes working as the chair of the Diversity, Equity,and Inclusion Committee for the American Music Therapy Association. Additionally, Belgrave serves as a member of the editorial board for Music Therapy Perspectives and was the 2016-2018 chair of the International Seminar of the Commission on Special Music Education and Music Therapy. Prior to her appointment at Arizona State University, Belgrave taught in the music therapy program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City as an assistant and associate professor. While at ASU, Belgrave currently teaches undergraduate and graduate music therapy courses, serves as the advisor for the music therapy student organization, and has been appointed as the administrator of the Arizona State University Music Therapy Clinic. Belgrave has also been appointed as a research affiliate at The Mayo Clinic in Arizona and conducts creative aging music groups in the community. In 2018 Belgrave was recognized by the Black Music Therapy Network, Inc. with the annual service award in recognition for her exemplary commitment to advanced knowledge and practice in the field of music therapy. Additionally, Belgrave has authored a chapter in and co-edited the text for “Music Therapy in a Multicultural Context: A Handbook for Music Therapy Students and Professionals.”

Julian Silva, MA, MT-BC,  earned his master’s degree in music therapy from New York University (NYU). His music therapy training included a internship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and a field placement at Bronx Lebanon Hospital. At MSKCC his clinical experience included the use of song writing, improvisation, lyric analysis and drumming to help patients cope with the physical and psychological effects of cancer diagnosis and treatment. At Bronx Lebanon Hospital, Julian used music to facilitate individual and group sessions for patients dealing with abuse, substance dependency, domestic violence and anger management. In addition, Julian spent time at the Child Study Center at Bronx Lebanon helping adolescents use music as a form of expression in dealing with abuse, violence, neglect, and various psychiatric issues. At the present moment, Julian is a music therapist at UCSF Benioff Childrens Hospital Oakland.