Mary Cohen is an associate professor of music education at The University of Iowa.  She holds a joint appointment in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She researches wellness through music-making with an emphasis on prison contexts, writing and songwriting, and collaborative communities. Prof. Cohen created the Voice of Experience Partnership, in which a music student directs an adult senior chorus, and The University of Iowa Community Prison Partnership Programs, which works with inmates at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center and the Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility.