The Intersection of Art and Medicine: An Experiential Approach

Dr. Lisa Wong is a physician, musician, and advocate for arts education. A graduate of Harvard College and New York University School of Medicine, Wong is a pediatrician at Milton Pediatrics and completed her residency at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is also an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Director of the Arts and Humanities Initiative at Harvard Medical School. Wong has taught the Mind Brain Behavior junior seminar at Harvard College for several years and lectures nationally and internationally on the intersection of the arts and healing. She also teaches a course on museum-based medical education through the Harvard Macy Institute. Wong is the author of Scales to Scalpels: Doctors Who Practice the Healing Arts of Music and Medicine. A longtime member of the Longwood Symphony Orchestra, Wong joined as a violinist in 1985 and served as president for over 20 years. She helped create the orchestra's signature Healing Art of Music program, which raises funds and awareness for nonprofit health organizations through musical performances. Wong is co-chair of the Boston Public Schools Arts Advisory Council and serves as chair of the education committee for the Conservatory Lab Charter School Board of Directors. She recently completed her term as Chair of the Board of A Far Cry ensemble and is currently a member of the scientific committee for the Neuroarts Blueprint and the Bright Eyes Coalition of the Aspen Institute. Wong was a co-author of Branches of the Same Tree: The Role of Humanities and Arts in STEMM Education, a consensus report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine published in 2018. She is currently working with the Massachusetts Cultural Council to launch Arts on Prescription, a cultural social prescription program across Massachusetts.

Musician, writer, educator, and producer, Cristina Pato, has been hailed as "a virtuosic burst of energy" by The New York Times. After 25 years of experience as a professional musician, touring around the world with the Galician bagpipes and piano, Pato now channels her creativity into writing, producing, and teaching, focusing on the role of the arts in society. Pato has served as a visiting professor and artist-in-residence at New York University (NYU), Harvard University, and the University of California, Santa Barbara. Additionally, she collaborated for over fifteen years with The Silkroad Project, the nonprofit organization founded by cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Since 2017, Pato writes a weekly column titled “he Art of Restlessness for Spanish newspaper La Voz de Galicia for which she was awarded the XVII Afundación Journalism Prize: Fernández del Riego. In 2022 she published her debut novel No día do seu enterro (On His Burial Day) with Editorial Galaxia (Colección Literaria, 2022), now in its third edition. Pato divides her time between New York City and Galicia and shares her life with photographer Xan Padrón.