The Mid-Atlantic Region of the American Music Therapy Association

passages

Staff

	Mechelle Chestnut, MA, MT-BC, LCAT is Co-Founder of MAR Passages. She works with elementary and middle school aged children in the Jersey City, NJ public school system and adults in private practice. She is an associate administrator and former teacher of Music in the Mountains. Mechelle studied music therapy at New York University where she wrote her thesis Family Music Therapy: Family Work in Music Therapy from a Feminist Perspective. She resides with her husband Brian in Brooklyn.
	Melissa Cook, MT-BC, is co-coordinator of MAR Passages 2008. She received her bachelor of music degree in music therapy from Nazareth College in 2005 and is anticipating her Master's of Science in music therapy from State University of New York at New Paltz in the summer of 2008. Melissa served on the American Music Therapy Association of Students from 2005-2006 as President and Past President. She was a member of the Mid Atlantic Region Association of Music Therapy Students board from 2003-2006, serving as Parliamentarian, President, and Past President. Melissa currently works as a music therapist in pediatrics at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, NJ.
	Jenny Hoi Yan Fu, MA, MT-BC, NRMT, LCAT is Co-Founder of MAR Passages. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from University of California, Berkeley and a Master of Arts degree in Music Therapy from New York University. She finished her advanced certification training at the Nordoff Robbins Center for Music Therapy in New York. Jenny works mainly with children with developmental delays and seniors with dementia. She currently works with children with hearing impairments at The Auditory/Oral School of New York.
	Kevin Hahn is a 2008 Co-Coordinator of MAR Passages. Kevin finished his clinical internship at Bethany Children’s Home in March 2008; in June 2008, he will begin working as a music rehabilitation therapist at Atascadero State Hospital in Atascadero, California. Kevin completed coursework for degrees in both music therapy and psychology at Elizabethtown College. He has served on the executive board of the Mid-Atlantic Region Association for Music Therapy Students as its president, vice president, and treasurer. Kevin also participated in the American Music Therapy Association Students executive board as its treasurer in 2006 and 2007. Kevin is interested in identifying the best practices for providing services to adolescents and young adults with mood and anxiety disorders. Accordingly, he plans to continue his education in music therapy, psychology, or both.
	Terel Jackson, NMT, MT-BC is a past Coordinator of MAR Passages, and currently provides music therapy services at Springfield Hospital Center in Sykesville, MD. A Baltimore native, she earned her bachelor of music in music therapy at Howard University in Washington, D.C. She then completed her clinical training internship at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, IN. Terel has presented at AMTA conferences, and is especially interested in music therapy advocacy, program development, and continued research into the biomedical foundations of music therapy. Currently, Terel is enrolled in the graduate music therapy program at Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, VA.
	Gregory Perkins is a pastCoordinator of MAR Passages and a senior undergraduate student at Montclair State University, attending the John J. Cali School of Music and pursuing a degree in Music Therapy. He is currently doing practicum work at St. Clare’s Hospital on the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit. Since the 2004 season, he has been a member of the MSU Singers, a mixed voice auditioned ensemble which encompasses sacred and secular repertoire of the Renaissance to the 21st century under the direction of Heather J. Buchanan. MSU Singers has appeared at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center as the featured East-coast choir for the 2005 World Projects New York Choral Festival Showcase Concert. In 2005, they performed at the Liszt Academy in Budapest. In 2006, they performed in the world premiere of Madison’s Descent. He has also performed in Don McCullough’s Let My People Go! as well as with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in the Metropolitan area premiere of Howard Shore’s Lord of the Rings Symphony under the baton of John Mauceri and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony for the 2006/07 season under the baton of Neme Jarvi. Gregory also made his Carnegie Hall debut under the direction of Anton Armstrong, performing Rutter’s Requiem.