Leadership Team

Emeritus Professor Helen Odell-Miller is Founding Director of The Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy Research and Professor of Music Therapy at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), Cambridge. She holds an honorary contract as a music therapist and researcher at Cambridge and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust. She has extensive experience as a researcher and has lectured and delivered keynote lectures all over the world. She has led the development of the profession in the NHS, and recently ARU won a Queens Anniversary Prize for Research in Music Therapy, specifically for people living with dementia. In addition to leading several large multi-site studies nationally and internationally, Helen’s research interests are in mental health and music therapy, psychoanalysis and music therapy and supervision. She is author and editor of many publications including in 2009 Supervision of Music Therapy, Odell-Miller H and Richards, E and in 2013 Forensic Music Therapy Compton Dickinson, Adlam and Odell-Miller. Professor Helen Odell-Miller is also a member of the Research Committee of The Music Therapy Charity. She is a pianist, violinist and singer, and sings in Cambridge Voices.

Rachel Darnley-Smith is a freelance music therapist, clinical supervisor and researcher, registered with the Health Care Professions Council, based in London, UK. Rachel worked for many years as a practitioner with adults, mostly in NHS mental health settings. She is co-author (with Helen M. Patey) of the widely translated introductory text, ‘Music Therapy’ (Sage 2003). She has long been involved in the development of music therapy training, most recently at the University of Roehampton (2003-2020) where she developed the first opportunities for doctoral research in music therapy and continues to supervise projects. Her own research has been concerned with the development of theoretical thinking in music therapy, exploring everyday clinical practice through philosophical aesthetics, psychoanalysis, and more recently recognition theory and Whiteness. She is also active as a cellist. Rachel is a member of both the Research Committee and the Board of Governors of The Music Therapy Charity where she works on issues of development in the charity, especially diversity and inclusion.

Roger is a public finance accountant who retired in 2004 from full-time employment after 38 years service in local government and the NHS, latterly as Finance Director and Deputy CEO of Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge.  Since then he has held part-time interim Finance Director postions at Papworth Heart Hospital and contributed to its move to Cambridge.  He has been a Governor of Anglia Ruskin University and a Trustee of Babraham Research Institute, serving on their Audit Committees.  He is currently an independent member of the Audit Committee of the NHS Confederation.  Roger is also Treasurer of two local charities and a local club.

Grace is Director for Music for Dementia, a national campaign to help make music more readily available and accessible for people living with dementia. Prior to this, she was the Development Director for the British Association for Music Therapy. Grace is also a qualified music therapist and has worked across a range of health and educational settings with people from across the lifespan. In her role at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, she worked with Dr Claire Flower on developing the first ‘Music While You Wait’ programme in antenatal and maternity services. Alongside this, she also supervises music therapists. Grace is an active musician, and pre-Covid regularly played bassoon and contra bassoon with several orchestras.

Dr. Kate Thomson is a former Principal in General Practice with extensive experience in the care of children. She has had a life-long interest in music and two of her children are professional musicians. She has been a school governor and recently at Charterhouse, where her husband was Master, has had first-hand knowledge of a working charity, of which music was an aspect.

Sue Waldman is involved with the Temple Music Foundation and Temple Church and is on the advisory board of St. John the Evangelist (SJE Arts), Oxford’s newest concert hall and arts venue. She was previously Custodian of the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, responsible for the day to day running of the Ceremonial Hall of the University of Oxford, Christopher Wren’s first major work, a historic building and the major concert venue in Oxford. She was on the committee of the Churchill Memorial Concerts held annually at Blenheim Palace in aid of the Music Therapy Charity

Dr Neta Spiro is Head of Research at Nordoff Robbins where she leads a team of researchers with a variety of backgrounds exploring music therapy in its different contexts.  She is also a member of the Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge where she teaches topics in music psychology and music in health.  Two main questions underlie her research: What is the nature of interaction in music and what is the potential role of music in peoples’ health and wellbeing?  In terms of exploring the nature of interaction in music, in current projects she is exploring what is shared and what is not shared in interpretations of what happened during music.  In terms of music in health, projects include exploration of the features that may help characterise musical interaction and their relationship with perceived outcome.

Dr David M. Greenberg, is a cognitive psychologist and neuroscientist, and the founding director of CHIME. He is an honorary research associate at the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge, and former senior scientific advisor at Spotify. Dr. Greenberg has over 50 peer-reviewed articles, is the author of the forthcoming book, The Song Is You (published by Oxford University Press), and was awarded early career prizes from the NIH and ESCOM.

At CHIME, Dr. Greenberg and his team combine next-generation technology with the power of music to advance screening and therapy for kids, teens, and adults, including those who are autistic and neurodivergent. In his recent TED talk, he describes how music helped him recover from life saving surgery at 2-weeks old, inspiring him to unlock the power of music through science and technology.

Dr. Greenberg’s research highlights include publishing the largest study on autism and autistic traits (published in PNAS, 2018), the largest study on theory of mind (in PNAS, 2023), the largest study on music and personality (in JPSP, 2023), and the first study on the social neuroscience of music (in the American Psychologist, 2022). He is the author of eight psychometric tests, and has collaborated with some of the greatest psychologists of this generation, including Simon Baron-Cohen, Jonathan Haidt, Daniel Levitin, Robert McCrae, Jean Decety, and Peter Fonagy. Dr. Greenberg received his PhD in Psychology from the University of Cambridge, and has postdoctoral training in neuroscience, psychotherapy, and music therapy. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Music Therapy and Musicae Scientiae. Dr. Greenberg is a professional musician who continues to perform today. He went on his first tour at age 16 and at conservatory, he studied jazz saxophone at Mason Gross School of the Arts.

Leanne is an experienced music therapist who is based in the West Midlands, works with children of all ages and abilities and in a wide range of clinical settings. Her current practice involves respite, outreach, end of life and family work in children’s hospices and employment in special needs schools, focusing on autism and social, emotional and mental health. In addition, Leanne is a registered supervisor with British Association for Music Therapy, associate lecturer at University of Derby and PhD researcher at Cambridge Institute for Music Therapy Research (CIMTR). Her research focuses on the effect of music therapy on ‘behaviours that challenge’ for children with Dravet Syndrome, a rare neurological disorder.

Ben is a music therapist working full time in an EOTAS – education other than at school – service.  He has developed a specialty in supporting hard-to-reach adolescents in engaging more with wider services, be it education or further therapy.  He also seeks to raise the profile of music therapy amongst education services, promoting its use as a viable support method in educational healthcare plans and emphasising the value for money that music therapists offer in education settings, whilst creating new ways of presenting music therapy with a data-driven and business-case view.  As a recipient himself of the Music Therapy Charity’s support grants for training music therapists, he hopes to give back to them so that even more people can benefit from their help.

Jacques has had a lifelong interest in the impact that music can play on wellbeing. He has studied the impact of music on health and social bonding from neuroscientific, anthropological and evolutionary perspectives throughout his PhD, as part of a multidisciplinary research team and as a lecturer. He currently works on environmental policy in the Civil Service.