Announcing the 2026 recipients of the Arthur Flagler Fultz Research Award of the American Music Therapy Association
The American Music Therapy Association is pleased to announce Kerry Devlin, PhD, LPMT, MT-BC, and Rohan Mathur, MD, MPA, as the recipients of the 2026 Arthur Flagler Fultz Research Award for their winning proposal, “Co-Designing a Dyadic Approach (CODA) to Virtual Music Therapy for Neurocritical Care Survivors and Their Families: An Exploratory Mixed Methods Pilot Intervention Study.”
Survival after neurocritical illness is an incomplete outcome. Neurocritical care survivors and their family members experience significant psychological distress and reduced quality of life long after hospital discharge, with patient and family outcomes demonstrating strong dyadic interdependence. Few interventions address psychological recovery after neurocritical illness, and even fewer support survivors and their family members within the same intervention. This study aims to address this gap by developing and piloting a co-designed virtual music therapy support group for neurocritical care survivors and their family members following discharge from the Johns Hopkins Neurosciences Critical Care Unit.
CODA will enroll up to 25 neurocritical care survivor-family dyads in a 12-week virtual music therapy support group following hospital discharge and examine outcomes through 9 months post-hospitalization. The support group will be co-designed with former neurocritical care survivors and family members, ensuring the intervention reflects their priorities and needs. CODA will assess feasibility and acceptability while exploring longitudinal trajectories of post-neurocritical care psychological symptoms, dyadic coping, post-traumatic growth, and health-related quality of life.
The study team includes:
Co-Principal Investigators:
- Kerry Devlin, PhD, LPMT, MT-BC
- Rohan Mathur, MD, MPA
Co-Investigators
- Camelia Valhuerdi Porto, MD
- Jose Suarez, MD, FNCS, FANA, FAAN
- Alexander Pantelyat, MD, FAAN
- Ali Deckard, LMT, MT-BC
[Award was originally announced on October 22, 2026 on LinkedIn in preparation for the Website Launch]
About the Arthur Flagler Fultz Research Fund
The Fultz Fund is an annual research grant of $20,000, awarded by AMTA and generously supported by David’s Fund by Tom and Lucy Ott. Fultz Fund Chair. Dr. Michele Forinash and Dr. Eugenia Hernandez-Ruiz led the submission review process. We are grateful to the reviewers and those who submitted a research proposal.
The first “Fultz” grant was awarded in 1999 and continues to this day to encourage, promote, and fund music therapy research and/or to conduct research on new and innovative music therapy treatments. The fund seeks to support research in the field of music therapy in the following areas: Clinical Research, informing best practices in music therapy, and Health Services Research, assessing the role of music therapy practice in the context of emerging health care delivery models. Learn more about the Fultz Research Award and Fund.
