Susan Magsamen

Susan Magsamen is the founder and executive director of the International Arts + Mind Lab (IAM Lab), Center for Applied Neuroaesthetics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her work explores how the arts and aesthetic experiences measurably change the brain, body, and behavior, and how these insights can inform health, wellbeing, and learning programs in medicine, public health, and education.

A successful entrepreneur, she founded award-winning arts education companies—Curiosity Kits and Curiosityville—which have earned over 600 innovation and impact awards. She is also the author of seven books on the arts for children, families, and educators.

Magsamen developed Impact Thinking, a translational research model that applies scientific methods to arts and aesthetics to scale, disseminate, and evaluate real-world applications. She co-directs the NeuroArts Blueprint project, a joint initiative with the Aspen Institute to establish neuroarts as a field integrating arts and aesthetics into medicine and public health.

She is the co-author of the New York Times bestseller Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us.