Deanna Hanson-Abromeit

Deanna Hanson-Abromeit, PhD, MT-BC is an Associate Professor of Music Therapy and Music Education at the University of Kansas (KU). She earned a Bachelor of Music (1994) and Master of Arts (2001) in music therapy from the University of Iowa, and the PhD in music education with an emphasis in music therapy from KU (2006). Dr. Hanson-Abromeit has been a board-certified music therapist (MT-BC) since 1996 and has worked with a range of populations in community and healthcare settings. Her primary clinical and research focus is with infants in medical and community-based settings.

Dr. Hanson-Abromeit has been a music therapy educator since 2005, joining the KU faculty in 2013. She leads the Baby-Music Intervention Research (baby-MIR) lab with a focus on developing and strengthening theory, design, research, and practice of music interventions, particularly for infants and families. The babyMIR activities promote translational research and collaborative transdisciplinary framework.

Dr. Hanson-Abromeit developed the Therapeutic Function of Music Plan as a framework to deepen understanding of how and why music contributes to change. She actively mentors research experiences for undergraduate and graduate students as future agents of change in music interventions. She regularly presents at national and international conferences and publishes in a range of journals reaching an international audience. Dr. Hanson-Abromeit is a member of the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) and International Congress of Infant Studies. She was the 2020 recipient of the AMTA Research and Publication Award and the 2019 recipient of the KU Undergraduate Research Faculty Mentor Award.

Her service activities include the Board of Directors of the Certification Board for Music Therapists (2017-2021, Chair, 2021), AMTA Assembly of Delegates (2012-2018), editorial boards for the Journal of Music Therapy and Music Therapy Perspectives, guest reviewer for a variety of publications, a music therapy advisory board member for the Sound Health Network (2021-2022), and the School of Music Advisory Board (2020-2023).