Kurlen Payton is a neonatologist. He serves as the medical director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, director of quality and safety for Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s, and co-director of quality improvement collaboratives for the California Perinatal Quality Care Collaborative. His research focuses on multi-center quality improvement collaboratives and vignette research methods. He is interested in exploring methods that integrate art and medicine, including novel data visualization for quality improvement and safety. He leads the visual arts program within the Cedars-Sinai Center for the Arts and Humanities in Medicine. He is an obsessive observer and sketcher. His sketches are often based on observations and reflections on everyday images. He closely observes “humans doing their daily thing.” His impressions often reflect the energy of the city or overlooked details in secluded natural settings. He seeks to capture the stories within seemingly mundane moments of daily life. Most images invite viewers to fill in the gaps and ponder the story behind the marks on the page.

John T. Lange is Curator of the Cedars-Sinai Art Collections and Manager of Cedars-Sinai’s Arts Program, Advisory Council for the Arts, and Historical Conservancy. Over a 23-year tenure, he has led the curation and presentation of exhibitions and special programming across Cedars-Sinai locations worldwide, shaping an arts program that supports healing, comfort, and connection.

Lange collaborates with artists, cultural institutions, and private collectors globally—both within and beyond healthcare settings—to advance initiatives that thoughtfully integrate art into a wide range of environments. Grounded in evidence-based design coupled with a life-long passion for fine art, his work focuses on enhancing the care experience by creating environments that promote wellbeing, reduce stress, and foster meaningful opportunities for engagement for patients, families, staff, and communities.

In addition to his leadership in curation and arts administration, Lange is an active exhibiting artist, bringing a multidisciplinary and empathetic perspective to his work.

Sheila Darcey is a visionary artist and the founder of SketchPoetic, a creative expression practice that empowers individuals to express, reflect, and heal. She authored the book "Sketch by Sketch - A Creative Path to Emotional Healing & Transformation," which was published by Macmillan. Translated into seven languages, her book has garnered a global audience.

Standing at the intersection of art, tech, science, and wellness, Sheila is a pioneer dedicated to promoting Arts & Healing. She collaborates with organizations and institutions that seek innovative approaches to address holistic health encompassing mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being.

Dr. Ryan Urbanowicz is an Assistant Professor of Computational Biomedicine at the Cedars Sinai Medical Center as well as Associate Executive Director of the National AI-Campus Program and Director of Cedars AI-Campus Training Program. His lab’s research focuses on the development and biomedical application of human-interpretable machine learning methods, automation through artificial intelligence, data mining that adheres to best practices, and scalable informatics methodologies that avoid analytical assumptions. His research group has developed a variety of software packages including novel machine learning algorithms, automated machine learning tools, and data simulators. He is also an invested educator, with a variety of educational videos and lectures on available on his YouTube channel (The URBS-Lab).

Ryan's been 'picking' at amateur acoustic guitar, drums, and song with a particular love of folk and rock for 20 years. 

Join us on the plaza for an exciting performance by a modern piano and strings quartet! Combining a trio of strings with keyboards and vocals, this small ensemble will play music ranging from orchestral opera to Disney classics and Motown. The group is led by Dr. Michael Murata, a project scientist here at Cedars-Sinai, on keyboards and vocals. Joining him are Dr. Christine Liu who is a postdoctoral scientist in the Center for Neural Sciences and Medicine on viola, Niall Taro who is an Academy Award winning orchestrator on cello, and Miko Shudo who is a graduate of the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at Cal State Long Beach on violin and vocals. 

The Musicians’ Ensemble is a collective of musicians from Cedars-Sinai’s staff and community. The members of the Ensemble play and sing an eclectic range of music, including, but not limited to, classical, rock, traditional folk, jazz and original compositions.

In the photo: 

Standing L-R: Mana Manoukian, Jordin Frasch, Catherine Stanecki, Stacy Weitsman, Catherine O’Krent, Helen Goodridge, Santhosh Nadipuram, David Frishberg, Ryan Wisniewski, Michael Murata, Harriet Aronow | Sitting L-R: Michele Predmore, Amarilli Severa, Erin Reeve, Bronwen Jones, Lena Heung, Gillian Gresham, Christine Liu

Dr. Erin Reeve has been a palliative care physician with the Supportive Care Medicine team for over 10 years. Seeing art and music as powerful healing forces, she enjoys bringing them to patients' bedsides and also having her own practice of piano, cello, voice, and photography. She is the new Associate Director for the Center for the Arts and Humanities in Medicine and is delighted to be the Director of Arts Week 2026.

MAST Research Program Laboratory Director Stacy Weitsman (aka Stacy Robin), is an extensively published scientist and an award-winning singer, songwriter, percussionist and frontwoman of the original indie folk band Imaginary Friends. Stacy is a 36-year veteran of Medical Research at Cedars Sinai but has been performing with the musicians of Imaginary Friends even longer! She has appeared live at venues across the country and her music has been heard in film, TV, and radio. Stacy recently released her 10^th album which has topped the American Roots Music charts. See StacyRobin.com and ImaginaryFriends.net

Thisbe Gensler is a researcher, curator and programmer based in Los Angeles. As a historian of 19th- and 20th-century visual cultures, she focuses on the biomedical body to explore the intersections of art and science, as well as feminist theory and performance. She recently co-curated the archival exhibition How To Be A Guerrilla Girl (2025-26) as well as Flesh & Bones: The Art of Anatomy (2022), both at the Getty Research Institute. She currently serves as Public Programs Specialist at the Getty Research Institute, where she produces interdisciplinary programs to activate its collections, exhibitions and scholarship.

W. Bruce Fye received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Johns Hopkins. After a residency at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center he returned to Hopkins for his cardiology training and a master’s degree in medical history. He chaired the Cardiology Department at Marshfield Clinic in Wisconsin from 1981 to 1999 and joined the Mayo Clinic in 2000. Fye is the author of more than 100 historical articles and three books, including Caring for the Heart: Mayo Clinic and the Rise of Specialization, published in 2015. He is a past president of the American College of Cardiology, the American Association for the History of Medicine, and the American Osler Society.

The Musicians’ Ensemble is a collective of musicians from Cedars-Sinai’s staff and community. The members of the Ensemble play and sing an eclectic range of music, including, but not limited to, classical, rock, traditional folk, jazz and original compositions.

In the photo: 

Standing L-R: Mana Manoukian, Jordin Frasch, Catherine Stanecki, Stacy Weitsman, Catherine O’Krent, Helen Goodridge, Santhosh Nadipuram, David Frishberg, Ryan Wisniewski, Michael Murata, Harriet Aronow | Sitting L-R: Michele Predmore, Amarilli Severa, Erin Reeve, Bronwen Jones, Lena Heung, Gillian Gresham, Christine Liu

Gauri Agarwal, M.D., F.A.C.P., is the Associate Dean for Curriculum and Associate Professor of Medicine, Medical Education, Informatics & Health Data Sciences at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She has developed, directed, and taught numerous courses at medical school. Dr. Agarwal’s research interests are medical education and medical humanities. In 2023, as a Gold Humanism Scholar for the Harvard Macy Program, she developed a curriculum on the intersection of artificial intelligence and the medical humanities. She recently published the first module on the AAMC’s MedEd Portal on artificial intelligence for health professions students, an AMEE guide on implementing medical humanities programs, and a research study on AI ethics in NEJM AI. She is a proponent for thoughtful integration of innovative technology in curricula and recently received a NIH grant to implement a virtual reality curriculum for medical and nursing students.

Topic Summary: The HUMANN Project explores how medical education can intentionally cultivate human skills such as empathy, observation, communication, and tolerance of ambiguity in an era of artificial intelligence and immersive technologies. Through an innovative curriculum integrating AI tools, virtual reality, and Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) in a museum-based learning environment, this work examines how technology can be deployed to enhance, rather than erode, humanistic patient care. This talk highlights evidence-based outcomes, learner reflections, and a scalable model for preparing future health professionals to recognize their uniquely human capacities in an increasingly digital world.

Join us on the plaza for an exciting performance by a modern piano and strings quartet! Combining a trio of strings with keyboards and vocals, this small ensemble will play music ranging from orchestral opera to Disney classics and Motown. The group is led by Dr. Michael Murata, a project scientist here at Cedars-Sinai, on keyboards and vocals. Joining him are Dr. Christine Liu who is a postdoctoral scientist in the Center for Neural Sciences and Medicine on viola, Niall Taro who is an Academy Award winning orchestrator on cello, and Miko Shudo who is a graduate of the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at Cal State Long Beach on violin and vocals. 

Carla Patullo is a composer, recording artist, and storyteller whose music explores healing, memory, and human connection. Her work often draws from personal experience, using sound as a way to process life’s most profound moments.

Her album So She Howls chronicles her experience moving through cancer and the role music played in helping her reconnect with her body, spirit, and sense of possibility. Years later, her album Nomadica became a way of reconnecting with her mother, who died suddenly in a car accident when Carla was young, imagining the conversations they never had and the emotional landscapes that linger. Both albums received the GRAMMY Award for Best New Age, Ambient, or Chant Album.

Known for a genre-fluid style that blends orchestral composition, voice, acoustic instruments, and electronic textures, Patullo creates immersive sound worlds across albums, film, and live performance.

Her film scores include Maxine for Disney+, Bitterroot, which premiered at Tribeca, the horror comedy Porno, which premiered at SXSW and streams on Shudder, and My Name is Maria de Jesus for HBO Latino. Her music has also appeared in over one hundred film and television projects, including the Sundance-winning film Spa Night, LA: A Queer History for PBS, Teen Titans Go! on Cartoon Network, The Jennifer Hudson Show, Skins UK, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

Beyond her work for the screen, Patullo has served as music director and performer for Sandra Bernhard’s one-woman show and has performed and collaborated with artists including Martha Wainwright, Liza Minnelli, and Rufus Wainwright.

She works from her Los Angeles studio, The Soundry, where she continues to experiment and create music for film, albums, and immersive performance.

Dr. Erin Reeve has been a palliative care physician with the Supportive Care Medicine team for over 10 years. Seeing art and music as powerful healing forces, she enjoys bringing them to patients' bedsides and also having her own practice of piano, cello, voice, and photography. She is the new Associate Director for the Center for the Arts and Humanities in Medicine and is delighted to be the Director of Arts Week 2026.

Meghan Laszlo, MS, RD, CSO, is a Registered Dietitian and Board-Certified Specialist in Oncology Nutrition with over 15 years of experience providing medical nutrition therapy to patients at Cedars-Sinai Cancer Center. She is deeply passionate about nutrition research and the role of strategic food choices in enhancing well-being and supporting cancer treatment outcomes. Meghan leads Nutrition in Your Kitchen, a teaching kitchen within Cedars-Sinai Cancer’s Wellness, Resilience, and Survivorship programs, where she uses hands-on culinary education to empower patients to build sustainable, healthful eating habits.

Kelli Auerbach, MFA, has published personal essays in outlets including New York Times and Washington Post, was a senior research director at the NIH, and has taught creative writing at Brown University, USC Keck School of Medicine, Rhode Island School of Design, University of Cape Town and at conferences nation-wide. 

Learn to draw our favorite snowman, Olaf, with Trent Correy, Director at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Trent has been part of the magic behind the Frozen films, helping bring Olaf to life in Frozen and Frozen 2, and he is currently co-directing Frozen 3. He is also known for directing the Disney animated shorts Zootopia+, Once Upon a Snowman, and the Emmy-winning Once Upon a Studio. During his time at Disney, he has animated on such beloved films including Big Hero 6, Zootopia, Moana, among many other family favorites. Get your pencil and drawing pad ready!