Saharra Dixon, community health education doctoral candidate in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences, is co-principal investigator on one of 10 teams of artists and early career researchers named as 2026 Renée Fleming Neuroarts Investigator Awards recipients.

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Each team will receive a grant of $25,000 to support an interdisciplinary research project whose results will contribute to the growing body of scientific evidence underpinning the field of neuroarts. The awards program, established by the Renée Fleming Foundation in 2024, is administered through the NeuroArts Blueprint Initiative, a partnership between Johns Hopkins University and the Aspen Institute.

Neuroarts is an interdisciplinary field, rooted in the science of neuroaesthetics and ways of knowing, which explores how the arts and aesthetic experiences change the brain, body, and behavior and how this knowledge can be applied to advance individual and community health and well-being as well as other aspects of society.

Dixon’s team’s project, “Evaluating Theatre and Storytelling as a Neuroarts-Informed Health Coaching Intervention for Young Adults Living with Obsessive-Compulsive Related Disorders (OCRDs) and Complex Trauma,” will examine how arts-based, communal practices influence mental health outcomes among adults with Obsessive-Compulsive Related Disorders like BFRBs and body dysmorphic disorder.

More information about Dixon, her research and the Fleming NeuroArts Award can be found on the SPHHS site.