Tammy L. Kernodle currently holds the rank of University Distinguished Professor of Music at Miami University of Ohio. She is a recognized musician and scholar whose research focuses on African American music, gender studies in music, and race in American popular culture. Her scholarship has appeared in numerous journals, reference books, and anthologies, and has also appeared in numerous award-winning documentaries, including “Mary Lou Williams: The Lady Who Swings the Band,” “Girls in the Band,” and “Miles Davis: The Birth of Cool.”

The author of Soul on Soul: The Life and Music of Mary Lou Williams, Kernodle has written for and consulted with The American Jazz Museum, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Walker Art Center, NPR, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, BBC, Smithsonian Folkways, and Carnegie Hall. Kernodle is the past president of the Society for American Music and currently curates the I Dream a World Festival, multi-year initiative with New World Symphony that celebrates the legacy of Black composers.

Kernodle holds a Bachelor of Music in choral music education and piano from Virginia State University, and a Master of Arts and PhD in music history from Ohio State University.

Patrick T. Smith is the director of Bioethics Programs for the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine. He is an associate research professor of Theological Ethics and Bioethics at Duke University Divinity School and associate professor in Population Health Sciences at Duke University Medical School. He also is a Senior Fellow with the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke.

Smith was recently elected as president-elect for the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities. He has experience in clinical ethics, previously serving as a director of ethics at Angela Hospice Care Center in Michigan and as an ethics associate with Boston Children’s Hospital. His current research and writing are in the areas of moral philosophy, religious bioethics, and the intersection of the arts and the promotion of health justice and equitable health care; he is especially committed to exploring the close and often forgotten links between bioethics, public health, community engagement, and social justice. He has served on the board of directors of organizations working for more equitable social arrangements such as YW Boston, which aims to empower women and eliminate racism.

Smith currently is on the board of Elevate Theatre Company out of New York City and a Research Advisory Group member with One Nation/One Project, National Arts in Public Health Initiative.