Biography

Jenny Baxley Lee, MA, BC-DMT, serves as Director of the UF Health Shands Arts in Medicine program as well as Senior Lecturer and a Board Certified Dance/Movement Therapist with the University of Florida's Center for Arts in Medicine in the College of the Arts. She is affiliated faculty with the School of Theatre and Dance and the STEM Translational Communication Center and has served on the Research and Curriculum Committees in the College of the Arts. Jenny is an active member of the American Dance Therapy Association and served on the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Dance Therapy as Book and Film Review Editor from 2013-2016.

Jenny co-founded the graduate degree and certificates in the Center for Arts in Medicine and serves as an instructor in the Master's degree program in Arts in Medicine. Since 2012, she has directed an annual study abroad course based in Belfast, Northern Ireland entitled Arts for Health, Peace and Community Engagement in Northern Ireland. Jenny taught "What is the Good Life?" from 2012-2018 and in UF Innovation Academy's Creativity coursework in 2016-17.

Jenny's current research focus is visual, literary and performing arts practices in palliative and end of life care. She has practiced telehealth-based dance/movement therapy with veterans and their families at the Malcom Randall VA Medical Center and dance/movement therapy with UF Health Shands Arts in Medicine working with children and adults with acute and chronic health issues. Jenny facilitated theatre and dance for health education and promotion among middle school and high school students in schools, juvenile justice and other community outreach settings from 2012-18. 

Since 2002, Jenny has been dedicated to exploring the capacity of the arts, and more broadly the creative process, to impact the health and well-being of people of all ages and abilities both to enhance quality of life and to enhance care at the end of life.