Biography
Ferol Carytsas is the Director of the UF Center for Arts in Medicine. She has co-authored the articles, The effects of arts-in-medicine programming on the medical-surgical work environment; Arts in health: Considering language from an educational perspective in the United States, and contributed to the White Paper, Talking about arts and health.
Ferol’s interest in curriculum design led her to co-develop the Undergraduate Certificate in Music in Medicine at UF. Her Music and Health course was runner-up winner for an UFIT Exceptional Course Development award, and the course received an Internationalizing the Curriculum grant from the UF International Center. In addition, she was one of the 2019 recipients of the UF Office of Teaching Excellence's Rising Star Award. In 2020, she was selected to participate in the inaugural cohort of UF's OER Learning Community for her upcoming OER textbook, The Impact of Music on Health. She was also awarded a 2022 UF Division Three Superior Accomplishment Award and selected to be a 2022-2023 UF Teaching Excellence Fellow. Inspired by similar programs, she established the UF Health Music Ensemble fostering community, team building and a peer-to-peer environment among UF Health faculty, staff, students, and alumni.
Ferol was a founding board member with the National Organization for Arts in Health (NOAH) and served on the board for 5 years. She was the chair of the NOAH Professionalization Committee and assisted with the development of the nationally endorsed Code of Ethics and Standards for Arts in Health Professionals. In addition to being on the leadership team, she was an editor and contributing author to the Core Curriculum for Arts in Health Professionals. In partnership with the Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru), Ferol is leading a national initiative to establish a Community of Arts in Health Educators. This community aims to articulate the priorities in the field of arts in health in higher education.
Ferol graduated from the University of Florida with a M.M. in music education after receiving an Undergraduate Diploma in viola performance from Longy School of Music and a B.A. in music with a minor in psychology from Florida State University. Additionally, she completed an Undergraduate Certificate in Arts in Healthcare. She has experience working in arts administration assisting in the management of youth orchestras, volunteers, and database maintenance for non-profit music organizations.
Ferol's research interests include: arts in health pedagogy, curriculum design, and assessment.