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Tasha Golden        

Wellbeing Speaker; Director of Research at the International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; Founder of "Project Uncaged"

Tasha Golden, Ph. D., is a singer/songwriter turned public health scientist and a leading expert on the effects of creativity and the arts on well-being and transformational change. From SXSW to the US Conference of Mayors, from POLITICO to state arts councils, from health summits to universities, Golden’s storytelling and game-changing insights motivate and inspire audiences.

As Director of Research at the International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Golden studies the profound influence of creativity and the arts on human well-being. As an international consultant, Golden has helped hundreds of organizations bolster their well-being and expand their impact. Holding a Ph.D. in Public Health, she bridges science and creativity to help audiences understand and enhance their work, purpose, and potential.

But this is not where Golden thought her life would lead. Formerly the singer-songwriter for the critically acclaimed band Ellery, her music graced stages across the globe and found homes in films and TV. But burnout and major depression drove Golden from her music career—a devastating blow that forced her to start over. This raised provocative questions that led to her Ph.D. and to studies of creativity, health, and how we ignite change.

Dr. Golden is the founder of Project Uncaged, a creative writing program for incarcerated girls, and the lead author of "Arts on Prescription: A Field Guide for US Communities." She is also the creator of "How We Human: A Professional Development Training in Mental Health and Trauma-Informed Practice"—the first training of its kind designed especially for people in creative professions.

With extensive publications in peer-reviewed journals, Golden combines scientific knowledge with professional experience, personal storytelling, and a dynamic presence that comes from years as a performer. Her pathbreaking work leaves audiences inspired, enlightened, and ready to make change.

Speech Topics

Amplifying Impact: Thinking Creatively Across Domains

In this thought-provoking keynote, Golden challenges you to think creatively and embrace multiple domains of impact. She shares powerful examples of how expanding perspectives beyond specific disciplines leads to innovative solutions and greater influence. Discover how getting intentional about creativity can supercharge your efforts and drive transformative change in your sector and beyond.

Making the World Over: Impacting Social Drivers of Health

Golden supports changemakers in creating lasting health impacts by addressing the social drivers of well-being. This keynote reveals the transformative potential of understanding what truly drives health, and then effecting change at community, cultural, and policy levels. Learn how advancing positive shifts in the social drivers of health can lead to holistic well-being and sustainable change.

Art: Unveiling the Human Experience

Explore the intrinsic connection between humans and art in this enlightening keynote. Golden shares the profound impact of art on mental health, social cohesion, and self-expression. Discover how embracing art's universal language can enrich your work and open new paths for creativity, empathy, and meaningful engagement.

The Power of Imagination: Expanding Your Impact Beyond Boundaries

Golden inspires audiences to dream big and challenge perceived limitations. Through captivating stories, she reveals how imagination is the key to uncovering untapped potential in your work. This keynote encourages you to get off the beaten path and discover innovative ways to make a difference—even with limited resources

Talk-about-ability: How to Make the Unknown Knowable

This mind-opening keynote explores the power of art to break barriers, build knowledge, and transform our work. Golden shares inspiring stories of how art expands communication—and why we ignore this fact at our peril. Attendees will be challenged to embrace the power of art to convey the human experience, and to grow their work.

The Transformative Path of Creativity: Expanding Your Sphere of Influence

Golden illuminates the transformative work of creativity and its potential to expand influence across sectors. This keynote reveals how embracing art's multidimensional influence can lead to cross-sector collaborations, novel partnerships, and enhanced social impact. Discover the path to becoming an influential thought leader by embracing the creative process.

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The Creative Edge: Innovating at the Intersection of Ideas

Innovation rarely happens in isolation. In this thought-provoking keynote, Golden explores the power of "edge effects"—where disparate disciplines and schools of thought intersect to create new possibilities. Drawing on research and examples, she looks at strategies to cross-pollinate ideas, forge new partnerships, and pursue creative edge effects to drive innovation and impact.

Growing Your Impact & Communicating Your Value (Workshop)

Nonprofits, community programs, and social-impact businesses are often wide-ranging—with multiple goals, stakeholders, and outputs. With so much to share and so many moving parts, how do you communicate who you are and what you do so that you can grow your engagement, impact, and support?

In both keynotes and intensive workshops, Golden has helped organizations and creatives communicate the value they offer—particularly for well-being and human flourishing. Her workshops dig into goals and values, creative storytelling, evaluations, partnerships, press, data, framing, and more.

If you know you need to expand your reach but you’ve felt stuck, limited, or mystified by the growth process, get in touch.

Provocative Insights, Practical Tools: Program Creation & Development (Workshop)

Nonprofits, community programs, and social-impact businesses are often wide-ranging—with multiple goals, stakeholders, and outputs. With so much to share and so many moving parts, how do you communicate who you are and what you do so that you can grow your engagement, impact, and support? In both keynotes and intensive workshops, Golden has helped organizations and creatives communicate the value they offer—particularly for well-being and human flourishing. Her workshops dig into goals and values, creative storytelling, evaluations, partnerships, press, data, framing, and more. If you know you need to expand your reach but you’ve felt stuck, limited, or mystified by the growth process, get in touch

Getting Participatory: Ground-Up Work & Community Engagement (Workshop)

This heading covers a wide range of keynotes and workshops about what it means to truly engage and honor our communities, participants, customers, audiences, students.

Presentations have covered topics like:

  • Why you should think of participants or clients as fellow leaders and collaborators
  • How research about the health impacts of arts and culture can and should inform your values and strategies
  • Taking a strengths-based approach in social impact work
  • Why and how to build engagement into all aspects of your work: from goal-setting to implementation, assessment, communications, etc.
  • “Leveling up” your inclusivity and engagement
  • Honoring diverse forms of knowledge
  • Moving from “informing” or “providing” to collaborating (We don’t create work for or about people; we create it with them)

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