Nisha Sajnani, PhD, RDT-BCT is the Director of the Program in Drama Therapy and Theatre & Health Lab at NYU Steinhardt. She is also on faculty at NYU Stern where she teaches improvisation and leadership and with the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma where she lectures on the role of the arts in global mental health. She is a co-founding, co-director of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, established as a collaboration between the WHO Regional Office for Europe, NYU Steinhardt, Culturunners, and Community Jameel, with a mission to measurably improve lives through the arts. 

Recent publications include a commentary for the National Endowment for the Arts on realizing the potential of the arts in clinical and public health, a co-edited ebook on the psychological and physiological benefits of the arts, a Howlround article on teaching theater in times of crisis, and the first WHO policy brief on the role of the arts in supporting the mental wellbeing of people who are forcibly displaced. Her performance and curatorial practice reflects concerns with memory, placemaking, and migration. Dr. Sajnani leads the Jameel Arts & Health Lab - Lancet Global Series on the health benefits of the arts, in collaboration with the WHO. She is the principal editor of Drama Therapy Review and serves on the editorial boards of The Arts in Psychotherapy and the Journal of Applied Arts & Health.