Laurie Keough is a board-certified music therapist and licensed creative arts therapist. She is the music therapy undergraduate program director and music therapy clinical coordinator. She teaches numerous courses the undergraduate and the graduate music therapy programs, including Principles of Music Therapy, Methods and Materials of Music Therapy, Music Therapy Practicum, and Principles of Music Therapy Supervision. She also supervises practicum students in both in the Music Therapy Clinic, which is housed in the York Wellness and Rehabilitation Institute, and in the community. She is passionate about interprofessional collaboration and education, and has developed numerous interprofessional clinical opportunities for students in the music therapy program.
Prior to joining the Nazareth College faculty in 2009, she spent 19 years working as a Board-Certified Music Therapist in the Rochester area. There she spent 14 years specializing in music therapy in special education, with a particular focus on multiple/physical disabilities, autism, and behavioral challenges. She also has experience in general medical, gerontology, and psychiatric settings. In addition to her clinical work, she supervised music therapy students from Nazareth College for 18 years and was the Music Therapy Internship Director at the Mary Cariola Children's Center in Rochester, New York.
Professor Keough's current areas of clinical interest and research include interprofessional education and music therapy with individuals impacted by neurodegenerative disorders or neurological impairment. She is a regular presenter at regional and national conferences for the American Music Therapy Association and has presented at the national conferences of associations such as ASHA, IPEC and AOSA, and at the World Congress of Music Therapy. She has also published on her work in Music Therapy Perspectives and ASHA SIG-2, Neurogenic Communication Disorders.
She has served in numerous capacities for the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA), including as the Mid-Atlantic Region(MAR) and the AMTA Continuing Education Coordinator, as an MAR Conference Committee member, on the Interprofessional Collaborative Resources Committee, and as a Mid-Atlantic Region Assembly Delegate Alternate. She is currently the co-chair of the AMTA Competency Review Task Force.
Outside of Nazareth, Prof. Keough is an avid member of a local masters crew team, and she enjoys reading and visiting her two grown children.
School of Music Responsibilities
Education