Deforia Lane

Deforia Lane, PhD., MT-BC, music therapy clinician and researcher, began her career with children and young adults with developmental disabilities and those on the autism spectrum.  For 35 years she served as Director of Art & Music Therapy for University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center in Ohio where she started the program in the hospital's Cancer Center and expanded it throughout the 1000-bed teaching hospital.  She created and taught the first music therapy course at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine and continues to advocate for music therapy in such venues as the National Institutes of Health Sound Health Initiative.

Dr. Lane has been privileged to serve patients as a music therapist in multiple settings: mental health clinics, medical-surgical and intensive care units, in the operating room, outpatient and at bedside. She has lectured throughout the US as well as Kenya, Japan, China, England, Canada and Taiwan. She is an honorary member of the Oncology Nurse Society, has mentored over 80 music therapy interns, authored Music as Medicine, (Zondervan Press). Since her retirement in 2018 she has enjoyed serving on PNC's Grow Up Great Advisory Counsel, Cedarville University's Bd. of Trustees, supervising music therapy students at Cleveland State University and consulting with healthcare and academic institutions across the country. 

Dr. Lane still marvels at the wonder and transformative power of music.