We thank our interdisciplinary jury of ten for their time, care, and expertise in shaping Sensing the Unseen. This project would not have been possible without their generous participation and enthusiasm.
Sailaja Devaguptapu
Sailaja Devaguptapu is a versatile human being with work spanning across different domains – academics, research, arts, spirituality, community welfare etc. She is a certified listener poet and author with several literary works to her credit. Her articles and poems have been featured at the national and international levels in multiple journals, newsletters and magazines such as “Survive & Thrive”, “Harmony”, “Capillaries”, “Aurora”, and LIGHT(Leaders Igniting Generational Healing and Transformation). A participant of the 39th World Congress of Poets, she is passionate about application of poetry for meaningful pursuits such as mental well-being, offering connection, facilitating healing, refinement of consciousness and societal transformation.
Her paper “Innovative Best Practices to Education, Health and Management through Arts During and Post Covid-19” has been selected and published under top 15 best and most innovative ideas and solutions towards ‘Responsible Management Education in a Post COVID World: Emerging Innovative Practices in Management Schools‘, a competition organised by United Nations Global Compact Network India with Association of Indian Universities (AIU), All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), NITI Aayog – Government of India, UNESCO and KPMG.
Esohe Irabor
Esohe Irabor, Ph.D., is a Nigerian-American public health professional who earned her PhD in Biology at Howard University. After securing her doctorate, she completed the Kennedy Krieger Institute’s EMURG Health Leaders Fellowship (inaugural cohort), and a stint as an Adjunct Professor of Biology at Bowie State University. Now a Public Health Laboratory Fellow (APHL-CDC), she conducts biomonitoring research in central New Jersey.
Jesse Koskey
Jesse Koskey, M.D., is a psychiatrist, educator, and artist whose career bridges clinical medicine and the visual arts. A graduate of Hope College and Columbia University, he now works at UC Davis, where his work includes teaching a drawing course for medical students.
Aidan Kunju
Aidan Kunju is a second-year medical student at the University of Miami, visual artist, writer, and future neurologist. His creative work explores the intersections of neuroscience, illness, and human experience. Aidan has exhibited paintings in medical school art shows and was recently awarded Stanford Medicine’s Paul Kalanithi Writing Award for his poem on multiple sclerosis.
Joshua Legg
Joshua Legg, MFA, is a choreographer, visual artist, writer, and curator whose interdisciplinary work explores issues of faith, social justice, and the environment. A tenured Associate Professor and founding Dean of Wilson College’s School of Professional and Graduate Studies, he led the College’s low-residency MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from 2017 to 2024. Joshua has created over 100 choreographic works and curated or co-curated exhibitions featuring artists such as Philip Lindsey, Adam DelMarcelle, Eric Avery, Therese Frare, and Taring Padi. His book Introduction to Modern Dance Techniques has been published in multiple languages and reflects his commitment to embodied, practice-led research. Website: https://joshualegg.com/
Matthew McBride
Matt McBride, Ph.D., MFA, is the author of two collections of poetry, City of Incandescent Light (Black Lawrence Press 2018) and At the Mercy of the Flies (Half Mystic Press 2026). He can be found online at www.mattmcbridepoetry.com.
Bailey Miller
Bailey Miller, M.A. (August 2025) works in the fields of bioethics, philosophy, qualitative research, art, design, and rare disease advocacy. With a background in interactive media, counseling, and music, she brings a transdisciplinary approach to understanding illness, perception, and care. As co-founder and Secretary of the Tethered Cord Support Alliance, she centers lived experience in both scholarship and activism. Her recent research on rare disease narratives has been presented at Yale’s Disability Symposium and the Global Genes Week in Rare. She is a Board-Certified Patient Advocate (BCPA), hospice volunteer, and NEDA credentialed end-of-life doula.
Hope Torrents
Hope Torrents has over 25 years of experience developing and leading arts and humanities academic programs for professionals, adults, students of all ages, faculty and executives. Her career in museums, and as an independent consultant, demonstrates a commitment to leverage the power of art and learning for civic engagement.
Shelly Xie
Shelly Xie, M.D., M.A., has an interdisciplinary interest in the intersection of medicine/health, the arts, and society. Her work centers on enhancing individual and community health and well-being, medical education, and health communication and advocacy through creativity and evidence-informed design and initiatives.
Alison Yelsma
Alison Marie Yelsma, MPH, CHES®, is an epidemiologist, poet, public health advocate, and doctoral student at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her academic research spans health education, public health law, NeuroHumanities, arts in health, and gender health equity. Her creative practice includes poetry, classical piano, and visual arts. She brings to Sensing the Unseen a perspective shaped by clio-epidemiology, feminist theory, and lived experience as a patient-scholar attuned to unseen dynamics in both health and perception.