Resilience, Innovation, Science, and Expression (RISE): From Story to Stage
BY DR. LAURIE MARTINEZ AND GRETCHEN SUÁREZ-PEÑA, MFA
Keywords: NeuroArts, resilience, storytelling, theatre, science, nursing, data science, creative expression, veterans, creative writing
OUR RESEARCH
Resilience is shaped by more than biology or psychology alone. Human experiences, creative expression, social connection, and advances in science all play a role in how people adapt, recover, and grow following adversity. Yet these factors are rarely studied together. The Resilience, Innovation, Science, and Expression (RISE) NeuroArts Initiative integrates nursing, theatre, neuroscience, computational approaches, and data science to investigate how creative expression influences biopsychosocial health, resilience, well-being, and social connection.
The first RISE pilot study focuses on military veterans and the meaningful relationships they share with their dogs, examining the feasibility and acceptability of a novel storytelling-to-performance process that transforms veterans’ personal narratives into original theatrical performances, while exploring its preliminary impact on resilience, well-being, social connection, and mental health outcomes. The long-term vision is to establish a sustainable NeuroArts research program that combines creative expression with advances in health science and emerging technologies to advance biopsychosocial health and community engagement across trauma-exposed and vulnerable populations.
OUR STRATEGY
Students will gain hands-on experience in community-engaged NeuroArts research while developing skills in:
- Collecting and studying information from personal veteran narratives and questionnaires about participants' experiences and well-being.
- Collaborating with veterans to transform personal narrative into original theatrical performances through a novel storytelling-to-performance process.
- Applying exploratory computational approaches and data science techniques to generate new insights from narrative and quantitative data.
OUR IMPACT
RISE is designed to advance both scientific discovery and community impact. Our work seeks to:
- Generate evidence in theatre-based and creative interventions that promote resilience, well-being, social connection, and meaning making among veterans and trauma-exposed populations.
- Build the scientific foundation for new complementary health care pathways to support biopsychosocial health and well-being among vulnerable populations.
- Bridge science, the arts, and community engagement to translate lived experiences into innovative approaches that inform research, education, and future health-promoting interventions.
RISE is an interdisciplinary NeuroArts research initiative that integrates lived experience, theatre, health sciences, neuroscience, and emerging technologies to develop innovative approaches to advance biopsychosocial health, resilience, well-being, and meaningful community engagement across trauma-exposed and vulnerable populations.