Jill Sonke, PhD

Jill Sonke is Director of Research Initiatives in the Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida (UF), Director of National Research and Impact for the One Nation/One Project initiative, Co-director of the EpiArts Lab, a National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab in partnership with University College London, and Director of the UF Interdisciplinary Research Lab. She is an affiliated faculty member in the UF School of Theatre & Dance, the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases, the Center for African Studies, the STEM Translational Communication Center, and the One Health Center, and is an editorial board member for Health Promotion Practice journal.

Dr. Sonke served during the pandemic as a senior advisor to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Vaccine Confidence and Demand Team on the COVID-19 Vaccine Confidence Task Force and currently serves on the steering committee of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab.

With 28 years of leadership in the field of arts in health and a PhD in arts in public health from Ulster University in Northern Ireland, Dr. Sonke is active in research and policy advocacy nationally and internationally. She is an artist and a mixed methods researcher with a current focus on population-level health outcomes associated with arts and cultural participation, evidence synthesis, and various applications of the arts in public health. She is the recipient of numerous awards and over 350 grants for her programs and research at the University of Florida.