Daniel Seeff

West Coast Director

Daniel Seeff is the program director of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Performance at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. He also directs the Institute’s Los Angeles public school outreach programming, including Jazz in the Classroom and BeBop to Hip-Hop, and serves as an associate producer of the Institute’s annual International Jazz Competition. Seeff coordinated the Institute’s summer jazz colony for six years and has produced dozens of Institute educational concerts in Los Angeles. He is the host and producer of the hip-hop and jazz radio show ExcursionsRadio on KJazz in Los Angeles. Seeff is also a bassist and guitarist who has toured internationally and performed on many major label albums with artists such as Eminem, Jay-Z, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, and Cypress Hill. He co-wrote and played bass on the number 6 Billboard hit song “The Man” by Aloe Blacc and wrote music for and played on Grammy-nominated albums by Anderson .Paak, Ledisi, and the soundtrack to the Oscar-winning animated feature film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Ariana Anderson, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor In-Residence, Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences

Dr. Ariana E. Anderson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA, and the Director of the Laboratory of Computational Neuropsychology in the Medical Psychology- Neuropsychology Division. She received her B.S. in Mathematics and her Ph.D. in Statistics followed by a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA. She develops algorithms to identify and treat disease using all data modalities, from behavioral assessments to neuroimaging. She is a recipient of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Scientific Interface, as well as a K25 Career Award from the NIA on neurovascular correlates of dementia. Her baby monitor for Deaf parents, ChatterBaby, was awarded first prize in MHealth Apps in UCLA's 2016 Code for the Mission competition. She has served as a reviewer for both the NIH and the NSF, and has published on a broad range of neuropsychiatric disorders.

Grace Swenson

Research Assistant

Grace Swenson (she/her/hers) is a first-year Physiological Sciences major at UCLA who hopes to pursue a minor in Art History. Her preferred visual arts medium involves portrait drawing because it requires her to connect with individuals outside of her typical environment. Grace also enjoys folding origami, which she has implemented in nursing homes to benefit resident motor coordination. With the NEA Lab, Grace is intrigued to continue investigating how the arts can improve geriatric mental and physical wellness. Grace’s professional plans include practicing cardiothoracic surgery, supporting older demographics, and further uncovering intersections between art and medicine.

Katie MacDonald

Research Assistant

Katie (she/her) is a third-year student at UCLA pursuing a major in Psychology and a double minor in Musicology and Spanish. Her favorite art form is music, as it has always been an integral part of her life growing up in a family of musicians. She enjoys playing music (guitar, piano, and singing) and listening to a wide variety of styles from classical to psychedelic rock. She is very excited to be a part of the NEA Research Lab at UCLA because it perfectly combines her two greatest passions and areas of expertise–psychology and music. She is also passionate about mental health advocacy, and she loves how the lab not only examines the intersection between engagement with the arts and mental health, but also seeks to use this as evidence to provide holistic treatment that is accessible to all. After graduation, Katie hopes to do something with a similar mission to the NEA Lab and use psychology and music to help people.

Havish Gattu

Research Assistant Alum