Carly Flaagan received her B.M. in music therapy at the University of North Dakota in 2015 and her M.M. in music therapy at Colorado State University in 2020. While at CSU, Carly served as a graduate teaching assistant and studied the interaction between music and the brain using functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy cognitive neuroscience techniques. Carly has had extensive experiences working in the non-profit world both in her music therapy internship and in her tenure as executive director of Summer Arts Safari, a small children’s musical theatre non-profit. Carly enjoys advocating for music therapy through public speaking, and was selected to present at TedxGrandForks in 2014 following her acceptance of the national E.Thayer Gaston research award. Since then, Carly has continued to serve as a music therapist in the northern Colorado community and as a STEM grants assistant through Front Range Community College.