Nancy Gerber, PhD, is associate clinical professor emerita and founding and former director of the PhD program in Creative Arts Therapies at Drexel University. She currently is teaching faculty at Florida State University in the graduate art therapy program. Gerber’s 22 years of clinical experience, includes 14 years as director of the Graduate Art Therapy program and creator/founding director of the PhD program in Creative Arts Therapies at Drexel University. Gerber has presented and published on art therapy assessment, doctoral education for art therapists, mixed methods research, aesthetic intersubjective worldview in research and practice, arts-based research, imagination in research, and the mechanisms of change creative arts therapies. She served for 11 years as vice-chair of the Social and Behavioral IRB at Drexel University, is a current member of the education committee and current chair of the doctoral education subcommittee for the American Art Therapy Association. She has co-created and currently co-facilitates the Arts-Based Research SIG at the International Congress of Qualitative Research and is currently co-editor of an International Review of Qualitative Research special issue on arts-based research. Gerber has also led the development of an arts-based research global consortium which engages international arts-based research scholars in developing defining principles and best practices for arts-based research while conducting socially responsible global arts-based research projects. Gerber has presented at the European Congress of Qualitative Inquiry (ECQI), the European Consortium for Arts Therapy Education Conference (ECArTE), the Mixed Methods International Research Association Conference (MMIRA) and the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry (ICQI). Gerber has also co-created and co-taught a global classroom in arts-based research with colleagues at the University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy and KU Leuven, Belgium.

Academic Distinctions

Recipient of the first Distinguished Educator’s Award from the American Art Therapy Association.

Selected Publications

• Gerber, N., Biffi, E., Biondo, J., Gemignani, M., Hannes, K., & Siegesmund, R. (2020). Arts- Based Research in the Social and Health Sciences: Pushing for Change with an Interdisciplinary Global Arts-Based Research Initiative. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 21(2), http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/fqs-21.2.3496.
• Gerber, N., Kapitan, L., Gussak, D., Forinash, M., Kaimal, G., & LaCivita, J. (2020). Doctoral Education in Art Therapy: Current Trends and Future Directions. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association. DOI: 10.1080/07421656.202
• Gerber, N., Bryl, K., Potvin, N., & Blank, C. A. (2018). Arts-based research approaches to studying mechanisms of change and transformation in the Creative Arts Therapies. Frontiers in Psychology Special Issue: The state of the art in Creative Arts Therapies.
  https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02076
• Archibald, M., & Gerber, N. (2018). Arts and Mixed Methods Research: An Innovative Methodological Merger [Special issue]. American Behavioral Scientist.https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764218772672
• Gerber, N., & Myers-Coffman, K. (2017). Translation in Arts-Based Research. In P. Leavy (Ed.). Handbook of arts-based research (587-607). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Editorial review board membership:

• International Review of Qualitative Research (Co-editor Special Issue)
• Journal of Mixed Methods Research
• Arts/Research International: A Trans disciplinary Journal

Research Interests

Art therapy assessment, doctoral education for art therapists, mixed methods research, aesthetic intersubjective worldview in research and practice, arts-based research, imagination in research, and the mechanisms of change creative arts therapies.

Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Studies
2004 The Union Institute & University
Doctoral Dissertation
The Essential Components of Doctoral Level Education for Art Therapists

Master of Science in Art Therapy
1977 Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital
Master’s Thesis
The Effects of Cerebral Glucose Utilization Disorders on Body Image as Reflected in the Artwork--An Exploratory Study

Certificate in Art Therapy
1974 Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital

Bachelor of Science in Art Education
1968 Pennsylvania State University