Magda Kaczmarska is a dance artist, scholar and creative-aging and brain health advocate. She received her MFA in Dance Performance & Choreography and her BS in Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics from the University of Arizona. She leverages 10 years of neuropharmacology research and 18 years in intergenerational community-based dance education to build bridges between academic, medical and arts sectors. Magda is an Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute, where she is working to design and expand access to creative aging programs that support brain health across the life course. Current projects include designing community-based brain health education for intergenerational communities and developing co-creative arts programs for people living with dementia in partnership with CaringKind – New York, UCSF Memory and Aging Center and Dementia Action Alliance.
Magda served as co-founder of Evolve Dance~West, a non-profit dance company which brought intergenerational dance programs to diverse communities in southern Arizona, including offering programs for people living with Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease and refugees and survivors of trauma. In New York City, she worked with Dances for a Variable Population (DVP) supporting hundreds of older adults in exploration of strong and creative movement.
Magda presents regularly in public and academic forums on the benefits of creative practices on individual and social health across the life course. Credits include Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer’s Artfully Aging Conference (2018), Columbia University Teachers College Symposium (2019), National Dance Education Conference (2018-2020). She mentors future leaders in the arts and health sectors as guest lecturer at Fordham Ailey School of Dance in New York City and the Arts in Medicine Fellowship in Lagos, Nigeria. She serves on the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) Dance & Disability Taskforce, for which she received the Executive Director Award in 2021. She also serves on the Communications Sub-Committee at the NGO Committee of Ageing, supporting expanding the public voice for the human rights of older persons. In 2021, she is the Co-Chair of the UN International Day of Older Persons (UN IDOP).