We’ve had the honor of welcoming military-connected community members to the Veterans and the Arts Initiative since 2014! Get to know the staff behind the workshops that you will be attending.
“We had such a great experience learning the guitar in the Dominion Energy Veterans Guitar Workshops! Glen [McCarthy] was a wonderful teacher. He always moved at a pace that catered to all ages and skill levels. We appreciate that Dr. Dhokai and Emily [Fasick] were always at the door to greet us for class.”
Dr. Niyati Dhokai, Program Director for the Veterans and the Arts Initiative
Dr. Niyati Dhokai is a Research Associate Professor in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at George Mason University, and she also serves as Program Director for the Veterans and the Arts Initiative at the Hylton Performing Arts Center. In addition, Dhokai also supports the College of Visual and Performing Arts as a Faculty Fellow for Curricular Innovation.
Having directed the Veterans and the Arts Initiative since its inception as a community-based arts program in support of military-connected people in 2015, Dhokai has grown the Initiative from an annual Veterans Day event to a year-round program that has served over 16,000 people through uniquely designed virtual and in-person workshops, a collaboration with Prince William Public Libraries, and curated concerts and special events.
Dhokai has published research outcomes on the impact of community arts programming for military-connected people as the single or lead author in multiple peer–reviewed, international publications including the Journal of Applied Arts & Health, the Journal of Aging Studies, and MUSICultures. She and her team have also published a manual on virtual arts engagement that was funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. Overall, Dhokai and her teams have received five contracts to complete work in support of Creative Forces®: NEA Military Healing Arts Network, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the U.S. Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.
Dhokai currently serves on a national-level technical working group in support of Creative Forces® through an invited contract from 2024–2027. This is the fourth national-level working group that Dhokai has been invited to advise on since 2019.
Dhokai has made over 20 presentations of findings from community-based events, including Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda MD, the Soldier and Family Assistance Center at Fort Belvoir, peer-reviewed international academic conferences in ethnomusicology and the health sciences, and at George Mason University events.
In recognition of her work, Dr. Dhokai is the 2018 recipient of the Change Maker of the Year award from the Virginia Department of Veterans Services and the 2018 recipient of George Mason University’s Jack Wood Award for Town Gown Relations in the faculty/staff category. Prior to joining the faculty at GMU, she worked with Veterans and Servicemembers recovering from injuries in post-acute neurorehabilitation in the Washington D.C. metro area by designing and facilitating music activities to support community integration. She has a B.A. in Music from George Mason University, and she completed her M.A. and Ph.D. in Music (Ethnomusicology) from the University of Alberta (Canada), where her doctoral dissertation research was supported by a Fulbright grant to study in India.
Emily Fasick, Program Assistant, Veterans and the Arts Initiative
Emily Fasick is program assistant for the Veterans and the Arts Initiative. In addition to this role, she is an artist and educator, and she believes that the artmaking experience should be open and accessible to all. In addition to her work with the Initiative, she teaches workshops for battle jackets and the punk arts for local youth and LGBTQ+ community members in the D.C. area and beyond. Emily holds a BA in Historic Preservation from the University of Mary Washington and an MA in Art Education from Academy of Art University.
Glen McCarthy, Guitar and Ukulele Instructor, Veterans and the Arts Initiative
Glen McCarthy is the ukulele and guitar instructor for the award-winning Veterans and the Arts Initiative at the Hylton Performing Arts Center. He has been a guest clinician and adjudicator at festivals, conferences and workshops both nationally and internationally. He is the past chair of the NAfME Council for Guitar Education, the past chair of the ASTA Guitar-in-the-Schools Committee, the past chair of the All-Virginia Guitar Ensemble and presently executive director and clinician for Teaching Guitar Workshops. In 2014 from over 32,000 nominees the Grammy Foundation recognized Glen as one of the top ten music educators in the United States.