Dr. Joyce Buekers is a fourth-generation harpist. Her grandmother was the first woman in the Los Angeles Philharmonic and played with Walt Disney Studios for over 40 years, including the harp in the ground-breaking film Fantasia.

While Joyce continued the family legacy, she also got an undergraduate degree in math, with minors in systems engineering and music. She followed that with an MBA in systems engineering, but after a successful 15-year marketing career with IBM she was involved in a life-threatening accident that led to earning a master’s in divinity and a career change.

Her true calling is founding the Therapeutic Harp Foundation, designed to enhance the quality of life for patients, their families, special needs individuals, PTSD vets, neonatal intensive care babies withdrawing from opioids and terminally ill hospice patients while they transition. Over the years the nonprofit has served more than 30 healthcare educational institutions, and more than 300,000 patients, staff and volunteers.

Click here learn more about the Therapeutic Harp Foundation: https://therapeuticharps.org/ 

Original air date: January 11, 2024.

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