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Holly M Wherry (b. 1978, Lime Springs, Iowa) is an art therapist in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her focus is on providing art therapy groups to schoolchildren affected by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. She currently works with middle school-aged children at New Orleans College Prep in the Central City neighborhood. Ms. Wherry is trained in trauma-recovery art therapy for children, and her program is facilitated by the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) with a grant from the Hyogo Prefecture in Japan. This program is supported by the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Department of Psychiatry who conduct research on the efficacy of the art therapy intervention.

Biography
Holly Margaret Wherry was born in Lime Springs, Iowa, a town of less than 300 people near the Minnesota border. Ms. Wherry left Iowa after high school and moved to Paris, France, where she enrolled in the Sorbonne University while working as an au pair. Ms. Wherry completed her education at the University of Iowa where she received a Bachelors in Fine Art. Ms. Wherry was accepted in the Teach for America program in New York City and simultaneously worked toward her Masters of Science for Teachers at Pace University. In New York, Ms. Wherry taught at PS 48 in the Washington Heights neighborhood. In 2005, Ms. Wherry was accepted into the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the Master of Arts in Art Therapy program. After completing her Masters of Art in Art Therapy in 2007, Ms. Wherry moved to New Orleans and has worked as an art therapist.

Training
Ms. Wherry's training as an art therapist included work with inmates with mental illness at Cook County Jail, children who experienced sexual abuse in Chicago, and at a special education school in Mumbai, India. These experiences, coupled with her work as a teacher for holdover, second-language students in New York, provided Ms. Wherry with the necessary background for intense, trauma-focused art therapy with children in New Orleans.

Art therapy in schools and the community
Ms. Wherry's work in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina allows her the opportunity to provide art therapy to hundreds of schoolchildren and community members. The main component of the Hyogo/NOMA Art Therapy Initiative is the daily art therapy groups that Ms. Wherry conducts for a semester at a time in different New Orleans schools. Thus far, Ms. Wherry has worked at John Dibert Elementary, Edward Hynes Charter, Benjamin Banneker Elementary, Einstein Charter, and New Orleans College Prep. Her full-time position and integration into each school environment provides the participating schoolchildren with an opportunity for consistent and focused processing of trauma and grief through art expression. In addition to her work in schools, Ms. Wherry also conducts art therapy for the community through Open Art Making Studios and Katrina anniversary events. Finally, Ms. Wherry facilitates educational opportunities in the form of presentations, seminars, and art therapy experiences for educators, students, teachers, parents, and mental health professionals.