Portrait image of Heather Denning
Heather Denning

Chair, Department of Art, Design, and Communication

Contact Information

OFFICE: Zurn 121
PHONE: 814-824-2212

Heather began teaching at Mercyhurst University in 2016 and serves as the director and advisor for the Art Therapy Program.

Heather started her career working in the mental health field in 1994 as an art therapist facilitating and directing group therapy programs for adults with severe mental illnesses. She has directed both Adult Partial Hospitalization and Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement Programs in a community mental health setting.

Heather is a registered and board-certified art therapist with a supervisor credential designated by the Art Therapy Credentials Board, as well as a licensed professional art therapist and social worker in the state of Ohio. She is a professional member of the American Art Therapy Association, Buckeye Art Therapy Association, and Pennsylvania Art Therapy Association. She has presented at professional art therapy conferences regionally, nationally, and abroad. She serves as a committee member of the Undergraduate Education Sub-Committee of the American Art Therapy Association and Publication Chair of the Buckeye Art Therapy Association.

Heather began working with art therapy students as an on-site supervisor at Ravenwood Health in Chardon, OH, in 1995, overseeing graduate-level art therapy students during their internship placements. She began teaching graduate-level art therapy courses at Ursuline College in 1999. Coursework taught at a graduate level has included Group Art Therapy and Art Therapy Methods and Materials.

At Mercyhurst, she initiated a service learning trip abroad to Nepal in 2018, where art therapy students volunteered to teach art at a school in Kathmandu.

About Heather Denning
    • Master of Arts in Art Therapy, Vermont College of Norwich University
      • Montpelier, Vermont, August 1994 
      • Thesis: Art Therapy and Dual Diagnosis
    • Bachelor of Science in Art Therapy, Bowling Green State University,
      • Bowling Green, Ohio, May 1992 
      • Major: Art Therapy, Cognate: Social Work, Studio Concentration: Drawing
    • Service-Learning
    • Group Art Therapy
    • ART 110: Art Appreciation (3 credits)
    • Art Therapy Internship
    • ARTH 225: Art Therapy Materials and Methods (3 credits)
    • ARTH 325: Art Therapy Practices (3 credits)
    • ARTH 425: Art Therapy Seminar (2 credits)
    • Group Practices
    • ARTH 125: Introduction to Art Therapy (3 credits)
    • Introduction to Expressive Therapies 
    • Group Art Therapy
    • Undergraduate Art Therapy Education
    • Registered and Board Certified Art Therapist
    • Art Therapy Credentialed Supervisor
    • Licensed Professional Art Therapist State of Ohio
    • Licensed Social Worker State of Ohio
    • Buckeye Art Therapy Association-Publications Chair
    • Pennsylvania Art Therapy Association
    • American Art Therapy Association-Co-Chair Undergraduate Education Sub-Committee

    Publications:

    • Denning, H.J. (2022). Beginning concepts of group work.  In Rastogi, M., Feldwisch, R.P., Pate, M., & Scarce, J. (Eds.), Foundations in art therapy: Theory and applications. Elsevier Publishing Company. 
    • Schwartz, J.B, St. John, P.A., Lagstein, C.G., Pate, M.C., & Denning, H.J. (November 2022).
    • Instructional content in undergraduate art therapy education, Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association. 

    Presentations:

    • Lessons Learned: Expanding Ethical Art Therapy Practice to Publication, American Art Therapy Association’s Annual 54th Conference, San Diego, California, October 2023  

    • Instructional Content Areas in Undergraduate Art Therapy Education, American Art Therapy Association’s Annual 54th Conference, San Diego, California, October 2023 

    • Eco-Art Therapy Wellness Practices: Greening the Studio, Buckeye Art Therapy Association’s Annual Symposium, Pepper Pike, Ohio, September 2023
    • Building Community Engagement in Italy: Service Learning Abroad, Buckeye Art Therapy Association’s Annual Symposium, Pepper Pike, Ohio, September 2023
    • Eco-Art Therapy, Cuyahoga Community College-Eastern Campus, The Healing Earth: Environmental Art and Eco-Art Therapy, Exhibition and Workshop, February 2023
    • Undergraduate Art Therapy Fieldwork: Practice & Ethics, Co-presenter panel of Undergraduate Art Therapy Educators, American Art Therapy Association’s Annual 53rd Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 2022
    • Lessons Learned: Expanding Ethical Art Therapy Practice to Professional Writing, Buckeye Art Therapy Association’s Annual Virtual Symposium, September 2022
    • Annual Faculty Art Exhibition, Mercyhurst University, Aug. 2023
    • Summertime Blues, accepted work juried show, Stella’s Art Gallery, Willoughby, Ohio, July-Aug. 2023
    • Annual Faculty Art Exhibition, Mercyhurst University, Aug.-Oct. 2022 
    • Healing Imagination IX-35th University Exhibition, accepted work juried show, Florence O’Donnell Wasmer Gallery, Pepper Pike, Ohio, April 2022 
    • Jay & Mona Kang Virtual Art Show, accepted work juried show, Barber National Institute, Erie, Pennsylvania, April-May 2022 
    • Artist Art Therapist Artist, one of six artists featured in a curated show, Stella’s Art Gallery, Willoughby, Ohio, Sept. 2021