Beat the Odds®: Youth Leadership Model Online Training - Spring 2025

Ping Ho, MA, MPH is Founder and Director of Arts & Healing Initiative, an organizational member of the UCLA Integrative Health Collaborative, of which Ping is a steering committee member. She was founding administrator for the UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, which led to the privilege of writing for Norman Cousins and co-writing the professional autobiography of George F. Solomon, M.D., founder of the field. She has a BA in psychology with honors from Stanford—where she was appointed to establish the still-thriving Health Improvement Program for faculty and staff, an MA in counseling psychology with specialization in exercise physiology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an MPH in community health sciences from UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. Ping is associate editor for the Creative Arts Therapies section of the Journal of Complementary and Alternative Medicine and has been Co-Chair of the annual Expressive Therapies Summit: Los Angeles, which offers 150+ workshops on creativity and the arts in healing. She spearheaded the Certificate Program in Social Emotional Arts (SEA) and the SEA on a Shoestring program of supportive art, movement, music, and writing for individuals or groups in any setting. In addition, she co-developed and served as principal investigator for the evidence-based program, Beat the Odds®: Social and Emotional Skill Building Delivered in a Framework of Drumming. She is co-author, with Erica Curtis, of the 2019 National Parenting Products Award-winning book, The Innovative Parent: Raising Connected, Happy, Successful Kids through Art (Ohio University/Swallow Press, March 2019).

[In-Person Sessions Only] Mike DeMenno came across a magazine article in 1993, featuring Mickey Hart and Arthur Hull, about the mission to use drumming for community building and personal well-being. Within a year, Mike began facilitating drum circles for at-risk youth throughout Los Angeles. In 2003, Mike became Manager of the REMO Music Center (RMC)—the first recreational music center of its kind. Under the mentorship of Remo Belli, the RMC developed into an extraordinary place dedicated to bringing rhythm and music to people from all walks of life. This journey not only enabled Mike to work closely with Mickey Hart on several projects over the years, but also brought him ongoing mentorship from Arthur Hull. In 2017, the RMC was relocated to REMO, Inc. headquarters in Valencia, CA, where an elegant, state-of-the-art facility was constructed to enable the continued offering of weekly community drum circles, Saturday drum circles for kids, and workshops dedicated to drumming for wellness. Mike continues to manage the RMC and, in 2020, was given the additional responsibility of managing Recreational Music Activities under a new REMO initiative: Rhythm Wellness and You!®. He maintains his passion for the drum set as well as helping others experience playing music for personal joy.

Prior to the training, you may find it helpful to view the ten minute clip from a documentary film of our work with Beat the Odds®.

For Online Trainings: Please bring something that can serve as a drum if you don’t have one—a pillow, a bucket, a large plastic water jug, a desk, or a large food storage container will do (preferably something that sounds pleasant to you). Please also bring something that can serve as a shaker if you don’t have one—a supplement bottle, a box of mints, a plastic container filled with rice or beans (again, preferably something that sounds pleasant to you).

For In-Person Trainings: Please bring a found sound, or household object, that makes an easily-audible sound. 

Click here to view some additional product alternatives (Note: Instructions for obtaining discount pricing on these products will be made available to our trainees).

• Second-time, repeat BTO or BTO-YL participants can take the training for half price by entering BTO50 in the promo-code field during checkout.
• Participants taking the BTO or BTO-YL training for the third time (or more) can enroll for a quarter of the price by entering BTO75 in the promo-code field during checkout.

We believe transforming lives through creative expression should be financially accessible. Please reach out to us at info@artsandhealinginitiative.org for scholarship and payment plan information.

This is a online program through Zoom. A welcome email, which includes the link to join the program, will be sent to you after you register. Please check your inbox and spam folders.

By registering, you give Arts & Healing Initiative approval to record this event, still and/or moving images from which may appear in printed materials or digital channels for archival, educational, or promotional purposes.

Note for online trainings: Zoom breakout rooms are not recorded.

In order to keep our programs affordable yet self-sustaining, we regret that we are unable to offer refunds for cancellation; however, we are happy to provide you with credit good for one year from the date of the program toward the next offering of the same program or a different one. Credit applied toward a program with higher registration fees will require payment of the balance. In addition, credit may be applied toward purchase of curriculum materials for any program. Unused fees after one year would then be tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law because no goods or services would have been received for them.