Yasmine White is CEO and founder of Voices Together, a rapidly expanding music therapy organization in North Carolina. She developed the VOICSSⓇ (Vocal Interactive Communications and Social Strategies) model as a non-directive intervention for people on the autism spectrum or who are otherwise neurodivergent. 

The model has been deemed a best practice in the field by educators and administrators who have seen it in action and studied its impact on students. Yasmine is author of a recently published book, Autism and the Power of Music, written to help parents of children with autism connect more fully with their children and help them advocate for themselves.

Yasmine built the organization from a small nonprofit serving eight people to an organization serving thousands of people who are autistic or otherwise neurodivergent across North Carolina. Building on the growth from the last decade, she is moving the organization forward to deliver a technology-enabled training platform for reaching anyone anywhere who may benefit from this model.

She built Voices Together by leveraging multiple partnerships in the Research Triangle Region of North Carolina – validating the model through a substantial research partnership with Duke University, raising millions of dollars from foundation partners such as the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust, working closely on best practices with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and building a contract partnership for vocational training with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Department and the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (VR). This VR partnership significantly expanded the delivery of the VOICSSⓇ program across the state, positively impacting thousands of students.

Yasmine has spent nearly three decades as a music therapist specializing in the area of autism and other types of neurodivergence. She has devoted most of her life to working with children, teens and adults within this population. She is author and co-author of peer-reviewed articles published in academic journals and white papers in national publications. She is a frequent guest on radio and television programs and presenter on her proprietary model at regional, national and international conferences.

She began her career in music therapy in New York, serving clients of all ages and with all types of neurodivergence in the greater New York metropolitan area. During this time, she advanced her performing career playing in clubs in the East and West Village and recording her first record. She then moved to Los Angeles and, while there, spent a number of years working in documentary and television production, eventually working for the local and nationally recognized public television station, KCET in Los Angeles.

Yasmine eventually felt the call to return to music therapy and left to develop a private practice in Los Angeles specializing in children, teens and adults with autism. In 2001, after moving to North Carolina, she opened a practice in Chapel Hill, where she developed the VOICSSⓇ model and the Voices Together organization.

Yasmine is a board-certified music therapist with a degree from the University of Maryland and advanced graduate studies in music therapy. The Mid-Atlantic Music Therapy Association recognized Yasmine with its Annual Achievement Award.

Fun Fact

An accomplished songwriter and performer, Yasmine wrote most of the original technique songs used in the Voices Together program. Before she formed Voices Together, she was a professional songwriter and placed second in the folk category of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, a prestigious international competition founded by Yoko Ono, with judges who included Bjork, James Brown, Judy Collins, Elton John, Joan Osborne and Carlos Santana.