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Beyond Mask Founders

Sirkku M. Sky Hiltunen, Ph.D., Ed.D., RDT-BCT, ATR-BC, BCPC, MT, LPC, CEO/President of Beyond Mask, Inc. is a native of Finland and a Black Belt in Tai Chi. She is a Registered Art and Drama Therapist, Board Certified Trainer of Drama Therapy and a Licensed Professional Counselor in the District of Columbia. She received her first doctorate from The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC in 1983 specializing in the arts therapies for adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Developmental and Multiple Disabilities. She received her second doctorate from The Union Institute in Transpersonal Psychology. She is the Founder and the Master Teacher of NohKiDo™ —Therapeutic Noh Theater®.

She has studied Noh Theater dance (kata) and chanting (utai) in Kyoto and Nara Japan during summers of 1988, 1989, 1990 and 2000. It took her 21 years of seeking before she was able to find teachers in Japan and study with Noh Masters from Kongo and Komparu schools.

Dr. Sky has developed her method over thirty years. She saw her first Noh Theater performance in 1967 in Helsinki, Finland. The subsequent performances she witnessed in Kyoto, Japan in 1972 changed her life and career and she began developing a drama therapy approach based on some essential concepts drawn from the ancient classic Noh Theater. Besides Noh Theater, many other ancient traditions are incorporated in her approach. As a Finn, she has also drawn from her own ethnic roots and dramatized for Therapeutic Noh Theater® ancient Finnish mythology of Kalevala.

Dr. Sky was the Founding President (1985-2003) and the Artistic Director of the Therapy Theater Company, Inc. (TTC). She has conducted creative arts therapy training in the USA, Lithuania, Russia, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, and Finland. She has published in professional journals in the USA, Canada, and Japan. She is the Cofounder and the Executive Vice President of the Art and Drama Therapy Institute, Inc.

Margaret “Muggy Do” Dickinson, Ph.D., Vice President of Beyond Mask, Inc., was born and raised in Washington, DC. She graduated from Wilberforce University and was the President of her class as well as the recipient of the Most Outstanding Psychology Student Award in 1972. Dr. Do has studied and lived in England.

In 1975 she co-founded one of the first group homes for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the Finnish-Russian border with Drs. Sky and Do established a program-monitoring unit for the Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Administration (MRDDA) in 1983 and directed it until 1985. Dr. Do worked as the Special Assistant to the Administrator for the MRDDA and served her doctoral internship with the President's Committee on Mental Retardation. She received her Ph.D. in 1987 from the Union Graduate School in Transpersonal Psychology. Dr. Do was the President of the Therapy Theater Company (TTC) (1996-2003).

Dr. Do is the CEO and President of the Art and Drama Therapy Institute, Inc. (ADTI), which she co-founded with Dr. Sky in 1991. In addition to Dr. Do’s many accomplishments, she is listed in the World Who's Who of Women. She has received the Department of Human Services Award for Outstanding Service to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and was awarded the Humanitarian of the Year Award by the Julia West Hamilton League in 1994.