Bio

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"Namaste, the Divine in Me Honors the Divine in You."

Quána Madison is a multi-disciplinary artist, healing arts workshop facilitator, model, and well-being advocate. 

Expressive arts revived her soul after enduring cancer previvor treatments and developing disruptive life-changing chronic illnesses. She believes art nourishes well-being.

In 2015, Quána exhibited early cancer warning symptoms during her PhD program at the University of Colorado Boulder. After becoming severely ill, genetic testing revealed she had the BRCA1, ATM, and NBN genetic mutations. Her prior health history of precancerous growths, suspicious symptoms, and genetic predisposition put her at high risk of developing aggressive forms of breast, ovarian, and uterine cancers. 

In 2016, she had an emergency hysterectomy, oophorectomy, and double mastectomies. She underwent multiple breast reconstruction procedures and experienced necrosis of her remaining breasts. 3 months after surgical treatments, she barely survived a spontaneous vaginal cuff dehiscence and evisceration. While bleeding out nearly to death from this rare surgical complication, Quána had an extraordinary out-of-body near-death experience. The experience was transformative and restored her faith in the sacredness of life.

By January 2017, she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, autoimmune disease (systemic lupus erythematosus), chronic pain syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis, endocrine system problems, and peripheral neuropathy. depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Doctors informed Quána that her life expectancy was shortened due to her complex health landscape. The compounding impact of her incurable chronic illnesses caused her life to completely fall apart. In April 2017, she discontinued her PHD due to debilitating health reasons. This marked the beginning of her post-traumatic growth journey.

Expressive arts, community arts engagement, healing arts, self-compassion, mindfulness,  and self-love practices helped Quána recover and transform. Creative expression combined with inner wellness practices can promote physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being. 

Quána strives to inspire, educate, empower, and uplift people through her artwork and consulting services. She is passionate about promoting inner peace, social-emotional wellness, mindfulness, body positivity, and personal creative expression.

Quána values being an artist-philanthropist by supporting organizations and causes that promote a better world. She has served as a Board Director for Envision: You (a non-profit mental health education and advocacy organization dedicated to supporting the behavioral health needs of the LGBTQ+ community) and currently serves as a member of the Community Leadership Council for the National Pain Advocacy Center (a non-profit advocacy organization working to change the mindsets and policies that shape the care people with pain receive).  She is a member of the NPAC Community Leadership Council. As a Lived Experience Expert, she has collaborated with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) HEAL Initiative on the Strategic Planning subcommittee and webinar on Health Equity and Pain Across the Life Course, the Workshop on Advancing Equity in Pain Management, the HEAL Connections Lived Experience Panel and the Ambassador/Disseminator Strategy. She participated in the joint NIH and IMI-Pain Care INTEGRATE-Pain Delphi process to develop core research domains for acute, chronic, acute-to-chronic translation, and episodic pain. Quána is a Patient partner for the 2025 North American Pain School (NAPS) in Montebello, Quebec, Canada, in collaboration with the Quebec Pain Research Network (QPRN).

She collaborates with many organizations including Colorado Artists in Recovery (a non-profit that nurtures the creative spirit of people in recovery from substance misuse and mental health disorders), the Clyfford Still Museum, Denver Art Museum, Denver Botanic Gardens, The Center on Colfax, Catholic Charities of Denver, The Don't Look Back Center and other community partners.

Quána is a lifelong learner who enjoys reading, fashion, making art, gardening, and volunteering for Habitat for Humanity. Born in Kansas, raised in Missouri, a former New Yorker and Shanghai expatriate, she now resides in Denver, Colorado with her artist husband Zachariah White, and their three cats. A graduate of New York University and Colorado College, Quána holds an MA in Education and a BA in Philosophy. 

*Art Representation by Artlifting (See Quána's Available Art)  

*Model & On-Camera Representation by Wilhelmina Denver 

*Linktree