Health Humanities Committee - Members

Name - Faculty/Department - Work in Health Humanities

Meena Assad

Medical Student, Year 2

Oswald Chen

Medical Student, Year 1

Jeptha Davenport

Neurosciences

Jeptha obtained an MSc in Medical Humanities from King's College London Department of English, awarded January 2018.  His thesis centered on 'The Hard Problem of Consciousness'.  He has taught in our Introductory course and been a strong supporter of various initiatives.

Janet de Groot

Psychiatry

During her tenure as Associate Dean, Equity and Professionalism, Janet initiated faculty development course in Humanism & Professionalism in collaboration with 3 other members of the Health Humanities Committee (Nixon, Roze des Ordons, Rosenal).

Rachel Ellaway

Co-Director, Office of Health and Medical Educational Scholarship

Rachel has had a decades-long relationship with international Health Humanities groups.  This includes being a grant reviewer for SSHRC, the Allied Medical Services (AMS) Phoenix project and co-chairing a past Creating Space conference.  In addition, she supports our research and educational interests.

Juliet Guichon

Community Health Sciences

Connects us with community public health concerns.

Jacqueline Hui

Palliative Care

Palliative Care physicians have traditionally led the way on humanistic care.  As Director of Residency Training program in this specialty, Jacqueline connects us with that arc of the educational continuum.

Jacqueline Jenkins

English

Jackie, Head, Department of English, has just joined our group.  Over the past 3 years, she has helped initiate and provided initial funding for the Writer-in-Residence program.  She also supported the main campus element of Michael Green’s graphic medicine exhibition and talk at the 2018 Calgary Biannual Health Humanities Symposium.

Martina Kelly

Family Medicine

As Family Medicine Undergraduate Education Director, Martina is our strongest link to this part of the educational continuum.  She has co-led the Introduction to Health Humanities course for 1st year medical students.  Her work, including many publications and her PhD thesis, is intimately connected with the humanities.

Monica Kidd

Family Medicine

Monica is deeply connected to the artistic community locally and beyond.  She is a published poet and regular contributor to the CMAJ in the field of health humanities.  She is an editor of a well-respected Canadian publishing house, Pedlar Press. She has promoted Health Humanities grand rounds and valiantly developed and promoted a proposal for a Health Humanities certificate program.

Michael Lang

Faculty of Nursing

Michael is our resident film producer-director.  He has worked with AHS creating digital patient narratives.  His research in the faculty of Nursing is focused on hermeneutics.

Clem Martini

School of Performing Arts

Clem has published two memoirs in the field of health humanities.  He has been key in the creation and evolution of our Writer-in-Residence program in collaboration with the School of Performing Arts and the Department of English.

Graham McCaffrey

Faculty of Nursing

Graham initiated a course for nursing students in a practicum in a long-term care setting that involved reading a novel about characters in a similar setting.  He involved English literature and medical members of our group.  Outcomes published in a per-reviewed journal.

Christopher Naugler

Faculty of Medicine

Associate Dean, Undergraduate Medical Education (ex officio) from July 2019

Phoebe Ng

Medical Student Year 3

Lara Nixon

Family Medicine

Lara led and acquired funding for a parallel narrative project regarding patients at risk of falling.  Results suggested several important changes in patient evaluation that promise to improve outcomes and demonstrate the value of narrative medicine.  Her ties to education and the care of marginalized communities has informed our work.

Laurie Pereles

Family Medicine

Laurie has been the source of many of the innovative ideas for our group.  She proposed the noon journal club and medical student writing and visual art competitions.  She published the first peer-reviewed paper on the falls prevention study.

Tom Rosenal

Critical Care Medicine

Tom initiated the Health Humanities group and is the inaugural President of the Canadian Association for Health Humanities.

Amanda Roze des Ordons

Critical Care Medicine

Amanda is our closest tie to medical education and provided the most in-depth evaluation of the Humanism and Professionalism faculty development Course.

Tinu Ruparell

Classics & Religion

Tinu is our “resident philosopher”.  As such, he has provided our strongest link to the humanities and academia beyond healthcare.  He has co-precepted several elective medical students and leads the “power and politics” section of the introductory course.

Frank Stahnisch

History of Medicine

Frank has led the History of Medicine branch of Health Humanities at Cumming for many years.

Rosario Talavera

Community Health Sciences

Rosario has been our boots-on-the-ground on many levels.  She is the key organizer of our bi-annual symposium and is the most active Master Teacher in our group, encouraging students to engage with Health Humanities.

Jeannette Waegemakers Schiff

Faculty of Social Work

Jeanette brings a social justice view to our group, widening our conception of healthcare and raising our awareness of related activity and academics in Social Work.

Mary Wallis

Faculty of Nursing

Mary, as a palliative care nurse with a PhD in English, contributes by teaching our Introduction to health Humanities course for first-year medical student, frequently attending our offerings and guiding medical students working in Health Humanities electives.