Steering committee:
Elizabeth A. Fleming, MD (chair) developed the idea for the Midwest Physician Writers Retreat in the middle of a snowstorm. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health. She received her medical degree at the Medical College of Wisconsin, completed her residency at the UW-Madison Department of Family Medicine and Community Health and a Certification of Professional Achievement in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University. Her academic interests center around medical humanities, patient-physician relationship, and clinician wellness, with a particular focus on integrating patient narrative into the medical record and supporting identity formation in medical trainees. She has developed creative writing and narrative medicine curriculum and she serves on the board of directors for UW’s Collective for Humanism, Arts, and Storytelling in Medicine. Her narrative essays have been published in Family Medicine and JAMA.
Brittany Bettendorf, MD (co-chair) is a Clinical Associate Professor of Rheumatology at the University of Iowa. She holds an undergraduate degree in Poetry Writing and Neurobiology from Northwestern University. She received her medical degree from Medical College of Wisconsin where she also completed her residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics as well as her fellowship in Rheumatology. She holds an MFA degree in Nonfiction Writing from University of Iowa. She is a faculty member in the Program in Bioethics and Humanities at Carver College of Medicine where she teaches a class to first year medical and physician assistant students on social justice and an advanced elective to medical students on opinion editorial writing to help students improve the public’s understanding of health and healthcare. She serves as the nonfiction editor of The Examined Life Journal. Her essays have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, JAMA, The Des Moines Register, and on WUWM Milwaukee Public Radio’s Lake Effect.
Stephannie Acha-Morfaw, MD is a clinical Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. She started her post-secondary schooling at Montgomery College in the Montgomery Scholars honors program, where she focused on the humanities. Later, she transferred to Hood College in Frederick, Maryland, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in biochemistry. Dr. Acha-Morfaw earned her MD at the Chicago Medical School/Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science and completed her emergency medicine residency and chief residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Dr. Acha-Morfaw works toward using the humanities within the context of healthcare to drive discussions, particularly about anti-racism, cultural dexterity, and sexism, with a goal of changing educational curricula and practice environments. With her passion for the intersection of the humanities and healthcare, Dr. Acha-Morfaw also serves on the board of directors for the Collective for Humanism, Arts, and Storytelling in Medicine (CHASM) at UW–Madison. She enjoys working closely with medical students and is now also the Assistant Director of Medical Student Education and looks forward to continuing to bridge her work in EDI, humanities and medical education.
Bruce Campbell, MD FACS (plenary speaker) is a Professor Emeritus at the Medical College of Wisconsin, having held appointments in both the Department of Otolaryngology and the Institute for Health and Equity (Bioethics and Medical Humanities). He grew up in the Chicago area and attended Purdue University and Rush Medical College. He completed an otolaryngology residency at MCW and a head and neck surgery fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He returned to Milwaukee and joined the MCW faculty in 1987. He completed Columbia University’s Certification of Professional Achievement in Narrative Medicine in 2019. He retired from clinical practice in 2022 but works with medical students and residents on narrative projects and in seminars. His clinical focus was in the diagnosis and surgical management of head and neck cancer. He had an NIH grant to study cancer survivorship, investigated a variety of head and neck cancer topics, and published papers on medical student reflective writing. He has an interest in global surgery in under-resourced regions of the world and worked with surgical partners in Tanzania and Kenya. Now that the crazy deadlines, demands, and documentation of a clinical practice no longer drive his existence, he continues to write and edit, while trying to focus on the things that are most important. He wonders why he can’t get more accomplished. He and his wife, Kathi, live in suburban Milwaukee where they raised four wonderful children. If you don’t have to be somewhere soon, ask him about his grandchildren.
Arthur R. Derse, MD, JD is Director of the Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities, and is Julia and David Uihlein Chair in Medical Humanities, and Professor of Bioethics and Emergency Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He directs the MCW Medical Humanities Program, directs the Art of Medicine through the Humanities course, and co-directs the Bioethics and Medical Humanities Scholarly Concentration. He is a member of the Medical Humanities Section of the American College of Emergency Physicians. He is chair-elect of the administrative board of the Council of Faculty and Academic Societies of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and serves on AAMC’s Board of Directors.
Valerie Gilchrist, MD (she/her/hers) received her MD degree from the University of Toronto, finished residency in both Canada and the US, completed a fellowship at the University of North Carolina and the Executive in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Program. She is a past chair for three departments of family medicine – University of Wisconsin 2008- 1/2020, Brody School of Medicine East Carolina University 2005-2008, and Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine 1997-2005. She has received numerous awards and held leadership positions in many FM professional organizations. She retired in November 2023 and is now an emeritus professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Wisconsin. She is currently active as an associate editor of Family Medicine, a co-facilitator for LEADS, a national mentoring program for those interested in becoming FM leaders and spending time as a besotted Nana.
Aynsley Hartney is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (UWSMPH). During medical school, she served as a co-leader of the medical writing interest group and Editor-in-Chief of The Script, a semesterly publication featuring student and faculty short stories, poems, and art. She enjoys narrative medicine and recently co-led a workshop at the Family Medicine Midwest conference in October 2024 which focused on using narrative medicine skills to nurture curiosity in the training, teaching, and practice of medicine. She seeks opportunities to write, listen, and share stories as a powerful way to connect with others whether it be classmates, attendings, or patients, and she is excited to be a part of the planning committee for this inaugural MPWR!
Briana Krewson, DO (she/her) is a current PGY-II family medicine resident at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Family Medicine and Community Health. She hopes to provide full-spectrum care after residency, as she has interests in many areas of family medicine – humanism in medicine, preventative and lifestyle medicine, osteopathic manipulative treatment, and more. Prior to medical school, Briana was a Fulbright Fellow in Rzeszow, Poland, where she taught English. She continues to have interests in global health and enjoys traveling! As a physician, she looks forward to strengthening the health of her community and supporting long-term relationships with patients at both their healthiest and most vulnerable moments. In her free time, she is an enthusiastic vegetable and herb gardener and loves baking desserts. She keeps active by hiking with her partner David and doing yoga with her rescue pup Jake.
Magnolia Larson, DO is an associate professor in the SMPH DFMCH. She grew up in rural MN and received her B.A. in Psychology at Carleton College in Northfield, MN. After receiving her medical degree at Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences College of Osteopathic Medicine, she stayed in the Kansas City area at the Research Family Medicine Residency, completing her third year as chief resident. As part of a National Health Service Corps scholarship repayment program, Dr. Larson worked for 5 years in a rural health system in central Minnesota practicing full spectrum family medicine including ER, inpatient and OB care before joining as residency faculty at the UW Madison DFMCH Verona Clinic as well as at the Pediatric Fitness Clinic. She continues to practice full spectrum family medicine with interests in whole family wellness, nutrition, and lifestyle change as well as obstetrics, osteopathic medicine and narrative medicine. When she has a free moment, she enjoys writing poetry and lunch walks in the ever-changing Wisconsin climate. Outside of work, she keeps busy with her husband and three boys. They enjoy playing ultimate frisbee and planning their next great road trip adventure.
Maren Olsen, MD, MPH, MEd is co-director of the Center for the Art of Medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School. Her clinical work is as a pediatric hospitalist at the University of Minnesota, where she also serves as an associate program director for the Pediatric Residency at the University of Minnesota, and a faculty advisor for medical students. She is passionate about the power of storytelling to build connection, foster empathy and promote resilience.
Carol Scott-Conner, MD, PhD, MFA is professor and chair emeritus of the Department of Surgery at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. She has written numerous textbooks, three monographs on writing, and two volumes of short stories. Her prose and poetry explore the interactions between physicians and patients. More than forty of these short pieces have been published in a variety of literary and medical humanities journals ranging from North Dakota Quarterly through The Healing Muse and The Intima. The Intima nominated her poem, “Baptism,” for Pushcart Prize. In 2023, she received her MFA in Poetry and Narrative Medicine from Lenoir-Rhyne University and currently serves as Guest Lecturer at that Institution.
Cassandra Sundaram is a 3rd year medical student at the University of Minnesota. Before medical school, she worked as a research coordinator in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at UW Madison and had the opportunity to work on projects exploring how clinicians might write together with patients. She is passionate about finding art, humor, and creativity in medicine, and enjoys writing, crafting and being in nature.
David Thoele, MD is Co-Director of Narrative Medicine at Advocate Health and a pediatric cardiologist at Advocate Children’s Hospital. He started the program in narrative medicine at ACH in 2013. He is a writer and speaker, who has led writing workshops at The Examined Life Conference, the International Health Humanities meeting, the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), and the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP). His creative essays are featured in Pulse, Hektoen International, Ars Medica, and Physicians Practice. He learned the healing power of writing when his daughter got sick, and he experienced the medical system from a parent’s perspective. He developed a short writing exercise, the 3-Minute Mental Makeover (3MMM), for doctors to use with their patients. He and his group published studies in The Permanente Journal that showed that the 3MMM reduced stress for patients, families and health practitioners, and led to long-term benefits. He has presented research posters describing benefits of the 3MMM at several national conferences, including the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Johns Hopkins ICU Conference, and the Examined Life Conference.
Ben Trappey, MD is a Med-Peds hospitalist at the University of Minnesota Medical Center. He serves as the Co-Director for the Center for the Art of Medicine in the University of Minnesota Medical school. In this role, he is able to pursue his passion for understanding and appreciating the stories that lie at the heart of the practice of medicine and helping medical trainees and professionals become more effective storytellers and artists of all types.