Contributors

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Nathan Houchens, MD

Nathan Houchens, MD is a Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Hospital Medicine at the University of Michigan. He serves as the Associate Chief of Medicine at the Veterans Affairs Ann Arbor Healthcare System.

His research and interests revolve around interpersonal relationships and communication in healthcare settings. He has a wealth of experience in facilitating communication skills training for diverse audiences. He emphasizes the role communication plays in patient and clinician satisfaction, education, professionalism, and humanism. He also studies the effects of empathy and compassion on healthcare delivery and outcomes, clinical reasoning and problem-solving, and medical education at multiple learning levels. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications in medical journals as well as the book Teaching Inpatient Medicine: Connecting, Coaching, and Communicating in the Hospital 2nd Edition.

Guests

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Adam Marks, MD, MPH

Adam Marks obtained his MD and MPH at the University of Wisconsin before coming to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he completed a combined internal medicine pediatrics residency, followed by a fellowship in hospice and palliative medicine. He is currently a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine at the University of Michigan. In addition, he serves as section head of the adult palliative medicine program at Michigan Medicine, the director of education for the palliative medicine program, and as a hospice physician for Elara Hospice. Since 2016, he has also worked as a faculty ethicist within the clinical ethics service at Michigan Medicine. His work focuses on caring for both adult and pediatric patients living with serious illness. His clinical interests include symptom management at the end of life, clinical ethics, and effective communication around goals of care and advance care planning.

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Andrew Kim, MD, MPhil

Andrew Ikhyun Kim (he/they) is a physician, peacebuilder, and chaplain-in-training at Upaya Zen Center who is planting the seeds for his dreams of creating a nature-based hospice. He was the director of policy in the UCSF Center for Global Health Diplomacy, where he coordinated global health policy engagements for the UN High Level Meetings on Tuberculosis, and he served as the co-secretariat for the Lancet Commission on TB. Prior to that he served as a White House Fellow at the Office of Management and Budget and the White House COVID-19 Response Team. He earned his Medical Doctorate from Harvard Medical School, his Master of Philosophy in International Development at the University of Cambridge, and Bachelor of Arts from Brown University. As an integral balance to his professional work, Andrew enjoys thru-hiking, trail running, volunteering as an adaptive ski instructor for skiers with disabilities, and exploring mystical contemplative traditions across world religions.

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Arlene MacDougall, MD, MSc, FRCPC

Arlene MacDougall is a psychiatrist and the Director of Research and Innovation for Mental Health Care at St. Joseph's Health Care London in London, Ontario. She is an Associate Professor and Director of Research for the Department of Psychiatry at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University. She leads trans-disciplinary and cross-sectoral innovation initiatives tackling complex mental health and addiction system challenges. She conducts mental health services research on access to emergency psychiatric care, the collaborative care model, and early psychosis intervention. Dr. MacDougall is also the founder and CEO of the Global MINDS Collective, a registered Canadian charity dedicated to building capacity in mindfulness, social-emotional learning, and mindful social innovation. She has been recognized as a global young physician leader by the International Inter-Academy Partnership. 

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Brian Zikmund-Fisher, PhD

Brian Zikmund-Fisher, PhD is Professor of Health Behavior and Health Equity and Research Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the academic journals Medical Decision Making and MDM Policy & Practice. Dr. Zikmund-Fisher's career blends his training in decision psychology and behavioral economics with his personal experiences having to make multiple major medical treatment decisions. He designs and evaluates methods of making health data more intuitively meaningful to patients, the public, and policymakers. He studies the impact of people’s consistent preferences for more versus less health care on over- and underutilization of care. And he explores the power of narrative as a tool for sharing patient experiences. He also teaches courses on designing clear and memorable messages to non-scientist audiences and explores the use of improvisational theater games as tools for building health and science communication skills.

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Heather Gilmartin, PhD, NP

Heather Gilmartin is a nurse practitioner and research health scientist at the Denver/Seattle Center of Innovation for Veteran-Centered and Value-Driven Care, located within the Rocky Mountain Regional Veterans Health Administration Medical Center. She is the Associate Director of the Denver Center of Innovation and co-Director of the Denver VA Advanced Research Fellowship for Health Services Research. She serves as a Clinical Associate Professor at the Colorado School of Public Health, Department of Health Systems, Management & Policy, and is the Associate Director of the Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Dissemination & Implementation Research Core. Dr. Gilmartin is an Associate Certified Coach with the International Coaching Federation, providing executive leadership coaching to VA clinical leaders through the VA Leadership Coaching Cadre.

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Kenneth Pargament, PhD

Kenneth Pargament is a professor emeritus of psychology at Bowling Green State University and adjunct professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Baylor Medical College. He has authored over 300 refereed articles on the relationship between religion and mental health. He is Editor-in-Chief of the two-volume APA Handbook of Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality. With Julie Exline, he has authored Working with Spiritual Struggles in Psychotherapy: From Research to Practice. He was Distinguished Scholar at the Institute for Spirituality and Health at the Texas Medical Center. His awards include the Oskar Pfister Award, the Distinguished Service Award from the Association of Professional Chaplains, the first Outstanding Contribution to the Applied Psychology of Religion and Spirituality Award from Division 36 of APA, and an honorary doctor-of-letters from Pepperdine University in 2013. He was named One of the 50 Most Influential Living Psychologists. 

https://www.kennethpargament.com/

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Kristin Collier, MD

Kristin Collier received her medical degree from the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor and completed her internship, residency, and chief medical residency at the University of Michigan hospitals. She is currently an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan. There she serves as the Director of the Medical School's Program on Health, Spirituality, and Religion, as well as Associate Program Director of the Internal Medicine Residency, where she oversees the primary care track. Her academic interests are in the overlap of spirituality, religion, and medicine, and her peer-reviewed work has been published in high-impact journals such as JAMA Internal Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, and the British Medical Journal. She also has had writings published in Notre Dame's Church Life Journal, Theopolis, America Magazine, and Public Discourse. She is also a wife and the proud mother of four sons. 

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Rajesh Mangrulkar, MD, FNAP

Rajesh Mangrulkar is the Marguerite S. Roll Professor of Medical Education and Professor of Internal Medicine and Learning Health Sciences at the University of Michigan Medical School. He is a practicing primary care physician whose work centers on organizational leadership and innovation, transforming education at scale. Having served as Associate Dean for Medical Student Education for 10 years, he was then charged in 2021 with building an education innovation community of practice across three University of Michigan campuses. He now serves as Director of the Michigan Center for Interprofessional Education and RISE, an education innovation initiative that he founded. In 2022, he was awarded the Robert J. Glaser Award for Distinguished Medical Teaching by the Association of American Medical Colleges and the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. In 2024, he was inducted as a Distinguished Fellow in the National Academies of Practice. 

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