Faculty

	Research Area(s)	Quick Links
Daniel Shapiro, Ph.D. Chair, Department of Humanities Arnold P. Gold Professor of Medical Humanism	RESEARCH INTERESTS Educational techniques and interventions that help young health professionals more fully understand the patient experience. Improving couples’ functioning in the face of challenges.	Medical Students Documentary Films Dan Shapiro.org Current CV
J. O. Ballard, M.D. Professor of Humanities Medicine and Pathology Jane W. and Lawrence F. Kienle Chair in Humane Medicine	RESEARCH and ACADEMIC INTERESTS Medical Humanities End-of-life care Medical Student Education Interprofessional education	Medical Humanities Patient Project Driskill Lecture Kienle Drama Group Current CV
Joshua S. Crites, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities Director, Research Ethics Consultation Service	Research Interests: Clarifying the distinction between research and therapy Examining how factors such as personal values, therapeutic misconception, and unrealistic optimism affect the decision-making of potential research participants Improving informed consent for research participants Community engagement with the research process Role(s) of the clinical ethics consultant Autonomy, personal identity, and acute traumatic injury Ethics Education Improving on current Responsible Conduct of Research training practices for researchers at all career levels Integrating deeper understanding of ethics and moral reasoning into research design and clinical practice	Current CV CTSI
Cheryl Dellasega, Ph.D. Professor of Medicine and Humanities, Penn State College of Medicine Professor of Women’s Studies, The Pennsylvania State University	Completed funded research on the following topic: A writing support group for caregivers Arts and healing for adolescents Cognitive impairment in older adults Cognitive capacity for decision making in hospitalized older adults End of life decision making Evaluation of HIV/AIDS programming in Mifflin/Juniata counties Impact of a humanities-based writing program on incarcerated women Medication use in community dwelling older adults Motivational interviewing for at-risk patients with Type 2 DM Nurses and creative writing Social media and stress management for medical students Transitional care for frail older adults Therapeutic writing intervention for persons with Type 2 diabetes Research in progress: Cyberbullying Development of the RAS (Relational Aggression Scale) Use of EW (expressive writing) via social media for stress relief Relational aggression in nurses and physicians The cadaver as crucible Social fictions Dr. Dellasega is also a nurse practitioner and the award winning author of seven commercial books on female relationships. She created Club and Camp Ophelia for girls in 2001 and continues to share her expertise on female relationships in the popular press and real time venues around the world.	First Fridays Lectures Cheryl Dellasega.com Club Ophelia Current CV
Daniel George, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Medical Humanities	RESEARCH INTERESTS: Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias Quality of life and dementia Intergenerational relationships Narrative medicine Farmers’ markets and public health interventions Social media in academic medicine Co-author of The Myth of Alzheimer’s: What You Aren’t Being Told About Today’s Most Dreaded Diagnosis (St. Martin’s Press, 2008), which has been translated into German, French, Italian, and Japanese.	Farmers Market Myth of Alzheimers BLOG TimeSlips Current CV
Michael Green, M.D., M.S., F.A.C.P. Professor of Humanities and Medicine A physician and bioethicist. Chair of the Hospital Ethics Committee Director of the Program in Bioethics	RESEARCH and ACADEMIC INTERESTS: Currently Professor in the Departments of Humanities and Internal Medicine, where he cares for patients, teaches medical students and residents, and conducts research in bioethics. Published numerous articles and received many grant awards for his research, which most recently has focused on helping patients make informed decisions. Co-creator of “Making Your Wishes Known,” an interactive computer-based decision aid that helps individuals be better prepared to make medical decisions when they can no longer speak for themselves. Pioneer in the field of “Graphic Medicine,” having co-organized several international conferences on Comics and Medicine. For the past several years has taught a course on the topic to 4^th-year medical students at Hershey Co-author of a recent paper published in the BMJ on Comics and Medicine.	Ethics and Professionalism Advance Directives Research Graphic Storytelling and Medical Narratives Current CV
Benjamin H. Levi, M.D., Ph.D. Professor, Departments of Pediatrics and Humanities Director, Center for the Protection of Children from Abuse Penn State Children’s Hospital Penn State College of Medicine Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center	ACADEMIC INTERESTS: Current Teaching: Ethics and Professionalism, course for 2nd-year medical students (Co-Director) Contemporary Issues in Bioethics, month-long seminar for 4th-year medical students Clinical Pediatrics, lectures & informal teaching to residents and med students Pediatric Ethics, quarterly seminar for pediatrics residents Pediatric Ethics, monthly seminar for 3rd-year med students on pediatrics clerkship MICU/SICU Ethics Conference, monthly seminar for Medical and Surgical Intensive Care Unit residents, fellows and attending physicians (Facilitator) Pediatric Critical Care Ethics, twice yearly seminar for critical care nurses (Lecturer)	Look Out for Child Abuse Center for the Protection of Children Reasonable Suspicion Advance Directives Ethics and Professionalism Current CV
Kimberly R. Myers, M.A., Ph.D. Associate Professor of Humanities and English	Academic Research Interests pathography literature and medicine medical creative writing pedagogy in medicine graphic medicine narrative competence cultural competence chronic illness	Putting it into WordsGraphic Storytelling and Medical Narratives Selected Publications Physician Writers Group Wild Onions
Rebecca Volpe, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities Director, Clinical Ethics Consultation Service	Ethics Education Training currently practicing members of ethics committees Teaching moral method Teaching ethics to medical students Effective teaching interventions for practicing providers Organizational Ethics Organizational cynicism in hospital employees Power and hierarchy in the medical setting	Current CV Ethics Committee (internal use only)
Philip Wilson, Ph.D. Historian of Medicine and Science Professor of HumanitiesDirector, The Doctors Kienle Center for Humanistic Medicine	Academic Research Interests: The Human Body in History Inherited Disease: Past, Present & Future Eugenics to “Brave New World” Medical Genetics Skin as a Platform for Disease Geohistory and Human Ecology Nature-vs- Nurture Across Time and Cultures Chocolate as Medicine: Past, Present & Future Gathering Indigenous Medical and Environmental Knowledge Life Story (Biography) Writing	Doctors Kienle Center for Humanistic Medicine Medical Humanities Patient Project History of Medicine Lecture Series

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