Kenneth Alewine, BA, MA, MS kmalewin@utmb.edu
Program: PhD
Advisor: Anne Hudson Jones, PhD
Kenneth Alewine received his BA in English from Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri and a MS in Interdisciplinary Studies from Texas A & M - Texarkana. Recently he received his second master's degree (MA in Humanities) from the University of Houston - Clear Lake. His academic interests include music and melancholy, art and medicine, poetry and medicine, and phenomenological narratives of illness, particularly those featuring connections with creativity and healing. His poems have appeared in Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, Poetry Quarterly, UCity Review, and Psychic Meatloaf. Kenneth is a multimedia designer and composes electronic music for interactive projects. |  |
Sarah Baker, BA sebaker@utmb.edu
Program: MD/MA
Advisor: Rebecca Hester, PhD
Sarah received her undergraduate degree from Rice University, where she majored in history. Her undergraduate interests included the history of medicine and the social aspects of medical care. She also did research on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children with developmental disabilities. As an MD/MA student, Sarah hopes to develop a strong social and historical context to carry into clinical encounters with each unique patient she serves as a physician. She also hopes to continue her studies in the history of medicine, as well as pursue her interest in the ethical dilemmas of healthcare. |  |
Jonathan Banda, BA,BS jpbanda@utmb.edu
Program: PhD
Advisor: Rebecca Hester, PhD
A native Texan, Jonathan earned a BA in Latin American Studies and a BS in International Economics from Texas Christian University. He comes to the IMH from UC Berkeley where he worked as an analyst and education coordinator in the Office for the Protection of Human Subjects, which led to his interest in bioethics and medical humanities. Jonathan’s current interests include social medicine, health care ethics, and research ethics. |  |
Alina Bennett, BA, MA ambennet@utmb.edu
Program: PhD
Advisor: Jason Glenn, PhD
Alina earned a Bachelor degree in Gender and Feminist Studies from Pitzer College in Claremont, California and comes to the Institute for Medical Humanities from The Ohio State University (OSU) where she completed her Masters in Women's Studies with a graduate minor in Disability Studies. After graduating, Alina worked as a Lecturer at OSU, teaching both introductory and advanced women's health courses. Teaching women's health helped solidify Alina's commitment to the field of feminist health studies and her research focuses on healthcare ethics, health policy and the history of medicine with a focus on disability. Here at the IMH, Alina is interested in the role of public mental health and its connection to the prison industrial complex. Alina is simultaneously completing a second masters degree in public health (MPH) through the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health at UTMB. She is gearing up to bring the worlds of the medical humanities and public health together in her dissertation work which will focus on mental health and one day hopes to find a work home in an academic medical or university setting with interludes into public and private sector work, health policy development and disability activism. Alina can currently be found reading on her cozy porch with her beagle named Floyd, a grrl dog committed to undermining gender binary systems. |  |
Heather Carson, BA, JD hncarson@utmb.edu
Program: PhD
Advisor: Rebecca Hester, MA, PhD
Heather comes to the IMH from New York via Lubbock, Texas. Earning her B.A. in Legal & Policy Studies cum laude from Fordham University, she then went on to Texas Tech University School of Law and received her J.D. in December 2012.
Heather’s professional background includes clinical research coordination, grant management, grant writing, project management, and legal research and writing. Her research interests include drug development, biodefense, clinical and research ethics and social medicine. She recently published her first paper in the Journal for Biosecurity, Biosafety, and Biodefense Law. |  |
Stephanie (Stevi) Darrow, BA sldarrow@utmb.edu
Program: PhD
Advisor: Jason Glenn, PhD
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Peggy Determeyer, MBA, MDiv, BCC pldeterm@utmb.edu
Program: PhD
Advisor: William J. Winslade, PhD, JD, PhD
Peggy has a diverse background, confirming that learning is a life-long process, traveling through various disciplines. She earned an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and worked for more than twenty years in various segments of the energy industry. In 1998, she began working towards a Master's Degree in Divinity at Perkins School of Theology (Southern Methodist University), completing the requirements in 2004. To fulfill the internship requirement, she completed a one-year term as a chaplain resident in Clinical Pastoral Education at The Methodist Hospital in Houston, where she became interested in health care ethics and end-of-life issues. She is presently employed as a staff chaplain with the Memorial Health Care System, assigned to Memorial City Medical Center. In addition to chaplaincy duties providing emotional and spiritual support to a variety of patients, Peggy serves on the hospital's bioethics committee, where she is involved in ethics consultation as well as education for medical staff members. As a PhD student, Peggy continues her interest in end-of-life issues, brain death, and donation after cardiac death, as well as numerous other issues in the health care venue. She is majoring in health care ethics, with a minor in health care policy. |  |
Sheena Eagan Chamberlin, BA, MPH smeagan@utmb.edu
Program: PhD
Advisor: Jason Glenn, PhD
Sheena comes to the Institute for Medical Humanities from Canada. She received her Bachelors of Arts with first class honours in Philosophy and a minor History from the University of New Brunswick in her hometown. Sheena then moved to the United States to attend graduate school and was awarded her Master of Public Health from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. While there she worked at Georgetown University's Center for Clinical Bioethics and the National Bioethics Reference Library to complete her Masters project and practicum. This research explored the effect of policy and public perception on organ donation in the United States, specifically examining the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act and its latest revision. Her current research interests include bioethics, military medical ethics, and the patient-provider relationship. In her free time Sheena enjoys the beach, traveling, and rock climbing.
SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS
2009 - Medical Humanities Endowed Scholarship |  |
Erica Fletcher, BS ehfletch@utmb.edu
Program: PhD
Advisor: Jerome Crowder, PhD
Born and raised in Texas, Erica earned a BS in Anthropology and Sociology and a BS in Psychology at the University of Houston. During her time there, she also dabbled in international and local community development, nonprofit management, and ethnographic filmmaking. Marianismo, her first film, dealt with cultural factors surrounding the disproportionate spread of HIV/AIDS among Latinas living in Houston. As a part of an undergraduate thesis, her second film Pack and Deliver explored the roles and collaborative practices of local social service agencies aiding survivors of human trafficking. Erica's current research interests include women's issues, visual studies, public anthropology, and immigrant health, particularly among the Latino community. Visit my website: http://ericafletcher.weebly.com/index.html |  |
Jacqueline Genovese, BA gmjacque@utmb.edu
Program: MA
Advisor: Anne Hudson Jones, Ph.D.
Jacqueline Genovese earned a bachelor's degree in history from the College of William and Mary, where she was a member of the Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society. She has served as the Associate Vice President for Communications and Faculty Relations at UTMB. During her 25-year career in higher education, Jacqueline's responsibilities have included the development and leadership of programs in various areas, including communications, publications, faculty recruitment, faculty mediation, speech writing, donor relations, public affairs and special events. Her work has been recognized with various awards from the Council for the Advancement of Secondary Education (CASE), and the International Association of Business Communications (IABC)including a Circle of Excellence Silver Medal Award and an International Golden Quill Award. Before coming to UTMB in 2006, she served as the Executive Director for Development Operations at the College of William and Mary. She had also served as the editor of the William and Mary Magazine, and Director of Alumni Communications for the William and Mary Alumni Association. Her research interests include the history of medicine, physician writers and the use of various forms of narrative and alternative therapeutic modalities in the treatment of trauma and the development of resilience, particularly Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in male veterans. Jacqueline is a volunteer for SIRE, Houston's Therapeutic Equestrian Centers at Sienna Stables in Missouri City, Texas. |  |
Randall Horton, BA, MA rlhorton@utmb.edu
Program: PhD
Advisor: Howard Brody, MD, PhD
Randall Horton teaches first- and second-year philosophy at San Jacinto College South. He has studied philosophy at the University of Houston and has a master's degree in humanities from University of Houston--Clear Lake. He also has a B.A. in English from Sam Houston State University. |  |
Wilmon "Dwayne" Jones wdjones@utmb.edu
Program: PhD
Advisor: Jason Glenn, PhD
TBA |  |
David Kozishek, MA, BCC dmkozish@utmb.edu
Program: PhD
Advisor: Michele A. Carter, PhD
David comes to us from Minneapolis, Minnosota. While there he finished two years of Clinical Pastoral Education Residency at Hennepin County Medical Center. David is a Board Certified Chaplain with the Association of Professional Chaplains, endorsed by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). In addition to several years of clinical experience in Iowa, Chicago, and the Twin Cities, David has a BA degree in Philosophy, Psychology and Theology, and holds a four year graduate degree in Religious Studies from the University of Louvain (Leuven) in Belgium. David plans to pursue specialization in clinical and research ethics, and the role of the humanities in medical education while at UTMB.
2007 Update:
David Kozishek is pleased to announce that he has recently moved to Lansing, Michigan, to begin work as an assistant professor at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. After completing his dissertation, David will be teaching, conducting research, and engaging in community outreach for the College of Human Medicine's Department of Family Medicine and the Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences. David's primary responsibilities will be in the areas of Spirituality in Health Care and teaching Humanities and Ethics in the Life Sciences.
AWARDS
2005 - Chester R. Burns Institute for the Medical Humanities Alumni Award (Inaugural Recipient)
2005 - Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges
2005 - The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi |  |
Julie Kutac, BS, MA jekutac@utmb.edu
Program: PhD
Advisor: Mark Clark, PhD
Julie, a native Texan, most recently taught in Prague, Czech Republic. Julie obtained a B.S. in Molecular Biology from Texas Lutheran University, and continued her interdisciplinary focus at Rice University, earning a M.A. in Religious Studies. Her academic interests lie in the consideration of ethical issues at the juncture of science, medicine, religion, and philosophy. She also has a specific interest in geriatrics and the lived experience of cognitive degeneration. A coloratura soprano, Julie loves to spend her free time singing.
AWARDS
2006 - William Bennett Bean Scholarship in the Medical Humanities
2006 - The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi
2007 - Dean's Service Scholarship Award
2007 - Peyton and Lydia Schapper Endowed Scholarship Award
2008 - Peyton and Lydia Schapper Endowed Scholaarship Award
2009 - 2009 John D. and Mary Ann Stobo Award in Oslerian Medicine |  |
Merle Lenihan, MD msleniha@utmb.edu
Program: PhD
Advisor: Ronald A. Carson, PhD
Merle received her M.D. from the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center and did her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio. She practiced and taught in Cincinnati until moving to Galveston. She is the volunteer Director of the Women's Wellness Clinic at St. Vincent's Episcopal House where she cares for uninsured women while teaching medical students during their public health rotation. She is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UTMB. Merle has been active in the community on several initiatives designed to address health disparities and access to health care. Her academic interests involve health policy, ethics, and literature and medicine, broadly. She has also pursued an interest in women and bioethics, health policy and social justice, and the use of narratives and literature in medical education. Merle is married to a cardiologist and has four children.
AWARDS
2005 - The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi
2006 - Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges
2008 - Teacher of Distinction (Top Doc) Award, UTMB College of Medicine |  |
Jose Saul Martinez, BA, MA josmarti@utmb.edu
Program: PhD
Advisor: Jerome Crowder, PhD
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Susan McCammon, MD admccamm@utmb.edu
Program: PhD
Advisor: Howard Brody, MD, PhD
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William P. Nichols, BA wpnichol@utmb.edu
Program: MA
Advisor: Mark Clark, Ph.D. | |
Rimma Osipov, BA riosipov@utmb.edu
Program: MD/PhD
Advisor: Jason Glenn, Ph.D.
Rimma comes to the Institute for Medical Humanities from UCLA, where she majored in history and minored in anthropology. As an undergraduate she interned with the division of medicine and science at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of American History. Some of her previous research interests have included the impact of the War on Cancer on the National Institutes of Health and the biomedical community at large, as well as the medical needs of adults with cerebral palsy. As an MD/PHD student, Rimma hopes to integrate her medical education as much as possible into her studies at the institute. When she returns full-time to the IMH in 2011, she hopes to pursue her primary interest in the history of medicine, as well as her interest in the interdisciplinary issues currently facing the medical and scientific communities. |  |
Rachel Pearson, BA rampears@utmb.edu
Program: MD/PhD
Advisor: Anne Hudson Jones, PhD
Rachel Pearson has a B.A. from the Plan 2 Honors program at the University of Texas at Austin, where she received the Robert C. Solomon Scholarship in the Arts and Philosophy. She has worked variously as a journalist, a patient advocate, and an actress in a traveling children's theatre troupe, and her creative work has appeared in the Mid-American Review, the Indiana Review, and on the air through Chicago Public Radio's Third Coast Audio Festival. Rachel is currently an MD/PhD candidate at the Institute for the Medical Humanities, with a keen interest in issues of the mind, the brain, and narrative medicine. |  |
Nicole (Nicki) Piemonte, BA, MA nmpiemon@utmb.edu
Program: PhD
Advisor: Mark Clark, PhD
Nicki received a BA in English with a minor in communication studies from Arizona State University in 2008 before earning an MA in interpersonal communication in 2010. Her previous research focused on young adults who serve as primary caregivers for their dying parents, and she also assisted in a collaborative project with the Mayo Clinic that explored the ways in which mothers and daughters relationally cope with breast cancer diagnoses. Here at the Institute for the Medical Humanities, Nicki is pursuing her interests in medical ethics, end-of-life issues, literature and medicine, and the role of the humanities in pre-medical and medical education. |  |
Imanni Sheppard, BA, MA iksheppa@utmb.edu
Program: PhD
Advisor: Dr. Jerome Crowder Imanni Sheppard comes to UTMB from the University of New Orleans and the University of Hawai’i at Hilo where she got her BA in Anthropology and participated in the National Student Exchange program, respectively. Imanni is also an alumnus of the University of Houston where she got her MA and specialized in Medical Anthropology. While and soon after acquiring her Masters degree, she became an adjunct professor at the University of Houston, Houston Community College, a contract Reviewer for Oxford University Press and an Executive Board Member of the Write!Nola Initiative. In addition to the aforementioned, Ms. Sheppard has authored the texts Health, Healing and Hurricane Katrina: A Critical Analysis of Psychosomatic Illness in Survivors, The Autobiography of Illusion and was a supplemental author of the text Anthropology: What Does It Mean to be Human? She has also written several articles for the Encyclopedia of Infanticide, the Encyclopedia of U.S. Government and the Environment: History Policy and Politics as well as chapter analysis of “Beyond Nature-Nurture:…Biology and Culture,” “Medical Anthropology: Health Illness and Culture,” and “Identity & Social Inequality …Race, Ethnicity and Class” in the Chumash Renaissance and Cultural Anthropology texts by Paul Gelles, Luis Vivanco and Robert Welsch respectively. While at UTMB, her focus will be on social medicine as she also analyzes the intersection of technology with cognitive and/or neurological processes. AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIPS
(2008) The Honors Society of Phi Kappa Phi
(2007) Golden Key International Honour Society
(2003) Rose Black Union Academic Award
(1997) Anna Sanchez Teaching Excellence Award |  |