Sandy Sufian, PhD, MPH (Project Director)

Sandy Sufian, PhD, MPH is an Associate Professor of Health Humanities and History in the Department of Medical Education in the College of Medicine and Associate Professor of Disability Studies in the College of Applied Health Sciences at University of Illinois at Chicago. She has a courtesy appointment in the History Department. She served as PI on the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Health Humanities Portrait grant project, a Humanities Frontiers grant through UIC’s Institute for the Humanities, and a UIC Creative Activity Dissemination Grant. She also serves as PI on a PCORI Eugene Washington Award and a Cystic Fibrosis Foundation-funded clinical research project. Her research interests include family and disability, chronic illness and sexual and reproductive health, patient-engagement methodology, and best-practices for health humanities education. Dr. Sufian is the co-founder of the Health and Society Working Group within the UIC Institute for the Humanities. She was a Grant Generating Project fellow for the North American Primary Care Research Group, a member of the Patient Centered Outcomes Research patient-engagement advisory panel, and a fellow in an NEH Building Healthcare Collectives grant with Ohio University and Michigan State University. She is currently a Public Voices OpEd Project Fellow. Her book on the history of the adoption of children with disabilities in the US will be published with University of Chicago Press in Fall 2021.

Joanna Michel, PhD (Project Associate)

Joanna Michel, PhD is Director of the Urban Medicine Program (UMed) within the College of Medicine’s Chicago campus, She served as Co-PI on the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Health Humanities Portrait grant, as well as the Humanities Frontiers grant through UIC’s Institute for the Humanities, and the 2019 UIC Creative Activity Dissemination Grant.. Before joining UMed in 2009 Dr. Michel completed her PhD degree from the UIC College of Pharmacy’s Department in medical ethno-pharmacology (‘06) and was a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Postdoctoral Fellow at the UIC School of Public Health( ‘08-’09). Dr. Michel’s research focuses on exploring the influence of cultural beliefs and the use of herbal medicine on health seeking behaviors of immigrant and refugee populations in the US and abroad. She has received two Fulbright Fellowships for her research on women’s health seeking behaviors in Guatemala (06) and Colombia (2017). Other awards including the 2016 UIC Silver Circle Excellence in Teaching Award, and the 2015 Leadership Illinois (for Women) Fellowship In addition to her role as UMed Director Dr. Michel currently serves as Deputy Director of the Illinois Area Health Education Center (IL-AHEC), Clinical Research Assistant Professor in the UIC Department of Medical Education, Affiliate Professor in the School of Public Health, and Research Associate for the Integrative Research Center at the Field Museum of Natural History.

Michael Blackie, PhD (Associate Advisor)

Michael Blackie, PhD is Associate Professor of Health Humanities in the Department of Medical Education in the College of Medicine. He has published widely in health humanities pedagogy and medical education. His scholarly and teaching interests include health humanities, narrative medicine, death studies, and medical education. He served as PI on a Mapping the Landscape grant from The Arnold P. Gold Foundation. He also served as Associate Advisor on a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Health Humanities Portrait grant project, and Co-PI on a Humanities Frontiers grant through UIC’s Institute for the Humanities, and as co-leader on a UIC Creative Activity Dissemination Grant. He co-edited a volume on teaching professionalism in health professions education, From Reading to Healing (2019). Currently, he is the Executive Editor of the journal, Literature and Medicine. Additionally, he was an Associate Editor for The Journal of Medical Humanities (2017-2020) and Senior Editor of the Literature and Medicine book series published by Kent State University Press (2013-2020). He is also a founding member and Treasurer for the Health Humanities Consortium. Before coming to UIC in 2017, Blackie co-directed the Center for Literature and Medicine and chaired the Department of Biomedical Humanities, both at Hiram College, and co-directed the humanities curriculum at Northeast Ohio Medical University.

Shay Phillips, M.Ed. (Project Manager)

Shay Phillips, M. Ed. (ze/zir/zirs) has worked in a variety of educational contexts. Ze is currently a Coordinator at the Mentoring Center at Indiana State University and previously worked at Rush University Medical College and the UIC College of Medicine where zir work included creating more LGBTQIA+-inclusive medical school curriculum. Ze has also been an invited speaker on these topics at multiple universities and professional organizations. Additionally, Shay was a graduate assistant at the UIC Gender and Sexuality Center where ze facilitated Safe Zone workshops and worked on on-campus initiatives around gender-inclusive bathrooms, housing, and medical access. Before shifting into higher education, Shay worked primarily in high schools.

Madeline Lee (Web Designer)

Madeline Lee is a website designer for the Health Humanities Portrait Project. She worked on various websites with medical education experts. She is an instructional designer and certified medical illustrator. She received a Master of science in Biomedical Visualization from the University of Illinois at Chicago and Bachelor of Arts in Communication Arts from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her interest is in biomedical visualization and virtual reality in medical education.