Faculty and Staff

Core Faculty and Staff

Louise Aronson MD, MFA is Associate Professor of Geriatrics at UCSF where she directs the Northern California Geriatric Education Center and UCSF Medical Humanities, and sees patients in the Care at Home Program. Her scholarship and educational innovations focus on geriatrics and aging, reflective learning, and public medical writing. Louise also holds an MFA in creative writing. Her first book, A History of the Present Illness, was published in 2013, and she writes for literary and medical journals, newspapers and blogs, including the New York Times, Narrative Magazine, KevinMD, the New England Journal of Medicine, and the Lancet. Web
 
Brian Dolan, PhD (Dept. of Anthropology, History & Social Medicine) has taught a wide range of courses providing historical perspectives on: biology and evolutionary thought, environmentalism, disease classification, and doctor-patient relationships, as well as general survey courses on early-modern and modern history of science and medicine. He has researched and published on topics including: the history of scientific publishing and visual communication; the history of chemistry and scientific instrumentation; and the relations between environmental and occupational health debates. He has mainly concentrated on case studies in Britain, France, and Sweden. Recently he has written on computer-aided diagnosis and the impact of new imaging technologies on the radiology profession in late 20th-century medical practice. Presently, he is writing a book called Medical History for Medical Students, structured to complement the medical humanities curriculum at UCSF which he has helped to create as Director of the UC Medical Humanities Consortium. He is the general editor of a book series with UC Medical Humanities
Press. Web, [email protected]
 
David Elkin, MD is Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry . His clinical work is on the consultation-liaison and Psych Emergency services at San Francisco General Hospital. He co-coordinates medical student education for the department, including teaching core didactics and a weekly humanities seminar focused on professionalism and ethics. He also directs the physician wellness committee and is a very active member of the hospital ethics committee. Originally from the East Coast, David lives in Oakland with his family, including his wife, two teenagers, and a small menagerie of border collies as well as a cat. In his off time, David enjoys discussing books and movies, and hiking.
 
Julene K Johnson, PhD is a cognitive neuroscientist and Professor at the UCSF Institute for Health & Aging. Her research program focuses on cognitive aging, healthy aging in the community and mild cognitive impairment. A musician herself, she is also interested in the intersection of music and health. She is currently collaborating with 12 Department of Aging and Adult Services Senior Centers in San Francisco to study the effect of a community choral program on the health and well-being of culturally diverse older adults. Julene has worked with UCSF Medical Humanities to bring innovative educational programs on music and medicine to the campus.
 
Shieva Khayam-Bashi, MD is a clinical professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at University of California San Francisco. She teaches medical students and residents, and cares for patients at San Francisco General Hospital and is a Physician Champion and Board member for Schwartz Center for Compassionate Care Rounds, at SFGH. She is Editorial Board member, San Francisco Medicine (magazine of San Francisco Medical Society), has published essays in San Francisco Medicine magazine, and uses literature when teaching on rounds. Her special interests include: Spirituality in medicine, Narrative Medicine, Poetry and Literature/Humanities in Medical education, Global Health programs/volunteering in developing countries, animals and healing.
 
Julie Lindow, MA manages the medical student program for the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, & Reproductive Sciences. She has produced and hosted many medicine and literature events including a few collaborations between UCSF and Litquake Literary Festival. In addition to building bridges between San Francisco’s literary and medical communities, she is interested in promoting narrative competence in medical education. She has an MA in English Literature from San Francisco State University, is currently writing a detective novel, and is the editor of Left in the Dark: Portraits of San Francisco Movie Theatres, www.leftinthedark.info.
 
Guy Micco, MD is a physician who combines teaching as a clinical professor at UC Berkeley with part-time practice in hospice and palliative care. His interests include suffering, aging, and death; the interface of medicine and the humanities; and medical ethics — all of which he brings to his work with medical students enrolled in the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program. A former ethics-committee chair at Alta Bates-Summit Medical Center, Micco now directs the Resource Center on Aging and co-directs the Center for Medicine, the Humanities, and Law, both at UC Berkeley.
 
David Watts, MD has published five books of poems as David Watts, two books of poems in his imaginative style under the pseudonym, Harvey Ellis, two CDs of word-jazz, two collections of short stories (published by Random House and U. Iowa Press,) and co-edited three anthologies published by U. California and Wolf Ridge Press. He is a physician, an NPR commentator and a classically trained musician. He founded and directs the Healing Art of Writing Workshops currently held at Dominican University of California and has taught poetry at the Fromm institute for twenty years. His books have been used in hospitals to offset the distancing effect of the Electronic Medical Record. Web
 
 

Narrative Medicine / Writing

Are you a student interested in pursuing a project in narrative medicine? Contact Dr. Louise Aronson for more information.
 
Michael Burg, MD
(Emergency Medicine)
Creative writing; medical humanities and medical education.
 
Philip Darney, MD, MSc
(OB/Gyn and Reproductive Sciences, Chair)
Relationship between the arts' (especially novelists') and medicine's expression of compassion.
 
Paul Linde, MD
(Psychiatry)
Creative non-fiction; fiction; radio.
 
Dean Schillinger, MD
(Medicine)
Writing, media/film; music/art; social science in general.
 
Ron Strauss, MD
(Internal Medicine)
Poetry.
 
Victoria Sweet, MD PhD is an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and a prize-winning historian with a Ph.D. in history. She practiced medicine for twenty years at Laguna Honda Hospital in San Francisco, where she began writing. In her recent book, God’s Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine (Riverhead, 2012), she lays out her evidence—in stories of her patients and her hospital—for some radically new ideas about medicine and healthcare in this country. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship (2014) for her next project, tentatively entitled, Slow Medicine, Fast Medicine: Healing in an Age of Technology. Web
 
Ellen Weber, MD
(Emergency Medicine)
Literature, history and film.
 


History of Medicine

Are you a student interested in pursuing a project in the history of medicine? Contact Dr. Brian Dolan for more information.
 
Mandu Deshpande, MD
(Family and Community Medicine)
History of Medicine.
 
Suzanne Goh, MD, MA
(Neuroscience/Gallo Center)
History of Science, women's studies.
 
George Rutherford, MD Web
(Institute for Global Health)
History.
 
Lygia Steward, MD
(Surgery)
Medical history, communications, team biulding, humanism.
 
Elizabeth Watkins, PhD Web
(Dept. of Anthropology, History & Social Medicine)
The technological and clinical applications of medical knowledge; the popularization of information about health and medicine; roles of gender in medicine.
 
Ellen Weber, MD
(Emergency Medicine)
Literature, history and film.
 
David Winickoff, JD, MA
(Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, UC Berkeley)
Ethics of biotechnology, literature, history and philosophy, law and literature.
 
 

Medical Anthropology

Are you a student interested in pursuing a project in medical anthropology? Contact Dr. Vincanne Adams for more information.
 
Vincanne Adams, PhD Web
(Dept. of Anthropology, History & Social Medicine)
Medical anthropology; culture and health in Tibet.
 
Nancy Burke, PhD Web
(Dept. of Anthropology, History & Social Medicine)
Clinical communication, culture and communication.
 
Heather Hall, MD
(Psychiatry)
Pianist; interface between culture, ethnicity, race and medicine.
 
Niranjan Karnik, MD, PhD Web
(Dept. of Anthropology, History & Social Medicine)
Visual culture, biomedical ethics, science studies.
 
Sharon Kaufmann
Emeritus Professor, Dept. of Anthropology, History & Social Medicine
 
 

Philosophy / Ethics

Are you a student interested in pursuing a project in philosophy or ethics? Contact Dr. Brian Dolan for more information.
 
Nancy Byl
(Physical Therapy, Chair)
Professionalism, ethics, culture, access to care.
 
Howard Fields, MD, PhD
Philosophy of mind and neuroscience.
 
Mardi Horowitz, MD
(Psychiatry)
Psychoanalysis; adult development, philosophy and art (painting/drawing)
 
Niranjan Karnik, MD, PhD Web
(Dept. of Anthropology, History & Social Medicine)
Visual culture, biomedical ethics, science studies.
 
Geraldine Oliva, MD, MPH
(Director, Family Health Outcomes Project)
Buddhist philosophy and ethics and mindfulness techniques.
 
Stephanie Tache, MD, MPH
(Family and Community Medicine)
Cultural issues related to health care abroad; the role of time and time perception on how we think about and organize our life; the impact of healthcare and medical interventions.
 
Thienne Vu, MD, PhD
(Medicine)
Philosophy and ethics.
 
 

Science and Technology Studies (STS)

Are you a student interested in pursuing a project in Science and Technology Studies? Contact Dr. Brian Dolan for more information.
 
Nancy Burke, PhD Web
(Dept. of Anthropology, History & Social Medicine)
Clinical communication, culture and communication.
 
James Kahn, MD
(Medicine)
Engaging patients through the use of the internet.
 
Ida Sim, MD, PhD
(Medicine/DGIM)
Science and technology teaching.
 
Lygia Steward, MD
(Surgery)
Medical history, communications, team building, humanism.
 
 

Music and Medicine

 
William Young, MD
(Anesthesia)
Jazz music, philosophy
 
Eric Isaacs, MD
(Emergency Medicine)
Art and music.
 
 

Other Faculty

 
Nancy Ascher, MD
(Professor and Chair, Department of Surgery)
Art and medicine
 
Philip Darney, MD, MSc
(OB/Gyn and Reproductive Sciences, Chair)
The relationship between the arts' (especially novelists') and medicine's expression of compassion.
 
Heather Hall, MD
(Psychiatry)
Pianist; interested in the interface between culture, ethnicity, race and medicine.
 
Mardi Horowitz, MD
(Psychiatry)
Psychoanalysis; adult development, philosophy and art (painting/drawing)
 
Betty Martin-Finneran, PhD
(Graduate Division Financial Analyst)
Use of poetry, soul collaging, spirituality, and bibliotherapy as adjuncts to physical healing.
 
Brandy R. Matthews, MD
(Memory and Aging Center, Department of Neurology)
Intersection of Neuroscience and Music; emotional response to music in neurodegenerative disease
 
Cynthia Perils
(Director, Art for Recovery; UCSF Cancer Center)
Clinical art, mind-body connection; art for healing and community.
 
R.H. Phibbs, MD
(Pediatrics)
Painting and drawing.