Yara Abou-Hamde is a resident physician in family medicine at the University of Ottawa. She is passionate about stories and finds in poetry a particular connectedness. Her poem “How the Emergency Shift Will Go” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Rana Awdish is the author of In Shock, a critically-acclaimed, bestselling memoir based on her own critical illness. A pulmonary and critical care physician, she serves as the current Director of the Pulmonary Hypertension Program at Henry Ford Hospital. She also serves as Medical Director of Care Experience for the System, where she has sought to integrate Narrative Medicine practice into the curriculum. She believes in the power of art to heal and creates both visual art and narrative non-fiction essays. She has been inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society and the Gold Humanism Society. Her work has been published in The Examined Life Journal, Annals of Internal Medicine, The New England Journal of Medicine and The Harvard Business Review. Her non-fiction essay “The Shape of the Shore” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Philip Berry is a London based gastroenterologist and hepatologist. He writes frequently on medical ethics, end of life care and the challenges encountered while trying to deliver good care. His work can be explored on his blog at www.illusionsofautonomy.wordpress.com or @philaberry. His Field Notes essay “Black Tango” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

K. Johnson Bowles has exhibited in more than 80 solo and group exhibitions nationally. Feature articles, essays, and reviews of her work have appeared in more than 30 publications including Sculpture, SPOT, Surface Design Journal, and The Washington Post. She is the recipient of fellowships from National Endowment for the Arts, Houston Center for Photography, the Visual Studies Workshop, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She received her MFA in photography and painting from Ohio University and BFA in painting from Boston University. Her artwork “Insomnia Dreams in the Moonlight” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Mikayla Brockmeyer is a first year osteopathic medical student at Des Moines University in Des Moines, Iowa. She began working as a hospitalist scribe in 2018, while she was enrolled in the Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences program at Des Moines University. She successfully defended her thesis in 2019 and spent her gap year scribing full time. This is her first time showcasing her storytelling abilities in a public arena. Her non-fiction essay “Turbulent Undertow” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Deborah Burghardt writes creative nonfiction after directing Women and Gender Studies at Clarion University. "Spared" was anthologized in Bodies of Truth: Personal Narratives on Illness, Disability, and Medicine. Her essays have appeared online at Globejotting.com and in literary journals, including The Sun, The Watershed Journal and The Bridge Literary Arts Journal. She lives in Fort Myers, Florida, and enjoys summers and autumns in Clarion, Pennsylvania. Her essay “Grounded” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Brent Carr is a physician/ psychiatrist on faculty at the University of Florida, College of Medicine. Artist and philosopher, he is an advocate of teaching and encouragement of student involvement in the arts and humanities. He encourages medical students to deepen their understanding of the art of medicine to foster a deeper empathy and rapport with their patients, and that the practice of medicine becomes richer through exploration and a willful consideration of the human condition. He notes: “This photograph taken in May was captured on an early morning hike in Florida wetlands on a path that is often well-trodden, yet now eerily quiet from restrictions on public gatherings during the pandemic.” His photograph “Little Isolated Bird” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Supraja Chittari began training in Kuchipudi from age nine with Ms. Mallika Ramprasad, and later with Ms.Anuradha Nehru and Mr. Kishore Mosalikanti at Kalanidhi Dance and performed her solo debut recital in July 2014. Chittari founded the first competitive classical dance team, Aradhya, at the University of Virginia and choreographed Smaranam and Ekam on terrorism and humanity respectively. Currently, Chittari is a PhD candidate at UNC-Chapel Hill in Chemistry and continues to pursue her work blending her passion for dance, science, and social justice. She is the choreographer of this piece as an Aseemkala CORE Fellow. Her multimedia video “Bhairavi's Anger: Exploring Physician Recovery from Alcoholism Through Kuchipudi Dance” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Alicia Christy is a watercolor artist who uses the proceeds of her work to support groups dedicated to social justice issues, such as Black Lives Matter, veteran advocacy, and homelessness. Dr. Christy is board certified in reproductive endocrinology and infertility and obstetrics and gynecology and her work has been published as the cover art for the inaugural issue of Fertility and Sterility Science, and the cover art for Academic Medicine. Her work has also been published in Seminars for Reproductive Medicine, and Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinics of North America. Her artwork “COVID Tears” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Colleen Corcoran practices in the field of Traditional East Asian Medicine at the University of Kentucky Integrative Medicine & Health. Prior to being in medicine, she had been in the arts with a BA in English Literature. “My heart is in combining it all to honor the human spirit and the story the body tells,” says Corcoran. Her Field Notes essay “What My Dying Father Taught Me” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Terry Cox-Joseph is president of the Poetry Society of Virginia. She is a former newspaper reporter and editor, was the coordinator for the annual Christopher Newport University Writers' Conference and Contest for ten years. She has been published in Northern Virginia Review, Allegro, Chiron Review, and Red River Review among others. Her first poetry chapbook, Between Then and Now, was published by Finishing Line Press. A graduate of Minneapolis College of Art and Design, she displays and sells her watercolors and acrylics at shows, galleries and shops. Her poem “The Good Thing About Almost Dying” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Ayala Danzig is a fourth year resident physician in the department of general psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine. Her writing has recently appeared in Nautilus and the Psychiatric Times. She can be found on Twitter at @AyalaDanzig. Her non-fiction essay “The Invisible Beast: COVID Psychiatric ED” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Shilpa Darivemula is a resident physician in Obstetrics and Gynecology and Founder/Former Creative Director of the Aseemkala Initiative, an organization dedicated to blending traditional arts with health justice for women of color. Darivemula began training in Kuchipudi at the Academy of Kuchipudi Dance at the age of eight and performed her solo debut recital—her Rangapravesham—in 2011 at the Kalanidhi Dance school. She served as AMWA Artist-in-Residence in 2016, a 2013 Thomas Watson Fellow, a 2018 Kean ASTMH fellow, and currently is the co-director of the AMWA Dance and Theater Arts Task Force. She continues to perform medical narratives, conduct research and address health equity through dance with the Aseemkala Initiative. The non-fiction essay she co-authored with Roshni Prakash titled “Performing My First Caesarean: A Reflection on the Intersection of Dance and Surgery” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima. She also co-authored a Field Notes “Kali Narrative: Creativity in Crisis” with Tanvi Gandhi in the FALL 2020 issue.

Jonathan Davidow is a third-year medical student, experiencing clinical medicine for the first time against the backdrop of the pandemic. He began his medical education after 10 years in non-profits and health technology, driven to connect deeper with the patient and their experience. Davidow is passionate about using both data and story to change how we see, understand, and ultimately deliver health and healthcare in society. His non-fiction essay “Broken Silence” appears in the FALL 2020 Intima.

William Doan, PhD is a past president of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education and a Fellow in the College of Fellows of The American Theatre. Doan has co-authored three books and several plays. He has created solo performance projects at a variety of venues across the United States and abroad. Current work includes a new performance piece, Frozen In The Toilet Paper Aisle of Life, part of a larger project, The Anxiety Project, which includes multiple short graphic narratives published in the Annals of Internal Medicine/Graphic Medicine. He is a Professor of Theatre in the College of Arts and Architecture and Artist-in-Residence for the College of Nursing at The Pennsylvania State University. Doan served as the Penn State Laureate for 2019-2020. His multimedia piece “Inside Anxiety and Depression” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima. https://inhaleexhaledraw.com

Michelle Dyer is a teacher and poet in Phoenix, Arizona. She earned a Bachelor’s in Creative Writing from the University of New Mexico and a Master’s in English Education from Arizona State University. A lifelong poet and writer, she was recently published in Snapdragon: A Journal for Art and Healing. Her enduring interests include psychology, therapy, spirituality, memory, learning, and how poetry informs, intersects with, and expands these disciplines. Her poem “Breast Lump” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Suzanne Edison, MA, MFA. Her recent chapbook, The Body Lives Its Undoing, was published in 2018. Poetry can be found in Michigan Quarterly Review; JAMA; Whale Road Review; The Naugatuck River Review; Scoundrel Time; Mom Egg Review; Persimmon Tree; SWWIM; Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine; The Ekphrastic Review and forthcoming in Passager. She lives in Seattle, is a 2019 Hedgebrook alum and teaches at Richard Hugo House. Her poem “Here, ellipses” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Brenna Fitzgerald is a writer, editor, collage artist and creativity coach. She holds an M.F.A. in creative nonfiction and an M.A. in film and media studies. Fitzgerald has published written work in a variety of literary magazines including Creative Nonfiction, Stone Canoe and Ars Medica. She teaches meditation and finds inspiration in nature. Find her on Instagram @brenbrain and at habitsofwellbeing.com. Her artwork “I Am Moments” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Tanvi Gandhi has a doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine, and practices as a Licensed Acupuncturist in CT and NY. Her background is in Microbiology, Immunology, and Genetics from UCLA, and did her research internship at the National Institutes of Health. She is the founder of Shiva-Shakti Acupuncture and Ayurveda and considers herself a bridge between ancient healing wisdom and modern integrative medicine. Dr. Gandhi has her private practice and also a Wellness Consultant for Transitional Living Program at Silver Hill Hospital. She is also a part-time faculty for Integrative and Holistic Health at the Graduate Institute and is continuing her professional training in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University. She is passionate about infusing creative methods to facilitate wellness and currently a fellow at the AseemKala initiative. The Field Notes “Kali Narrative: Creativity in Crisis” she co-authored with Shilpa Darivemula appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Daniel Ginsburg earned a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from American University. His poetry has been published in The Northern Virginia Review (Vol. 34, Spring 2020) and American Literary Magazine (Spring 2017). His poem “Black Snake Coiled in My Black Leather Sofa” is forthcoming in the 2020 issue of Gargoyle Magazine (Vol. 73), while his poem “Multiplier” will appear in The American Journal of Poetry (Vol. 10) on New Year’s Day, 2021. His English translations of Hebrew poetry by Israeli poet Shira Stav were published in Pleiades: Literature in Context (Vol. 37, Issue 1, Winter 2016). He lives in Potomac, Maryland. Discover more about his work @danielhginsburg on Instagram His poem “Triage” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Caroline Grobler-Tanner grew up in the UK. A graduate of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, she has worked in global public health emergencies for over twenty-five years. She also teaches yoga for healing trauma. Her essays and short stories have been published in various blogs and journals including Motherwell, Litro, HerStry, Women on Writing, and Flash Fiction Magazine. She is a recent winner in the Writer’s Digest Annual Competition. Caroline lives in Washington, DC, with her husband and works in her local community during COVID. Find her on Instagram @carolinegtanner Her non-fiction essay “Here and Now” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Cara Haberman is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Wake Forest School of Medicine. She was involved in the work of narrative medicine as a medical student and is slowly making her way back after a long hiatus. Her poetry has previously been published in Lifelines. Her non-fiction work “Being Seen” and her poem “Paper Armor” appear in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Mark Hammerschick writes poetry and fiction. He holds a BA in English from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and a BS and MBA. He is a lifelong resident of the Chicago area and currently lives on the north shore; his professional career has been in digital strategy and online consulting. His current work will be published in The Metaworker, Vext Magazine, Meat for Tea: The Valley Review, The Fictional Café, Wingless Dreamer, Trolley Magazine, Blood and Thunder: Musings on the Art of Medicine and The Write Launch, Scarlet Leaf Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Carcinogenic Poetry, The Toasted Cheese Literary Journal, Change Seven, Panoplyzine , Borrowed Solace, Muse Pie Press Shot Glass Journal, The Rockvale Review and Oregon Poetry Association. His poem “Last Breath” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Marie-Elisabeth Lei Holm earned her PhD in literature and sociology from the University of Southern Denmark in 2020 while working at the center Uses of Literature. The Social Dimensions of Literature led by Professor Rita Felski. Her dissertation examines aesthetic and political forms of recognition and asks how literary works might enable social acknowledgment around issues of marginalization and the politics of identity. Currently, she works as a postdoctoral researcher within narrative medicine and literature-based social interventions at the National Institute of Public Health in Copenhagen. Her paper “TEMPORALITY, READER RECOGNITION AND LITERARY CONSOLATION: A Reading of Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air with Narrative Medicine” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Gary Hunter lives in Northern Ireland and is a medically retired journalist. He has a Master's degree in Creative Writing and is currently working on a PhD at Queen's University Belfast. His non-fiction essay “John in the Rain” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Violet Kieu is a fertility doctor and writer from Melbourne, Australia, who writes memoir about medicine and motherhood. This author photo was taken during a medical elective in Saigon, Vietnam. Her essays have appeared in Womankind, Peril, Pulse, Cha, Complete Sentence and Hektoen International. Kieu has won a Boroondara Literary Award 2001 and placed for both the Marjorie Barnard Award for Short Story 2009 and the Alan Russell Award for Memoir 2020. She has been awarded mentorships from ACT Writers’ HARDCOPY2019 and the Australian Society of Authors 2019. Her poem “Medical Elective in Vietnam” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Catherine Klatzker is a writer and RN in Los Angeles, California, retired from twenty-two years in pediatric intensive care. Klatzker’s work appears in mental health anthologies from In Fact Books and from Lime Hawk Literary Arts Collective, as well as a range of other publications including Intima Fall 2013 “Range of Vision,” Spring 2015 “What We See When We See Each Other,” and Fall 2017 “Order”; and most recently in Atticus Review and Please See Me. Her memoir You Will Never Be Normal is forthcoming from Stillhouse Press in May 2021. Her Field Notes essay “Unexpected” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Douglas Krohn, MD is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at New York Medical College in Valhalla and a member of the Department of Pediatrics in CareMount Medical Group, a clinical affiliate of The Massachusetts General Hospital headquartered in Chappaqua, NY. His fiction and non-fiction have appeared in The Westchester Literary Review, The Einstein Quarterly Journal of Biology and Medicine, Travel + Leisure Family, and the Scarsdale Inquirer. His non-fiction essay “Never Tell a Truth” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Varsha Kukafka is a writer whose work appeared in AGNI Online, Salamander, The American Journal of Poetry, Philadelphia Stories, Painted Bride Quarterly, Ibbetson Street and other journals and in limited edition letterpress broadsides with her visual art. She has read at the Boston Poetry Festival and other venues. She served as an assistant district attorney for twenty years and was a licensed practical nurse. Her poems “Crying Uncle” and “We Almost Lost You” appear in the Fall 2020 Intima.

CO-AUTHORS: Taylor N. Anderson, Alexandria L. Dyer, Megan M. Emad, Grace I. Judd, Brett Lewis, Douglas Rice, Alison Schlueter and Taylor Vega

Elizabeth Lahti is a teaching hospitalist and Director of Narrative Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon. She teaches reflective practice and narrative medicine to interprofessional students, residents, and faculty with an interest on identity formation through story. She is co-founder and president of the nonprofit Northwest Narrative Medicine Collaborative, an organization dedicated to bringing health professionals, patients, caregivers, and artists together to better understand the multiple perspectives of health and illness through narrative. Her work has been featured in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, and Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine. “Narrative in Times of Transition: A novel curriculum during COVID-19,” which she co-authored with fourth-year medical students Taylor N. Anderson, Alexandria L. Dyer, Megan M. Emad, Grace I. Judd, Brett Lewis, Douglas Rice, Alison Schlueter, and Taylor Vega, appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Adam Lalley MD is an Emergency Medicine resident at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn and a graduate of the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. He is a winner of the Michael E. DeBakey Medical Student Poetry Award, hosted by Baylor College of Medicine, and the William Carlos Williams Poetry Competition, hosted by Northeast Ohio Medical University. His short fiction, poetry, and non-fiction have been featured in Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine, Narrateur: Reflections on Caring, the Journal of Medical Humanities and The Eagle and the Wren Reading Series. He was a finalist in the 2020 NYACP Story Slam and is working on a book-length work of non-fiction about how patients find meaning in illness. Learn more about his work at adamlalley.com and @AdamLalley on Twitter. His poem “To a Body Donor” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Steven Lewis is a former Mentor at SUNY-Empire State College, longtime member of the Sarah Lawrence College Writing Institute faculty, and longtime freelancer. His work has been published widely, from the notable to the beyond obscure, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, LA Times, Ploughshares, Narratively, Spirituality & Health, Road Apple Review, The Rosicrucian Digest, and a biblically long list of parenting publications (7 kids, 16 grandkids). He is a Contributing Writer at Talking Writing Magazine and Senior Editor/Literary Ombudsman for the spoken word venue Read650. His book list includes Zen and the Art of Fatherhood, Fear and Loathing of Boca Raton,If I Die Before You Wake (poems), three recent novels, Take This, a generational sequel, Loving Violet, and A Hard Rain, all from Codhill Press. A new novel, The Lights Around the Shore, will be published in 2021 by Moonshine Cove. His poem “The Good News About Almost Dying” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Michael Lund, a native of Rolla, Missouri, lives and writes in Virginia. He is the author of At Home and Away, a Route 66 novel series that chronicles an American family during times of peace and war from 1915 to 2015; he has also published a number of short stories related to military experience. A US Army veteran, he directs a free writing program for military, veterans, and family members that is healing for both authors and audience (http://homeandabroadva.com). He gets excellent healthcare at the The Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia. His short story “Bees” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Katherine Macfarlane writes about chronic illness and navigating the U.S. healthcare system. Her essay “Flying Into Jerusalem,” about finding out that having Rheumatoid Arthritis would keep her from having children, was anthologized in Bodies of Truth: Personal Narratives on Illness, Disability, and Medicine. Her essays have appeared in BUST, Ms., Hairpin, Huffington Post, xojane, Northwestern Magazine, Foliate Oak, Tenemos and NolaVie. When she’s not writing about harrowing healthcare experiences, she teaches Civil Procedure and Civil Rights Litigation at the University of Idaho College of Law. Katherine received her B.A. from Northwestern University and her J.D. from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. She was born in Toronto, and grew up shuffling between Kalamazoo, Michigan and Rome, Italy. Katherine lives in Boise with her dog Cooper. Follow her @KatAMacfarlane.Her Field Notes essay “So Sorry to Bother You, But I Might Die If You Don’t Wear a Mask” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Cathleen Mahan retired this year from a career as a Registered Nurse for four decades. "The horror of the last month of work was like nothing I had ever experienced. The expectation of professional altruism- as our PPE was being taken away was astounding. This assemblage sculpture was made as a way to channel the uncertainty and fear of this time." Her artwork “Vulnerability” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Priscilla Mainardi, a registered nurse, attended the University of Pennsylvania and earned her MFA degree in creative writing from Rutgers University. Her work appears in numerous journals, including Pulse - Voices from the Heart of Medicine, the Examined Life Journal, and BioStories. She teaches English Composition at Rutgers in Newark, New Jersey and has served on the editorial board of Intima since 2015. Her non-fiction essay “To Melinda” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Sal Marx is a multimedia artist who works to illuminate patient experiences with chronic disease. They hope to use storytelling to empower patients and promote health justice and equity in the biomedical sphere. Marx is a graduate student in the Narrative Medicine program at Columbia University. They live with AS (ankylosing spondylitis), an invisible, underrepresented chronic disease. Often in limbo, betwixt and between sick and healthy, they believe art is a tool to cope and to communicate illness narratives. Their artwork “(The Invisible) Starry Night” and “Disability Is” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Joan Michelson is a poet whose poetry book publications include The Family Kitchen (2018), The Finishing Line Press, KY, USA, Landing Stage (2017), SPM Publishers, UK, and Bloomvale Home (2016), an Original Plus Chapbook, UK. She initiated and for many years was in charge of the Creative Writing Programme at the University of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands, England. She currently teaches creative writing to medical students at Kings College, University of London. Originally from Boston, MA, she lives in London. Two of her poems, ‘The Psychotherapist’ and ‘Tandem’ have been published in previous issues of Intima. Her poem “Monument” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Brandon Mogrovejo is a first-generation Latino physician training in pediatrics. He makes comics with diverse, underrepresented characters in his spare time. He was born in a working class family to an Ecuadorian father and an Italian-American mother. Before becoming the first in his family to go to medical school at the Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons, Dr. Mogrevo attended college at Fordham University where he double-majored in African & African-American Studies and Biology, and minored in Theology. He is a very proud New Yorker who lives in his favorite borough, the Bronx, with his beautiful, ever-entertaining wife. His prior work includes a comic book on Type 1 Diabetes entitled “Liz Unity & Her Somatic Adventures,” which can be viewed at his Instagram @BrandMDrawings. His artwork “COVID Hero” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Kirsten Myers is a medical student at the University of Washington School of Medicine campus in Spokane, Washington. She received her BA in Health and Societies at the University of Pennsylvania after a personal illness diagnosis at seventeen inspired her to look critically at health care. Hearing the stories of migrant farmworkers as an AmeriCorps volunteer inspired her to pursue medicine. She is the 2020 winner of the The William H. Greene, M.D. Poetry Prize and The Spokane Medical Humanities Committee Essay Contest. To her, "writing takes the distance away." Her poem “Hands” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Elle Maureen Newcome is a medical student at the University of Minnesota. Prior to medical school she worked as a cycling tour leader nationally and internationally. Elle studied Spanish Language & Literature and Poverty Studies at the University of Notre Dame and its Center for Social Concerns. Elle is passionate about addressing health disparities through medicine. In her free time, she enjoys painting, cross country skiing, and spending time dancing or adventuring with friends and family. Her artwork “Minneapolis 2020” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Jennifer O’Brien has been a management consultant to physicians, served as CEO for two large medical practices and held administrative positions in three academic medical centers. O’Brien earned a Bachelor’s degree from Boston University and a Master’s in the Science or Organization Development from Loyola University – Chicago. She has authored 45 practice management articles in professional publications and peer reviewed journals. The art journal she kept as a form selfcare during her late husband's 22-month illness was published by Et Alia Press as The Hospice Doctor's Widow: A Journal in February 2020. Jennifer O'Brien lives in Little Rock, Arkansas, where she continues to create art, is an advocate for dialogue about end of life, and still misses her beloved Bob. Her artwork “Alone and Untouched” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Nathalie Perez is a second-year medical student at Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine at Florida International University in Miami, FL. She has loved drawing ever since she discovered she could tell a story without saying a word. Before starting medical school, she worked as a middle school science teacher. She is currently interested in family medicine and hopes to pursue a career in which her love of art, teaching, and medicine can come together. Her artwork “A Healer’s Hands” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Roshni Prakash is a fourth year medical student at the University of Florida College of Medicine. Her interests include global, digital, and women's health, with a strong foundation in classical Indian dance. She is currently the co-director of the AMWA Dance and Theater Arts Task Force. The non-fiction essay she co-authored with Shilpa Darivemula titled “Performing My First Caesarean: A Reflection on the Intersection of Dance and Surgery” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Mandy Quan is a recent graduate of Rice University with a background in sociocultural anthropology and the medical humanities. She is interested in emotional and embodied experience, or the "excess" part of human life that often evades capture by medical technologies. With training in ethnographic methods, she is interested in the social interactions and meaning making that facilitate our understandings of suffering and healing. She is a deep believer in the power of storytelling and is excited to be exploring narrative through creative mediums. Her artwork “The Pandemic Puzzle” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Sunidhi Ramesh is an MD Candidate at Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Emory University in 2018 with degrees in sociology and neuroscience and is the managing editor of "The Neuroethics Blog." She has also served as the education co-director for the Philadelphia Human Rights Clinic. Ramesh’s writing has been featured in Stroke and Vascular Neurology, Retina Today, and the American Journal of Neuroradiology. She authored the Winning Essay in the 2019 International Neuroethics Society Essay Competition and has written chapters on neuroethics and neurotechnology in various textbooks. Ramesh works on research spanning neurology and neurosurgery, particularly focused on perceptions of invasive brain surgery, intra-arterial chemotherapy, and the implementation of tele-stroke protocols in hospital emergency rooms. Her non-fiction essay “3:43 AM” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Alexis Rehrmann is a writer and editor whose journalism and digital work has appeared in publications including The New York Times and Portland Monthly magazine. A member of the Northwest Narrative Medicine Collaborative, and a staff member at the Lewis & Clark College Center for Community and Global Health, Rehrmann has pursued the connection between story and healing throughout her creative life. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her family and began playing with poetic forms in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In “Essential,” she tries to put words around the sudden loss of public and professional persona that non-essential workers are experiencing in quarantine. The short stanzas are essential now that she’s home with her six-year-old son… all of the time. Her poem “Essential” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Rachel Reichenbach is a community organizer and scholar whose interests lie at the intersections of narrative theory and applied ethics. A Stanford University graduate in Comparative Literature, Reichenbach utilized her honors thesis, “The Ethics of International Community Service: Narrative, Philosophy, and Education as Solutions,” to create the theoretical foundation for her recent, praxis-focused research project in Vietnam, as a Fulbright Scholar. An incoming medical student at the University of Arizona School of Medicine - Phoenix, she intends to help reform and re-imagine healthcare ethics, and is particularly committed to creating space for queer and trans patients who continue to be systematically excluded from and made vulnerable by the healthcare system as it stands. Her paper “Creating Space for Narratives in Breakdown to Speak: Death, Liminality, and An Ethical Re-Imagining of Narrative Medicine” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Ali Rizvi was born and raised in Pakistan. After completing medical school, he came to the United States for medical training and has lived here for the past 30 years. Most of his career has been spent in academic medicine - patient care, teaching, research, and administration. He is currently affiliated with Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta in the practice of Endocrinology. Rizvi likes to run, hike, read, write and travel in his spare time. His non-fiction essay “Untarnished” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Natalia Romano Spica is a medical student at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia. Raised between the US, Italy and Russia, she has a background in Classics and Medical Humanities. She is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia's Narrative Medicine Master's Program. Her scholarly interests include integration of social justice and humanities in medical education curricula, and fostering community building and interprofessional teamwork through narrative medicine. Romano Spica is the co-author of “Even from afar, to you so close”: Meditations on Narrative Medicine Virtual Group Sessions in Italian during the COVID-19 pandemic" with Carly Slater and others in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Noé D. Romo is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at The Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Director of the Pediatrics Inpatient Service at NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi in The Bronx, New York. During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, he led the effort to convert the Pediatrics inpatient service into a young adult COVID-19 service. He is also a long distance runner who ran Division I cross country and track and field in college and now runs marathons competitively. His Field Notes essay “Running on COVID Time” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Ibrahim Sablaban is an inpatient psychiatrist at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, MI. A second generation American and son of Palestinian refugees, he takes a keen interest in minority mental health, culture bound syndromes and healthcare disparities across American urban centers. He sits on the Michigan Psychiatric Society’s Legislative and Policy Committee and in particular, is a proponent of medication assisted treatment for substance use disorders and the de-stigmatization of buprenorphine and methadone in the Arab and Muslim American communities. A life-long writer, he has a growing fascination with the study and exploration of acculturative stress in both immigrant and refugee populations given the turmoil abroad. His non-fiction essay “When Suicide Speaks Arabic” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Christopher Hamblin Schifeling is a geriatric and palliative care physician in Denver. His creative work has been featured in JAMA and Annals of Internal Medicine. His multimedia piece “Calavera” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Galen Schram is a hospital-based physical therapist at NYU Langone Health in New York City. He has worked with patients across several departments including pediatrics and emergency medicine and currently specializes in cancer rehab. From March to May of this year he was redeployed to work exclusively with patients hospitalized with the novel coronavirus. He graduated with his Doctor of Physical Therapy from Columbia University in 2013. One of his favorite courses during graduate school was an introduction to Narrative Medicine. At present he is enrolled in Columbia’s Narrative Medicine Certification program. For Schram, writing stories has always been both exciting and therapeutic. He has ambitions to publish a novel. He lives in Queens with his partner, an occupational therapist and frontline worker. His short story “Dislocation” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Elena Schwolsky, RN, MPH, is a nurse, health educator, activist, and writer who spent a decade as a pediatric nurse at the height of the AIDS epidemic. She has trained AIDS educators in Cuba and Tanzania and teaches community health workers in New York City. Waking in Havana: A Memoir of AIDS and Healing in Cuba was published by She Writes Press in 2019 and her and her work appears in the anthologies The Healer’s Burden: Stories and Poems of Professional Grief (Carver College of Medicine, 2020), and Reflections on Nursing: 80 inspiring stories on the art and science of nursing. Schwolsky is the recipient of a writing award from the Barbara Deming Money for Women Fund and is proud to be recognized as the madrina (godmother) of Proyecto Memorias, the Cuban AIDS Quilt project. Her short story “Window on the World” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Virali Shah, MBA is a medical student at Albany Medical College in Upstate New York. Early into her medical training, Virali discovered how art, including visual and literary forms, was a powerful tool to externalize complex emotions, depict abstract ideas related to medicine, and create awareness of important issues surrounding healthcare. She is trained in oil and acrylic painting and was a docent at a memorial art gallery for four years. Currently, Virali is leading an intersectional project on narrative medicine, dance, and health equity at her school to research the benefits of arts training in medical education. She is featured in the Doctors Who Create “Creativity in Medicine” Podcast and is a contributing writer for the published, peer-reviewed book “Diary of a Med Student.” Her artwork “Recharge” and Field Notes essay “The New Hangman” appear in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Carly Slater is a third-year medical student at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, PA, and a graduate of the Narrative Medicine Master's Degree Program at Columbia University. Slater also has a Master's Degree in Italian Literary Studies from Middlebury College and a Bachelor's Degree in Hispanic Studies from Columbia University. She has taught narrative medicine workshops across the US and in Italy. Her research interests include narrative medicine in interprofessional education, pediatric narrative medicine education, child development, and Italian and Spanish literature. Slater co-authored “Even from afar, to you so close”: Meditations on Narrative Medicine Virtual Group Sessions in Italian during the COVID-19 pandemic" with Natalia Romano Spica and others.

Nancy Smith is a retired Registered Nurse. Though she moved through the many domains of hospital nursing, most of her work took place in an Intensive Care Unit. Her co-workers noticed that she would place small strips of paper with poems by various authors on her locker from time to time along with the pictures of her family. She is a mother and grandmother. She and her husband live in rural Maryland where she maintains a part-time acupuncture practice. Her poem “When Patients Die” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Cassia Tremblay is a fourth-year medical student at the University of British Columbia. She believes words can capture both beautiful and challenging moments. Studying medicine while living in 'Beautiful British Columbia' has provided ample opportunities for both. Her poem “In That Regard” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Vanessa Van Doren is a current internal medicine resident physician in Georgia. She started her career as a primatologist but eventually found her way to clinical medicine. She plans to pursue an infectious disease fellowship with a focus on HIV. She lives in Atlanta with her husband Dan and their cat Beau. Her non-fiction essay “The Right Choice” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Kajsa Vlasic is a pediatric resident physician in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who studied English as an undergraduate student. She completed her bachelor’s degree and medical degree at the University of Utah. While in medical school she helped publish an annual medical arts and humanities journal. Now as a resident she works to create greater opportunity for reflective writing as a means of promoting resiliency for medical trainees. She holds a firm belief that storytelling is an integral part of the healthcare experience. Clinically, she is passionate about supporting maternal-newborn care and pediatric emergency services in low-resource settings. She is an avid skier, runner and backpacker and loves spending post-call days listening to live music and exploring her city's vibrant art scene. Her Field Notes “I Miss Touching My Patients” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Daly Walker is a retired surgeon. His fiction has appeared in numerous literary publications including The Sewanee Review, The Louisville Review, The Southampton Review, Catamaran Literary Reader, The Saturday Evening Post and The Atlantic Monthly. His work has been shortlisted for Best American Short Stories, a Pushcart Prize, and an O’Henry award. His collection of stories, Surgeon Stories, was published by Fleur-de-lis Press. A second collection of his stories is soon to be released. He divides his time between Boca Grande, Florida and Quechee, Vermont. He teaches a fiction writer’s workshop at Dartmouth College in Osher@Dartmouth’s summer program. His short story “Resuscitation” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Kenneth Weinberg is a longtime ER and Urgent Care doctor, registered cannabis MD, health care activist. His non-fiction essay “Schmeckle Down” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Laura-Anne White is a registered nurse who works primarily with adult cancer patients. At present, she resides in California, and has worked previously in Minnesota and New York. Art and writing serve as a healthy outlet and source of joy for her. She created this piece in April, while working on an inpatient Covid-19+ cancer unit in New York City. Artist's statement: "We are living in times of change - the only way forward is together." Find her on Instagram @lawhite_art or visit her website. All proceeds from the sale of prints of “Grip” go to Black Women's Health Imperative https://bwhi.org/our-story/. Her artwork “Grip” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Rondalyn Whitney is an associate professor in the Division of Human Performance at West Virginia University (WVU) School of Medicine. Her scholarship focuses on the use of writing as a health-practice with emphasis on promoting maternal and child health. She is currently completing a certificate in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University, has authored 7 books, is widely published in the profession of occupational therapy and her poetry has appeared in several journals including Yankee. She is the wife of the late William Whitney and writes each day as a way to process the loss of her favorite configuration of matter. Her non-fiction essay “Are You the Wife? Narrating a Week of Loss” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Kriota Willberg makes comics about the body sciences, medical history, and bioethics. Her book, Draw Stronger: Self-Care for Cartoonists and Visual Artists, is published by Uncivilized Books. Other comics have appeared in: 4PANEL.ca, Spiral Bound (Medium.com), SubCultures, Comics For Choice, The Graphic Canon, and Strumpet 5, among others. Her comic Silver Wire was nominated for a 2019 Ignatz Award and is included in the BCALA and ALA Black Lives Matter Reading List. In 2017 Willberg was the inaugural Artist In Residence at the New York Academy of Medicine Library. Now, she’s the Artist in Residence in The Master Scholars Program in Humanistic Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, where she teaches graphic medicine and drawing. Visit https://birdcage-bottom-books.myshopify.com/collections/vendors?q=Kriota%20Willberg for her graphic medicine minicomics collection, including the new Cadaver Diaries, a sketchbook-memoir about the influence of cadaver studies on her life as an artist and massage therapist. https://birdcage-bottom-books.myshopify.com/products/cadaver-diaries Her artwork “Gratitude” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Michael Lowery Wilson is an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, University of Heidelberg in Germany. He holds a PhD from the University of Turku in Finland which was awarded for research on pediatric traumatic brain injury. As a cross-discipline researcher in anthropology, epidemiology and global health, his work has focused on injuries as problems of public health importance. He has published widely in the public health literature on topics ranging from adolescent suicide, to pediatric burns and other external causes of mortality. His current research interests lie in the development and deployment of large scale experimental studies for injury and violence prevention in community-based settings. His paper “The Trauma Narrative as a Patient-Centered Empowerment Tool” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Sophia Wilson is a writer whose poetry or short fiction recently appeared in Love in the Time of COVID (A chronicle of a pandemic), Flash Frontier (Matariki), Australian Poetry Anthology, Intima, Landfall, Ars Medica, Not-Very-Quiet, StylusLit, Hektoen International, Corpus and elsewhere. Her writing has been recognised in various national and international competitions. She is based in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Her poem “Homing Signals” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.

Cecile Yama is a pediatric resident in the Bronx, where she lives and thrives with her partner and her two dogs. She is interested in how to make medicine more equitable and human by fostering interdisciplinary practices. She investigates the effects of urban green spaces and housing on health, and enjoys engaging with the build environment. She is the co-founder of Garden Stories, a digital community gardening experiment, born during the Coronavirus pandemic in a multi-story building in the Bronx. Her Field Notes essay “Growths” appears in the Fall 2020 Intima.