Who We Are

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Elizabeth Lahti
PRESIDENT

Ellen Michaelson
VICE PRESIDENT

Pam Belli, MBA
Treasurer

Daena Goldsmith
Secretary

Eden Bainter
Board Member

Elizabeth Magassy Dorn
Board Member

Rebecca Harrison
Board Member

Stephanie Cooper
Board Member

Cirila Estela Vasquez Guzman, PhD
Board Member

Zachary Jacobs
Board Member

Adam Hoverman
Board Member

Alexis Rehrmann
Board Member

Our Mission

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The mission of Northwest Narrative Medicine Collaborative is to bring health care professionals, patients, clinicians, caregivers, students, academics, artists, artists, and scholars together, to build, sustain and promote a regional narrative medicine community.

How We Began

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In 2014, April Brenneman googled “Portland Narrative Medicine” and found Elizabeth Lahti, the newly appointed director of narrative medicine at Oregon Health & Science University.

April, the mother of a cancer survivor, told Elizabeth the story of how one day she pulled her son’s X-rays from the kitchen drawer and started painting over them, using vibrant colors that she felt represented who her child really was. April used art and writing to understand the experience of her son’s illness, and wanted to know more about narrative medicine.

Elizabeth, a physician educator and mother herself, connected with April. Together, they imagined a space where physicians and patients could meet each other as humans, to better understand the multiple perspectives that contribute to the experience of illness and healing. Read the full story here.

Today, Northwest Narrative Medicine Collaborative is a diverse group joined together in a grassroots effort to create community and connection, with a goal to flatten the hierarchies of health. Together, we engage in conversation and explore narratives of health, illness, and caretaking. We believe this work makes us better doctors, nurses, social workers, patients, family members, caregivers, chaplains, scholars, educators, and humans.