Rebecca is a sophomore hoping to double major in English and Neuroscience. Growing up around writers, she always possessed a love for English and a desire to articulate her understanding of the works she read. When she entered high school, she also became immersed in Molecular Biology research and culminated this work as a Research Intern at NASA's Radiation Biophysics Lab. 

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Balancing these two fields of study, she originally believed she'd have to choose between them. But initiatives like HuMed helped her realize that she didn't need to pick one over the other—rather, she could combine them. She is so excited about this initiative and hope others are too!

Christina is a senior majoring in Religious Studies, minoring in Biology and Chemistry, with plans to eventually become a Physician Associate. She has wanted a career in healthcare for as long as she can remember, but she has also always enjoyed subjects that felt entirely unrelated: she loves writing poetry and creative nonfiction, as well as studying history and psychology. 

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She has no doubt that Duke’s STEM classes equip pre-health students with the scientific knowledge they need to thrive in their future careers. However, she also believes that a significant—but often overlooked—aspect of medicine is based in sociocultural understanding. Knowing how and why one’s beliefs and social reality impact the way they experience pain is key to practicing medicine ethically and effectively. She is so excited to be a part of this organization as we seek to bridge the gap between the humanities and medicine!

Trisha is a senior at Duke studying Economics and Global Health with a minor in French Studies. As someone motivated by healthcare implementation and health economics, her interest lies within the intricate intersection of health, data and technology. She constantly seeks out student organizations, clubs and research opportunities that allow her to satisfy her curiosity. Her interests perfectly align with those of the Duke HuMed club, where the aim is to explore the cross between these three areas of knowledge. 

Trisha became intrigued by the Duke MHB club when she heard they were inviting Dr. Quinn Wang as a guest speaker in November 2022. Dr. Wang is the Co-Founder and CEO of Quadrant Eye, a technology that is building the world’s first at-home eye exam. Not only is this a perfect example of using data to influence health for large communities, but it is also a female-led technological advancement that calls for immense recognition. 

Abby is a sophomore majoring in neuroscience with a certificate in health policy. Her goal is to become a doctor one day, and she works in the West lab with her research focusing on Parkinson’s disease.

She joined HuMed because she believes the intersection between humanities and medicine is often overlooked and it is so, so important to incorporate both into one’s practices!

Emma is a junior at Duke University double-majoring in Biology and English, with a minor in Creative Writing. She is involved in research – in high school, she studied sulforaphane and pulmonary hypertension research and her current research is on the role of signaling pathways in the pathogenesis of chronic pain. She also works as a Certified Nursing Assistant at a nearby nursing home.

At the same time, she’s loved creative writing for as long as she can remember and has taken nearly every course that Duke offers. She received the Reynolds Price Fiction Award in 2023 for her “Equivalence”, a short story on grief, love, and remembering.

Her goals align perfectly with Duke HuMed – to be able to connect the seemingly unrelated fields of medicine and humanities, and to strengthen that relationship in the minds of Duke students.

Jean is a sophomore majoring in Biology with minors in Environmental Science and Chemistry. She loves reading, exploring nature, and anything peanut butter/oatmeal raisin.

Ever since she was a kid, her nose was buried in a book. She never realized how literature and the humanities could intersect with medicine until she took her FOCUS: Medical Ethics, Aging and End of Life Care class during her freshman fall semester, where they learned how the stories we listen to and tell are crucial in medicine. Attending Dr. Jocelyn Streid’s speaker event with HuMed on her English studies and end of life care reminded her how much she missed exploring the humanistic aspect of medicine, especially as the majority of her classes on the pre-med track are science focused. HuMed sounded like the perfect opportunity for her to continue pursuing her passions in both medicine and the humanities, and provide a space to celebrate its intersection. She is excited to join such an amazing community and help it grow!

A native of Iowa City, Iowa, Sibani graduated with a major in Evolutionary Anthropology, a concentration in Anatomy, and a minor in English. She started Duke Hu-Med (Humanities in Medicine) Celebrations because she felt that the Duke undergrad pre-health community lacked a space where those interested in both medicine and humanities (and Literature/English in particular) could come together to celebrate alumni innovating in both areas. Once the English department graciously funded two of her HuMed celebration ideas through the George P. Lucaci fund, she knew that she wanted to leave her mark on the Duke Pre-Health scene in a meaningful (and innovative) way. 

Priscilla Wald teaches and works on U.S. literature and culture, particularly literature of the late-18th to mid-20th centuries, contemporary narratives of science and medicine, science fiction literature and film, law and literature, and environmental studies. Her current work focuses on the intersections among the law, literature, science and medicine. Wald is currently Margaret Taylor Smith Director of the Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies and is on the Faculty Governance Committee of Science and Society and the steering committee of IS&S (Information Sciences + Information Studies) at Duke. 

Jennifer Lawson is a pediatrician at Duke General Pediatric and Adolescent Health and Faculty Associate of the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities, and History of Medicine.  Her interests focus on medical humanities, climate change and health, diversity, equity and belonging, and physician well-being.  She appreciates transdisciplinary teams and is currently engaged in several collaborative initiatives at these intersections, including facilitating two sections in the Moral Movements in Medicine initiative: “Are You Listening?” and “Health as an Ecosystem.”   

Lily Fahs is a second-year medical student at Duke School of Medicine who graduated from Wheaton College (IL) in 2017 with a degree in English Writing. She went into undergrad interested in publishing or education, but by the time she graduated, she knew she wanted a more hands-on way to apply the empathy and curiosity my degree had developed. Exploring this desire led her somewhere initially unexpected: medicine. 

Although the structure of our educational systems can sometimes artificially separate the health sciences from the humanities, she has found that these disciplines have really tremendous synergistic potential in exploring big questions about what it means to live well as humans together. She wishes something like Duke HuMed had existed when she was an undergrad, so she is excited to help facilitate this important space for conversations at the intersection of the humanities and medicine.