Staff
Meet our program directors, teachers, past graduates and administrative staff.
Program Directors
Ronald Epstein, MD, FAAHPM
Professor of Family Medicine, Psychiatry, Oncology, and
Medicine (Palliative Care)
Director, Center for Communication and Disparities Research
Co-Director, Mindful Practice in Medicine
University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry
Dr. Ron Epstein has been passionately devoted to promoting physician self-awareness, mindfulness, and effective communication in clinical practice. He is a family physician and palliative care physician and now devotes most of his time to teaching, researching, and writing about communication and mindfulness in clinical care.
Over the past 25 years, Dr. Epstein has developed innovative educational programs in mindful practice, communication skills, the patient-physician relationship, physician self-awareness, and assessment of professional competence. His seminal 1999 JAMA paper, Mindful Practice, opened the door to exploring how clinician mindfulness can positively influence the clinician-physician relationship, resilience, and quality of care.
Dr. Epstein is a frequent keynote speaker at conferences on medical education, communication, and mindfulness, and has published over 300 articles and chapters. His first book, “Attending-Medicine, Mindfulness, and Humanity” was released in 2017.
He enjoys playing the harpsichord, cooking, cycling, and cross-country skiing.
Attending - Medicine, Mindfulness, and Humanity
Attending is the first book about mindfulness and medical practice written for patients, their families, and for doctors and others providing health care. It is a groundbreaking, intimate exploration of how doctors approach their work with patients.
Now available in paperback. Order on Amazon here.
Mick Krasner, MD, FACP
Professor of Clinical Medicine and Clinical Family Medicine
Co-Director, Mindful Practice in Medicine
University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry
Dr. Mick Krasner practices primary care internal medicine in Rochester, New York and co-directs the Mindful Practice programs at the University of Rochester and has been teaching Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction to patients, medical students, and health professionals for more than 21 years, involving nearly 4,000 participants, and over 1500 health professionals. His research includes investigations into the effects of mindfulness practices on the immune system in the elderly, on chronic psoriasis, and with caregivers of Alzheimer’s patient.
He was the project director of Mindful Communication: Bringing Intention, Attention, and Reflection to Clinical Practice reported in JAMA in September, 2009. His current efforts focus on working with practicing physicians and medical educators on the cultivation of Mindful Practice, with a focus on the connection between health professional well-being and the effectiveness of the healing relationship.
Dr. Krasner graduated from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine in 1987 and completed his residency in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Rochester. He has shared his work in peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, scientific assemblies, workshops, visiting professorships, and intensives in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa, focusing primarily on the roots of Hippocratic medicine.
As the fifth of six children whose father was the seventh of seven children, Mick uses his chaotic upbringing as his motivation to make sense of human flourishing. For fun he enjoys walking–to nowhere in particular.
Teachers / Facilitators
Fred Marshall, MD
Professor of Neurology
Chief, Division of Geriatric Neurology
University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry
Anita Chakravarti, MD, FRCP (Canada)
Anesthesiology Wellness Lead, Continuing Medical Education, College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan; Associate Faculty, Center of Integrative Medicine
Facilitator, BC Children’s Hospital Center for Mindfulness
Collaborator, Center for Mindfulness, Cummings School of Medicine, University of Calgary
Patricia Lück, MB ChB, MPhil, PallMed, MSc MedHum
Assistant Professor, Director, Division of Health Humanities
Department of Health Humanities & Bioethics
University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry
Anamaria Whitmer-Jacobsson, MD
Consultant, The Women’s Clinic Varberg
OB/GYN at Varberg Hospital, Sweden
Ross Carne, MBBS, MD, MMEd, FRACP, FASLM
Neurologist and Clinical Neurophysiologist
Associate Professor, Deakin University
University Hospital Geelong
St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne
Email: rossc@deakin.edu.au
Paula Gardiner, MD, MPH
Director of Primary Care Implementation at Center for Mindfulness and Compassion Cambridge Health Alliance
Associate Professor Department of Family Medicine and Community Health University of Massachusetts Medical School
Medical Group Visit Program Director at the Center for Integrated Primary Care
Jillian Horton, BA, MA, MD, FRCPC (Internal Medicine)
Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, University of Manitoba
Associate Chair, Department of Internal Medicine, Professionalism
Director, Alan Klass Health Humanities Program and Physician and Learner Wellness
Author, “We Are All Perfectly Fine: A Memoir of Love, Medicine and Healing”
Jodi Jackson, MD | Neonatolgist
Children’s Mercy Kansas City
Professor of Pediatrics
University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine
Medical Director, NICU; AdventHealth Shawnee Mission
Email: jjackson@cmh.edu
John A. Patterson, MD, MSPH, FAAFP, ABIHM
Owner, Mind Body Studio, Lexington KY
Email: japatt@windstream.net
Ernest C.H. Ng, PhD, MBuddhStud, MA (International Relations), BA (Economics)
CEO of Tung Lin Kok Yuen, Canada Society and Tung Lin Kok Yuen
Adjunct Assistant Professor, The University of Hong Kong
Mindfulness Teacher: MBCT for Life, MBCT for Depression, Mindfulness: Finding Peace in the Frantic World, Introducing Mindfulness, Teach Paws b (Ages 7-11), Teach .b (ages 11-18), Advanced Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness.
Certified Forest Therapy Guide by ANFT
Spiritual / Religious Care: Clinical Psychospiritual Education (Basic Unit 1), Buddhist Chaplaincy Training Program (Year 1)
Email: chihinng@gmail.com
Olivia Tse, MDCM, FRCPC
Assistant Dean, Resident Affairs, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, McGill University.
Co-Director, The WELL Office (Wellness Enhanced Lifelong Learning), Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, McGill University.
Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, McGill University.
Venus P.Y. Wong, PhD
Honorary Assistant Professor – Medical Ethics and Humanities Unit, LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong
Email: dr.venuswong@gmail.com
Advanced Teacher Program Graduates
Dr Andrew Czuchwicki, MBBS, FANZCA
- Grad Dip Counselling
- mPEAK Facilitator
- E-RYT Yoga Alliance
Dr Majid Khan, MA MB BChir (Cantab), MRCGP (UK)
Janice H. Salem, MD, FAAP
- Lakeview Pediatrics, Founder, Emeritus
- Lurie Children’s Hospital, Emeritus
- Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Emeritus
- Columbia University School of Professional Studies
- Narrative Medicine Certificate
Karin Schiff, MDCM
Dr Beth Whelan, PhD
- Associate Professor & Training Director Memorial University Student Health and Wellness Centre, St. John’s, NL.
- Cross Appointment, Discipline of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University, St. John’s, NL.
- Faculty Associate Department of Psychology, Memorial University, St. John’s, NL.
- Research Curriculum Development, Medical students’ professional identity formation during hospital practice (PROFMED), University of Bergen, Bergen Norway.
Barbara Wolf, PhD
- Clinical Health Psychologist
- Corporate Director Behavioral Health Education & Physician Wellness McLaren HealthCare Corporation
- Associate Professor, Michigan State University Colleges of Human and Osteopathic Medicine
Richard Szuster, MD
- Assistant Clinical Professor Department of Psychiatry, John A Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii
Dr Jonathan Starke, MBChB, MSc, MMed, FCPsych(SA), FRANZCP
- Consultant Psychiatrist, Eastern Health, Melbourne, Australia
Martin S. Zand, MD, PhD
- Dean’s Professor of Medicine and Public Health Sciences
- Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Research
- Co-Director, Clinical and Translational Science Institute
University of Rochester Medical Center - Senior Lecturer, The University of Hong Kong
Register now
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