AΩA Officers and Faculty Leadership

Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, M.D., is professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. In addition, she is adjunct professor in the UCLA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on evolutionary medicine. Dr. Natterson-Horowitz is co-director of the Evolutionary Medicine Program at UCLA and director of the Evolutionary Medicine track of UCLA's Master of Science in Biology graduate degree program.

She serves as a cardiovascular consultant to the Los Angeles Zoo as a member of its Medical Advisory Board and is chair of the Zoobiquity Conference, a national educational program that facilitates interdisciplinary discussions between physicians, veterinarians and others in the health professions. In 2012, Dr. Natterson-Horowitz co-authored the New York Times bestselling book, Zoobiquity: The Astonishing Connection Between Human and Animal Health. Zoobiquity was named Discover Magazine’s Best Book of 2012, The China Times Best Foreign Translation of 2013, and a finalist in the American Association for the Advancement of Science Excellence in Science Books 2012. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, The Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Nature, Scientific American, and New Scientist, among others. 

Visit Zoobiquity

View Dr. Natterson-Horowitz's Ted Talk

 

Richard Gunderman is Chancellor's Professor of Radiology, Pediatrics, Medical Education, Philosophy, Liberal Arts, Philanthropy, and Medical Humanities and Health Studies at Indiana University. He received his AB Summa Cum Laude from Wabash College, MD and Ph.D. (Committee on Social Thought) with honors from the University of Chicago, and M.P.H. from Indiana University. He was a Chancellor Scholar of the Federal Republic of Germany and received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Garrett Theological Seminary at Northwestern University. He is a 10-time recipient of the Indiana University Trustees Teaching Award, and in 2015 received the Indiana University School of Medicine's inaugural Inspirational Educator Award.

He was named the 2008 Outstanding Educator by the Radiological Society of North America, the 2011 American Roentgen Ray Society Berlin Scholar in Professionalism, and the 2012 Distinguished Educator of the American Roentgen Ray Society. In 2012, he received the Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Award for Teaching Excellence, the top teaching award from the Association of American Medical Colleges. In 2013, he was the Spinoza Professor at the University of Amsterdam. He serves on numerous boards, including the Kinsey Institute for the Study of Human Sexuality, Christian Theological Seminary, and Alpha Omega Alpha National Honor Medical Society. He is the author of over 600 articles and has published eight books, including We Make a Life by What We Give (Indiana University, 2008), Leadership in Healthcare (Springer, 2009), Achieving Excellence in Medical Education (2nd edition, Springer, 2011), X-ray Vision (Oxford University, 2013), and Essential Radiology (3rd edition, Thieme, 2014). His latest books, We Come to Life with Those We Serve, and Hoosier Beacons, were published in 2017.

Dr. Shapiro serves as chief of the Division of Otolaryngology in the Department of Surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital. She is an associate professor of Otology and Laryngology at Harvard Medical School. In October 2008, she became the director of the new Center for Professionalism and Peer Support at BWH. She has had multiple educational leadership roles including: senior associate director of graduate medical education for Partners HealthCare, founding scholar of the Academy at Harvard Medical School, director of the Otolaryngology Clerkship for HMS, and president of the Society of University Otolaryngologists as well as chair of their Committee on Faculty Development. She is on the faculty of the Harvard Leadership Development for Physicians and Scientists.

View Dr. Shapiro's biography 

The Missouri Beta Chapter of Alpha Omega Alpha at Saint Louis University School of Medicine recently completed their visiting Professorship on May 4-5, 2106.

This year our Visiting Professorship was held with Jo Shapiro, M.D. from the Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard Medical School. Dr. Shapiro is an internationally known speaker on professionalism and peer support programs, an established leader and was a contributor to the Alpha Omega Alpha monograph, Medical Professionalism.

Rita Charon, M.D., Ph.D, Columbia University

Rita Charon is Professor of Medicine and Executive Director of the Program in Narrative Medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. She completed her M.D. at Harvard Medical School and the Ph.D. in English at Columbia. A general internist, Dr. Charon took her Ph.D. when she realized how central is telling and listening to stories to the work of doctors and patients. She directs the Narrative Medicine curriculum for Columbia’s medical school and teaches literary theory, narratology, and creative writing to students and faculty at the medical center and in the graduate program in Narrative Medicine. Her literary scholarship focuses on aspects of narratology and the novels and tales of Henry James. Her research projects center on the outcomes of training health care professionals in narrative capacities. She is currently Principal Investigator on a National Institutes of Health project to enhance the teaching of social science and behavioral science in medical schools.