Macy Initiative in Health Communication

Leadership

Curriculum Development

Susan Billings-Gagliardi, PhD, Preclerkship Section Leader for Macy Undergraduate Curriculum Development Initiatives. Dr. Gagliardi started working with the Macy project on January 1, 1999, with responsibilities for directing the Preclerkship aspect of the Undergraduate Curriculum Development and Implementation activities of the project. She also serves as a member of the UMass Chan Macy Steering Committee. Vice Chair of Cell Biology, and Professor of Cell Biology and Neurology, Dr. Gagliardi joined the UMass faculty in 1973. She is chair of the First Year Curriculum Working Group, and a director of the first-year Mind, Brain, and Behavior (neuroscience) course. She is particularly interested in developing and evaluating curricula that encourage students to link basic and clinical knowledge and skills. Dr. Gagliardi received her PhD in Medical Sciences from Harvard University.

Nancy Fontneau, MD, Clerkship Section Leader for Macy Undergraduate Curriculum Development Initiatives. Dr. Fontneau started working with the Macy project in January 1999, with responsibilities for directing the Clerkship aspect of the Undergraduate Curriculum Development and Implementation activities of the project. She also serves as a member of the UMass Macy Steering Committee. Dr. Fontneau has served as the Chair of the Clinical Years Committee and a member of the Executive Committee of the Educational Policy Committee since 1996. She has also served as President of the Faculty Council since 1997. Dr. Fontneau received her MS in Environmental Health Engineering from Tufts University, and her MD from University of Massachusetts Medical School. She completed her residency training in neurology and neuropathology at UMass Medical Center. 

Tasks included supervision and communication with the faculty development group, participation in the UMass Macy Steering and Executive Committees, and communication between the three sites around faculty development. Over the next three years, Dr. Stone will be responsible for the implementation of faculty development programs, both with undergraduate and graduate preceptors.

David Hatem MD, PPS Section Leader for Macy Undergraduate Curriculum Development Initiatives and Macy Faculty Development committee member. Dr. Hatem started working with the Macy project in January 1999, as a member of the Faculty Development Committee and the Undergraduate Curriculum Working Group. He was appointed Section Leader for the Physician, Patient and Society (PPS) Course, the major venue where physician-patient relationship skills are taught in the first two years of the curriculum. As PPS Section Leader, Dr. Hatem is responsible for directing the PPS aspect of the Undergraduate Curriculum Development and Implementation activities of the Macy project. He also serves as a member of the UMass Macy Steering Committee, and has been actively involved in faculty development planning since the outset of the project. His interest in the humanistic care of patients is longstanding as reflected by his teaching in the UMass Chan Medical Interviewing course (which evolved into the PPS course) for the past eight years. Dr. Hatem is also a faculty member for the American Academy on Physician and Patient and has taught in their national faculty development courses on Medical Interviewing since 1994. He served as the course director for the AAPP's 17th annual faculty development course held in May 1999 at UMass. Dr. Hatem received his MD from Tufts University, and completed his residency training in Medicine.

Andrew J. Cohen, MD, Section Leader for Macy Graduate Medical Education Curriculum Initiatives. Dr. Cohen was involved in the initial planning discussions of the Macy grant on the UMass campus in 1998, and serves as a member of the UMass Chan Macy Steering Committee. Currently serving as Interim Associate Dean for Graduate Medical Education, he is particularly interested in health communications as it pertains to residency training. Dr. Cohen was appointed to the post of Vice Dean for Medical Education at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1994 and had full responsibility for the undergraduate and graduate medical education. Appointed Vice Chancellor for Education in 1997, he assumed educational responsibilities for the entire health sciences campus (including the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing and the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.) Dr. Cohen stepped down from the Vice Chancellorship in 1998 to resume his full teaching and clinical activities while retaining the more limited responsibility for overseeing Graduate Medical Education. Within the Renal Division of the Department of Medicine, he is Professor of Medicine and Physiology. Dr. Cohen received his undergraduate degree at Wesleyan University and his medical degree at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. He received residency training at Boston City Hospital and did a postgraduate fellowship in nephrology at Beth Israel Hospital/Harvard Medical School. He has published extensively in areas related to renal disease and medical education. A former course director in Pathophysiology and Chair of the Medical School's Educational Policy Committee, Dr. Cohen has won several awards for outstanding teaching.

Marjorie Ann Clay, PhD, Ethicist. Dr. Clay has been a participant with the Macy project since January 1999. She serves as a project-wide resource on ethical issues in health communication, and participates on key Macy Committees at UMass, including the Steering Committee, and the Undergraduate and Graduate Curriculum Development working groups. Dr. Clay received her MA in Philosophy from Northwestern University, and PhD in Philosophy from SUNY at Buffalo, NY. As the Medical Center Ethicist at UMass Medical Center, she coordinates educational programs in ethics for the Medical School, the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing and the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. She also coordinates medical ethics programs for house staff and faculty, development of continuing education and clinical consultation programs that reach out to the medical community of Central Massachusetts. Dr. Clay also provides ethics consultation service for the Hospital. Dr. Clay came to UMass in 1992 from Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania, where she was Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy for nearly 20 years. Highly regarded as an educator, Dr. Clay has been teaching philosophy since 1973 and is the recipient of numerous teaching awards. She has published several books and articles. She has taught medical ethics since 1979, has served as ethicist on several hospital ethics committees in Pennsylvania, and has provided ethics consultation in healh care institutions throughout the state.