Minn Yoon (PhD) is an assistant professor with the School of Dentistry at the University of Alberta. Her primary research focus is on improving oral health and care for vulnerable populations. She is leading the study “see me, hear me, heal me”, which aims to transform our understanding of head and neck cancer patient and family illness experiences. She is committed to not only enhancing awareness of head and neck cancer, but also integrating this commitment into educational curricula that honors people and their individual experiences. She is also currently working on developing educational applications to enhance dental and dental hygiene student capacities to differentially diagnose oral conditions.


Pamela Brett-MacLean (PhD) is a nationally and internationally recognized educator and scholar in the medical/ health humanities. She is an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry, director of the widely-recognized and well-respected Arts & Humanities in Health & Medicine (AHHM) Program in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry (FoMD), and adjunct member of the John Dossetor Centre on Health Research Ethics at the University of Alberta. Dr. Brett-MacLean holds a PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of British Columbia, and has held positions in several faculties of medicine across Canada. She is committed to fostering humanism and professionalism in medicine. She has been involved in leading and contributing to a wide range of innovative research, teaching and learning initiatives informed by relational, arts-based and reflective approaches.

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Jana Rieger (PhD)  is the Director of Research at the Institute for Reconstructive Sciences in Medicine and a Professor in the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Alberta. Since 1999, her research has focused on understanding functional outcomes, including speech, swallowing, chewing and quality of life, in patients with defects of the head and neck secondary to cancer and trauma. From 2004–2011, she was funded by the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research as a Population Health Clinician Researcher. Dr. Jana Rieger was one of four successful researchers to receive funding from the Alberta Cancer Foundation’s Transformative Program Competition in April 2014. Dr. Rieger and her team received $1.9 M over five years to support research related to developing technological interfaces for dysphagia rehabilitation in patients with head and neck cancer. Dr. Rieger has lectured internationally by invitation on functional outcomes related to defects of the head and neck and has published extensively in this area.


Helen Vallianatos (PhD) is the Associate Dean of Students, Office of the Dean of Students, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta. Her research and teaching focus on the topics of food, gender, body and health. Many of her studies have used visual methods in conjunction with semi-structured or narrative interviewing. Past research includes: a) examining food consumption during pregnancy in New Delhi, India and more recently among migrant mothers in Canada; b) immigrant women's experiences in Canada, changes in their food, gender and health practices and how food is used to construct identities; c) immigrant and non-immigrant family foodways and intergenerational negotiations of food, gender and health behaviours. Her current research includes community-based research on childcare cultures and how this affects staff turnover, Ghanaian mothers’ health perceptions and experiences and how this affects self-care and care of their children, as well as the collaboration with the see me, hear me, heal me team.


Dr. Nayar (BDS, MDS, MFDSRCS, MRDRCS, MRDRCPS, FDS (Rest Dent) RCS, MPhil)was appointed as an Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta and a Maxillofacial Prosthodontist at the Institute for Reconstructive Sciences in Medicine (iRSM), Canada in July 2013. His current research interest includes patient reported outcome measures and improving quality of life in head and neck cancer patients; methods to reduce the effects of radiotherapy to head and neck cancer patients; development of a digital impression technique among others. He was recently awarded a grant to develop a digital impression technique and is a member of a team which was awarded the Kule Research Team Grant and an AIHS grant for the project - "See me, hear me, heal me"...Exploring Patients' Experiences with Head and Neck Cancer project.” He chairs the “Oral and Dental Care clinical guideline review” for the Provincial Head and Neck Tumour Team.


Lianne McTavish (PhD) is Professor in the History of Art, Design, and Visual Culture. Lianne has received four SSHRCC Standard Research Grants, as well as grants from the Killam Research Fund, Hannah Institute for the History of Medicine, and Canada Council for the Arts. Her interdisciplinary research—informed by her graduate degrees in Visual and Cultural Studies—has centred on early modern French medical imagery and the history of museums. She has published three monographs, including, Defining the Modern Museum (University of Toronto Press, 2013). Lianne is currently completing her fourth book, which will feature analyses of King Louis XIV’s famous anal surgery of 1687, the embodied experience of tapeworms, and changing nature of fetal imagery during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. An associate curator at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery from 2003–2007, Lianne continues to curate and write catalogues for exhibitions of contemporary art, especially those featuring themes of embodiment and medical imaging.