Mission
The Program on Health, Spirituality and Religion seeks to create opportunities for medical trainees and physicians to explore the intersections between health, spirituality and religion through lectures, research opportunities and interdisciplinary training to enhance patient centered care and find personal meaning in the practice of medicine.
Goals
- Develop spiritual competencies in all of our medical students.
- Provide opportunity for deeper discussion/education on this topic for interested students and other learners.
- Raise awareness of the intersection of spirituality, faith and religion with medicine in the health system at large.
- Ensure that our endeavors are open to all interested faculty, clinicians, nurses, chaplaincy staff and other health care professionals.
- Develop a community of people at U-M who are passionate about this topic.
- Provide education on incorporating spirituality into professional and personal development.
- Improve patient care through these efforts.
Learn how to create a MiCME Account and claim CME credit. No registration required. The University of Michigan Medical School is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The University of Michigan Medical School designates this live activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s). Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
What does it all mean? Kristin M. Collier, MD, shares insights on incorporating patients’ spiritual and religious beliefs into health care plans.
Associate Residency Program Director
Abhijeet was born in India and he and his family immigrated to Michigan when he was two years old. Abhijeet attended Michigan State University from 2017 to 2020 and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Physiology and a Minor in Philosophy and Law. Spirituality has played a significant role in his life and he is fascinated with learning about different religions and beliefs, as Abhijeet believes the intersection of spirituality and medicine has many complexities. He is excited to be a member of the HSR fellowship to further explore these complexities and to understand how these complexities can be addressed to best care for patients.
Anjola is a fourth-year medical student applying into combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. In between his third and fourth years, he completed a Master of Theological Studies degree at Duke Divinity School where he was a Theology, Medicine and Culture Fellow. His interests include bioethics, medical humanities and the intersection of theology and medicine. Anjola is originally from Nigeria and moved to Minnesota when he was seven. He completed his undergraduate degree in Biomedical Sciences at Minnesota State University, Mankato. His hobbies include playing and watching sports (especially soccer) and reading.
Amanda grew up Orlando, Florida and attended Emory University for her BS in Neuroscience & Behavioral Biology with a minor in Spanish. She is a current M3 interested in pursuing critical care pediatrics. Her current research focuses on quality improvement initiatives in Mott Children’s NICU as well as sepsis monitoring protocol in the adult ICU. She is passionate about working with underserved communities, specifically immigrant populations. Outside of medicine, she enjoys traveling with her husband (11 countries so far!) and spending time with her Italian Greyhound puppies, Cricket & Linguini!
Claire is an M4 from Cleveland, Ohio. As an undergraduate she attended Princeton University where she majored in History with minors in Chinese language and Humanistic Studies. At Michigan she is the President of the UM-PKU-SYS Initiative, bringing together medical students from Michigan and China; Organizer of forthcoming talks through the Bur Oak Foundation on subjects such as "Nature," "Personhood," and "Beauty" in their application to medicine; and Director Czar of the 2025 Galens' Smoker. She has long loved the following Walt Whitman quote: "Now, voyager, sail thou forth to seek and find."
Dev is a fourth-year medical student applying into Pediatrics. Her background is in Environmental Studies with a focus on sustainable food systems and nutrition. She spent several years farming, gardening and teaching across New York State before finding her way to medicine. She has a particular interest in the narratives integral to patient care and the transformative capacity of storytelling in medicine. She serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Auxocardia Creative Arts Journal and runs a Narrative Medicine workshop for medical students. Outside of the clinic or classroom you can find her on a long run (hopefully with pastries to follow). She is delighted to join this year’s cohort of fellows and continue the conversations and reflections that make this work more human, sustainable and enriching.
Elizabeth Kappler is a third-year medical student at the University of Michigan Medical School. She graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a BS in biomedical engineering and worked in engineering consulting prior to medical school. Originally from Michigan, Elizabeth spent many years living overseas. She is passionate about cross-cultural education and combining engineering and medicine to promote global health equity.
Matt grew up in Phoenix, Arizona where he learned to appreciate warm weather and became a connoisseur of live music and good Mexican food. He attended Stanford University and was a four-year member of the varsity swimming team. After earning a degree in human biology, Matt returned to Phoenix where he spent two years working as a medical scribe and hiking/road-tripping through the American southwest in his free time. Here at Michigan, leads Galen’s Tag Days and is the Lead Admissions Ambassador for the admissions committee. Academically, he has interests in internal medicine, cardiology and critical care. He enjoys spending time with his girlfriend, Savanna, who works remotely from Ann Arbor, and his brother, Nathan, who lives nearby in Bowling Green.