About Johanna Shapiro

Johanna Shapiro, Ph.D. is professor of family medicine and director of the Program in Medical Humanities and Arts, University of California Irvine, School of Medicine. As a psychologist and medical educator, she had focused her research and scholarship on the socialization process of medical education, with a special focus on the impact of training on student empathy; and on the doctor-patient relationship, including physician interactions with “difficult,” stigmatized, and culturally diverse patient populations.

Dr. Shapiro is a poetry co-editor for the e-magazine Pulse, an assistant editor for Family Medicine, and a special editor for Journal for Learning through the Arts. She is also faculty advisor for Plexus, the UCI School of Medicine journal of original student/faculty/staff/and patient art and writing (view the Plexus archive). Dr. Shapiro has received numerous teaching awards, including The Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award and the UCI Excellence in Teaching Award. She has authored or co-authored over 130 refereed publications. Her recent book, The Inner World of Medical Students: Listening to Their Voices in Poetry, is a critical analysis of important themes in the socialization process of medical students as expressed through their creative writing.

Origin Story: UCI-SOM Program in Medical Humanities

See also: Origins of the PMHA

Welcome to the Site

Johanna Shapiro Receives the
2020 STFM Humanism Award

“Storytelling at the Bedside and in the Clinic”

Arthur M. Sackler Colloquium Advancing the Science and Practice of Science Communication: Misinformation About Science in the Public Sphere, April 3-4, 2019 (Irvine, CA).

Johanna’s Retirement Celebration and Chat (2020)

Read my Department Retirement Celebration Remarks

Healing through Humanities Appreciation on Retirement

Dr. Shapiro Interviewed by a UCI Undergrad Student

4th Annual Poetry Symposium of Hope and Healing

On this site you will find the results of a lifetime of learning.  It is through the sharing of this information that I hope others will not only learn about the world around them and their place in it, but also learn a little bit about themselves.  The intent here being to provide a catalyst to learning and experiencing life.