Current
Susan Sample, PhD, MFA
2017-2020, 2013 Faculty AdvisorSusan J. Sample is assistant professor in the Program in Medical Ethics and Humanities at the University of Utah School of Medicine. She is the first Writer-in-Residence at Huntsman Cancer Institute and an associate instructor in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric Studies in the College of Humanities. She teaches narrative medicine and reflective writing to medical students, cancer patients and their families, residents, physicians, and undergraduate students. She also facilitates writing groups for residents, physicians, and staff, and advises the Physicians Literature and Medicine Discussion Group. The author of two poetry chapbooks, Dr. Sample has won many awards for her writing from the Utah Arts Council, literary journals, and most recently, the 2018 Irish Arts & Writers Festival. She holds a BA in philosophy from Whitman College and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Arizona where she was fiction editor of Sonora Review. She earned a PhD in communication from the University of Utah where she researched the rhetoric of medicine, particularly the role of narrative in medicine. Previously, she served as editor of the University’s Health Sciences Report magazine, which won numerous awards from the Association of American Medical Colleges and other professional health societies.
Past Faculty Advisors
Gretchen Case, PhD, MA
2013-17 Faculty Advisor, 2012 Rubor Co-creatorGretchen A. Case is Associate Professor and Chief of the Program in Medical Ethics and Humanities at the University of Utah School of Medicine, where she teaches arts and humanities to students, residents, physicians, and other health care providers. She earned a PhD in Performance Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and received her BA and MA degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Case has taught performance studies, theatre, writing, and medical/health humanities at UNC-Chapel Hill, UC-Berkeley, Florida State University, Northwestern University, Duke University, and the University of Utah. She began Rubor with Quinn Orb, who, as a first-year medical student, appeared in her office doorway one day to say: “We don’t have an arts and literary publication here and I think we should. I heard you might be the right person to help make that happen.” Rubor was named by Eric Hu, MS2014, as the winner among several great suggestions. Once it had a name and an eager and creative editorial staff of students, Rubor moved quickly from fantastic idea to its first, fantastic publication. Dr. Case served as faculty advisor from 2013-2017 and remains interested and active in the process of creating Rubor each year.