Aaron Anderson Wins 2024 a2ru Award for Excellence in Arts in Health Education
Nov 14, 2024
Aaron Anderson from Virginia Commonwealth University is the winner of the 2024 a2ru Award for Excellence in Arts in Health Education. Ferol Carytsas, Director of the Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida and chair of a2ru’s Arts in Health Educators Working Group, presented the award during a2ru’s 2024 conference, ““Generate | Integrate: Technology, the Arts and Design.”
Anderson is a Professor and Graduate Program Director of Theatre; he also serves as Affiliate Faculty at the VCU School of Medicine, in its Internal Medicine Department, and at the VCU School of Business. Anderson is the founding director of both the Standardized Patient Program at the VCU School of Medicine and the Children’s Hospital of Richmond Theater and Performance Program, where he produces and directs weekly performances for long-term care pediatric patients (sometimes featuring the patients themselves as performers). He is one of the only non-physicians to have earned VCU’s School of Medicine Award for Educational Innovation. Additionally, he serves as the Liaison for Arts and Humanities in Healthcare in VCU’s Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation.
Outside of VCU, Anderson has helped found interdisciplinary arts in health programs at eight other universities across the country including at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan (Flint), and Merrimack College, and consults widely with national and international nonprofit organizations such as Oxfam and Save the Children. He is the author of 5 books and 15 articles, and the current recipient of an NEH grant to re-develop a medical humanities minor at VCU. A US Army Veteran injured in the line of duty, he has used his lived experience to lead improvisation workshops for veterans experiencing homelessness to develop self-advocacy skills and create a sense of community.
Anderson’s colleagues note the far-reaching impact of Anderson’s expansive work in the field. Dr. Catherine Grossman, the Director of the VCU Center for Human Simulation and Patient Safety, shared: “I think anyone who gets to collaborate with Aaron benefits from his depth and breadth of personal experiences, including his military work, and his service-connected disability and rehabilitation recovery arc. He lives the mission of working to improve the world by weaving the Arts into medicine through improving patient experiences, improving the wellbeing of community members, and training health care practitioners.”
Alan Dow, MD, the Division Chief in the Division of Hospital Medicine at VCU, adds “Dr. Anderson and I have been collaborators for over twenty years. As a physician, I have personally benefited from how he has expanded my understanding of people at the center of medicine… He has a long career of interdisciplinary accomplishments that have furthered health and resulted in substantive programs that have helped innumerable learners and healthcare professionals excel in their careers. Moreover, he has helped patients and families through their illness in a way that is profound and unique.”
In their decision, the judging panel noted that Anderson has ”demonstrated the ability to build bridges across academic disciplines while publishing extensively and remaining active as a theatre artist…What’s most impressive, though, is the extent to which he has reached out not only into his home university but to other universities. His collaborative style has truly made a difference.”
About the a2ru Award for Excellence in Arts in Health Education
a2ru established the a2ru Award for Excellence in Arts in Health Education in 2023 in partnership with its Arts in Health Educators Working Group; this annual award was established to recognize outstanding and innovative pedagogy that supports the rapid growth of arts in health. This is a vitally important area of interdisciplinary research and practice dedicated to using the power of the arts to enhance human health and well-being in diverse institutional and community contexts.
An independent panel of judges drawn from the arts in health fields evaluates nominees for their demonstrated excellence and effectiveness in teaching and advocacy for student learning and perspectives and/or their development of an academic program in the form of a course, certificate, or degree. Nominees are also evaluated for their demonstrated commitment to equitable and just teaching practices.
About the Judges
David Fakunle
David Olawuyi Fakunle, Ph.D. is a “mercenary for change,” employing the necessary skills and occupying the necessary spaces to help strengthen everyone divested from their truest self, particularly those who identify as Black, Indigenous and/or a Person of Color. David serves as Assistant Professor of Public and Allied Health at the Morgan State University School of Community Health & Policy, Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine, and Associate Faculty in Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. David’s interests include stressors within the built environment, manifestations of systemic oppression, and the utilization of arts and culture to cultivate holistic health through humanity, justice, equity and ultimately, liberation.
Additionally, David has applied artistic and cultural practices such as Black storytelling, African drumming, singing and theater in the proclamation of truth for over 25 years, collaborating primarily with organizations in the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. region. Among many affiliations, David is co-founder and CEO of DiscoverME/RecoverME, an organization that utilizes the African oral tradition to empower use of storytelling for healing and growth, previously served as Executive Director of WombWork Productions, a Baltimore-based social change performing arts company, and serves as Chair of the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the first state-level commission in the U.S. dedicated to chronicling and bringing justice to racial terror lynchings.
Fleurette Fernando
Fleurette S. Fernando is the founding director of the M.A. in Arts Leadership Program and Associate Dean of Academic and Strategic Initiatives in the McGovern College of the Arts, University of Houston. She is a graduate of Toronto’s Claude Watson School for the Arts, Montreal’s National Theatre School of Canada’s Directing Program, and holds an M.F.A. in directing from York University. Fernando has worked as a director, choreographer, educator and arts administrator in arts organizations across Canada and the U.S., including San Francisco’s Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Richmond’s East Bay Center for the Performing Arts and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. She is a former executive director of Katy Visual and Performing Arts Center, where she also served as performing arts director and development director. She has previously served as the artistic director of Montreal’s Black Theatre Workshop and was the recipient of the Canada Council for the Arts’ first John Hirsch Prize for Young Directors, as well as a Fellowship of the Americas from the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Washington, D.C. She served as the director of grants for Houston Arts Alliance and adjunct professor of theatre studies at the University of Houston, Downtown. Fleurette served as a member of the UH Faculty Senate, as Chair of the Senate’s Community and Governmental Relations. She has served on the board of MATCH (Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston) and on the board of the Association of Arts Administration Educators. In 2018, Fleurette received the Teaching Excellence Award from UH for her work in community engagement. She currently serves on the board of the Houston Cinema Arts Society.
Joel Howell
Joel Howell was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania from 1982-1984, where he completed his doctorate in the history and sociology of science. He is a faculty member at the University of Michigan, where in he is the Elizabeth Farrand Professor of the History of Medicine, and a Professor in the Departments of Internal Medicine, History, and Health Management and Policy.
Howell’s research interests focus on the history of medical technology and the medical humanities. He has written widely on the use of medical technology, examining the social and contextual factors relevant to its clinical application and diffusion, analyzing why American medicine has become so obsessed with the use of medical technology. As Director of the Medical Arts Program, he explores ways to bring insights and creativity from the arts to medical students and residents. Howell is also the author of “Washtenaw County Bike Rides.”