Annual Compassion and the Art of Medicine series begins at BCM

The annual Compassion and the Art of Medicine series, hosted by the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, will begin Friday, Aug. 10.

The series is directed by Dr. Kenya Steele, associate professor of family and community medicine at BCM, and is free and open to the public. All presentations begin at 12:10 p.m.

The series is supported by grants from the Community Hospital Foundation and the Alan Lambert Family Medicine Endowment.

The 2012 series includes:

Houston Playback Theatre (Aug. 10, Cullen Auditorium)

The Houston Playback Theatre is a unique collaboration between performers and the audience. An audience member tells a story or moment from their life, chooses actors to play the different roles, and everyone watches as their story is immediately recreated and given artistic shape. Since 1975, Playback has spread all over the world and is now performed in many different countries and in a variety of social and professional settings.

Mary Jo May (Aug. 24, Kleberg Auditorium)

May founded EL Centro de Corazon in 1994 as a non- profit social services agency in the East End of Houston, where she serves as executive director. She has moved the agency into mental health and youth services and converted it into a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). In 2010 it was expanded to Sunnyside Multi Service Center, offering prenatal and behavioral health services. May is working to bring attention to poor maternal and child outcomes in the Houston-area and the lack of accessible health care for people with mental illness.

Sami and Laura Rahman (Sept. 28, Cullen Auditorium)

The Rahmans are the parents of two children, including one with cerebral palsy and short gut syndrome who was born prematurely and spent months in the NICU. Sami is the co-founder of the Bridging Apps Program at Easter Seals of Greater Houston, which allows parents, therapists, doctors and teachers to share information about using the iPad and mobile devices with people who have special needs. He is the CEO of a technology company and the author of "Getting Started: iPads 4 Special Needs." Laura is a partner at Powers & Frost, LLP. The Rahmans will share their experiences as the parents of a child with a chronic medical condition through the NICU, PICU and beyond.

Dr. Susan Gillespie (Oct. 5, Kleberg Auditorium). Co-sponsored with the Office of Student Affairs.

Gillespie, an associate professor of pediatrics - retrovirology and global health, has a strong interest in international health and providing care to underserved populations. She cares for children with HIV both in the United States and in Sub-Saharan Africa. She also provides primary care to children at San Jose Clinic. She is the chief medical officer of the Baylor International Pediatric Aids Initiative (BIPAI) and spent two years in Africa to establish several BCM Medical Centers for Excellence. Gillespie is in the BCM Master Teachers Fellowships Program, and hopes to parlay this training into strengthening faculty development programs in medical schools in developing countries.

The Matthew Carter Memorial Lecture was established in memory of a first-year Baylor medical student killed in September 2000. The lecture carries on his message of compassion and caring to successive generations of medical students and health professionals. The annual lecture features individuals in the health care field who dedicate their careers to helping the less fortunate of the world.

Dr. Peter J. Hotez (Oct. 12, Kleberg Auditorium)

Hotez is the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and professor of pediatrics and molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine, where he is also the chief of a new section of pediatric tropical medicine. He is the president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and the director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development. Hotez is an internationally recognized clinician and investigator in neglected tropical diseases and vaccine development. Hotez has authored more than 250 original papers and authored or edited 10 books, including the acclaimed "Forgotten People, Forgotten Diseases." In 2011, he was awarded the Abraham Horwitz Award for Excellence in Leadership in Inter-American Health by the Pan American Health Organization.

Dr. David Buck (Nov. 2, Cullen Auditorium)

Buck began working with the underserved, developing medical and dental clinics for the indigent population in Houston in 1984 after working with Mother Teresa in Calcutta, India. In 1999, he founded Healthcare for the Homeless ­ Houston, where he now serves as president. He serves on multiple local and national boards working to progress underserved and homeless medical care. As professor of family and community medicine at BCM, he supervises the Houston Outreach Medicine Education and Social Services (HOMES) track that allows third-year medical students to earn credit by working at the HOMES Clinic, a student-run clinic founded by Buck with a former medical student and operated by HHH.

Dr. Richard Kogan (Nov. 9, Cullen Auditorium). Co-sponsored with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

A graduate of Juilliard, Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, Kogan has distinguished careers both as a psychiatrist and as a concert pianist. He has performed throughout the world and has been a frequent collaborator with cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Nov. 16, Cullen Auditorium. Co-sponsored with the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics

Arnold is an assistant professor of pediatrics ­ neonatology at BCM. She is the medical director of the Pediatric Simulation Center at BCM and a graduate of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Arnold and her husband Bill Klein star in the TLC series "The Little Couple."

For more information about Compassion and the Art of Medicine, contact Dr. Kenya Steele at kenyas@bcm.edu, or Carolyn Olson at colson@bcm.edu or 713-798-6590.