About Our Producers

Principal Investigator

Associate Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine
Division of General, Geriatric, Palliative and Hospital Medicine
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

Dr. Plews-Ogan holds an undergraduate degree in philosophy and was a Rockefeller Fellow in Theology at Yale University Divinity School. She received her M.D. degree from Harvard University and completed her residency in Internal Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Dr. Plews-Ogan has expertise in patient safety and medical errors, and integrative medicine including mindfulness. She serves as Director of the UVA Institute for Quality and Patient Safety where she provides strategic direction for its educational and research missions, oversees research grant awards, and mentors research fellows. She also teaches about quality and safety to faculty and residents and coordinates the Richardson Lecture and other invited lectureships on patient safety issues. She is also Director of the UVA Center for Appreciative Practice, a positive culture transformation initiative throughout the health system. She is also co-author of the recently published book, Appreciative Inquiry in Healthcare: Positive Questions to Bring Out the Best.

Co-Principal Investigator
Associate Professor of Research, Department of Medicine
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

Dr. Owens is the co-principal investigator for the Wisdom in Medicine project and interviewed all of the participants living with chronic pain. She trained as a cognitive psychologist in the Stanford University Psychology Department and was awarded a two-year post-doctoral scholarship in the Stanford University Medical School. Dr. Owens served Research Director for the Center for the Study of Complementary and Alternative Therapies at the University of Virginia from 1995 to 1999, and NIH-funded research center with a primary focus on pain management. Dr. Owens is an Associate Professor in the University of Virginia Department of Medicine, and has served on the UVA faculty for the last 22 years. She has numerous academic publications in alternative therapies for pain management and other health-related areas. Her work on near-death experience has been featured in popular media.

Co-Investigator
Associate Professor of Research, Department of Medicine
Division of General, Geriatric, Palliative and Hospital Medicine
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

Dr. May holds a Bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College, an MA in Creative Writing from Boston University, and a PhD from the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. She has extensive grant writing, program development, qualitative research and program evaluation experience. Dr. May is a faculty member in the UVA Center for Appreciative Practice and co-author of the book, Appreciative Inquiry in Healthcare: Positive Questions to Bring Out the Best. She also serves as curriculum coordinator for the Phronesis Project, a new medical school curriculum at UVA that fosters wisdom in young physicians.