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PORTLAND, Maine

Interprofessional graduate student team co-presents with creator of Visual Voices arts-based research methodology

ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ graduate students pose with Visual Voices founder Michael Yonas and Visual Voices participants
ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ graduate students pose with Visual Voices founder Michael Yonas and Visual Voices participants

On Wednesday, April 20, 2016 an interprofessional team of graduate students from the ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ co-presented with Michael Yonas, Dr.P.H., M.P.H., senior program officer for Social Innovation, Research, and Special Initiatives at .

Public health students, Collyn Baeder, M.P.H. ’16, and Zoe Hull, M.P.H. ’16, and occupational therapy students, Michaela Hoffman, M.S.O.T. ’16, Adrian Jung, M.S.O.T. ’16, Rebecca Masterjohn, M.S.O.T. ’16, and Virginia Sedarski, M.S.O.T. ’16, partnered with Yonas to present β€œVisual Voices: A Participatory Method for Engaging Communities in Research and Knowledge Transfer,” to students, faculty, and staff on both the Biddeford and Portland campuses.

Visual Voices is an arts-based intervention and participatory research methodology for use with diverse populations across the lifespan. Yonas created the Visual Voices methodology and uses it primarily with adolescent populations. He mentored the students on a Visual Voices project they conducted last year with a local group of older adults. After the Portland campus presentation, a reception was held where the older adult participants of the students’ Visual Voices project and Yonas had the chance to meet for the first time and discuss their experiences with the program.

The presentations, reception, and student project were made possible by the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC), Interprofessional Education Collaborative director Shelley Cohen Konrad, Ph.D., L.C.S.W., F.N.A.P., and IPEC’s Student-led Interprofessional Mini-Grant Program, with generous support from the Office of Research and Scholarship, Brian K. Dallaire, Pharm.D., and Deborah Dallaire. IPEC provides interprofessional programming and experiences that bring together students from across the University’s 13 health professions to learn with, from, and about each other in team-based settings designed to improve quality, safety, and patient-centered care.

Michael Yonas gives presentation at ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ
Michael Yonas gives presentation at ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ

About the ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ

The ΒιΆΉΒγΑΔ is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of . In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.