OUR TEAM
Claire Ashmead-Meers
Jose A. Bufill
Claire Ashmead-Meers was a fourth-year medical student at the University of Michigan Medical School when she joined our team. She hails from Cleveland, Ohio. She received her Bachelor's degree in History from Princeton University with focuses in Humanistic Studies, Chinese Language, and Creative Writing. At Princeton she was proud to be a member of the James Madison Society and Human Values Forum, representing a wide range of political and philosophical viewpoints on campus. At Michigan she is Czar for the Galen's Smoker, Fellow in the Program on Health, Spirituality, and Religion, and has research interests in transplant and colorectal cancer. Claire began an internal medicine residency at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota in the summer of 2025.
Joe is a medical oncologist with 30 years experience caring for cancer patients and educating medical professionals at the graduate and post-graduate levels. His research interest in clinical cancer genetics has led to influential publications in peer-reviewed medical journals. In 1990, he proposed the first genetic classification of colorectal cancers based on proximal or distal tumor location. He founded Progeny Genetics Software, a highly regarded patient care and research tool in clinical genetics. He has an interest in bioethics, and his opinion articles have appeared in national and international media outlets including USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Public Discourse and others. Recently, he taught seminars in bioethics at Strathmore University in Nairobi, in the Masters of Applied Philosophy and Ethics program. Joe is President of the Bur Oak Foundation.
Kristin M. Collier
Dianna Hammoud
Kristin is clinical associate professor of Internal Medicine in the School of Medicine. A lifelong Michigander, she began her academic career at the University of Michigan as an undergraduate biology major, graduated from the Michigan Medical School in 2001, and completed internal medicine residency at U of M Medical Center. As a member of the clinical faculty, Kristin teaches first year medical students how to take medical histories and perform basic physical exams. As associate director of the internal medicine residency program primary care track, she mentors young doctors and students. She has come to recognize that scholarship related to the spiritual dimension of human existence enriches higher education and should be continued throughout a students’ time at university. She believes that addressing questions of identity and meaning through active engagement with classical works of philosophy, history and literature is an essential means of personal and professional development. Kristin directs a Program on Health, Spirituality and Religion at the medical school, and enjoys public speaking engagements around the US on matters related to beginning and end of life choices. She is active on twitter, enjoys baking, crafts & spending time with her husband and children.
Dianna is a lifelong Michigander from Northville and a graduate of the University of Michigan, where she earned her BS in Biology, Health, and Society in 2023. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Physiology through Michigan’s Rackham Graduate School. Her academic path centers on the human body as more than a system of parts—seeing it instead as an expression of story, environment, and belief. At Michigan, Dianna led one of the university’s largest fitness organizations, helping students develop meaningful, individualized relationships with movement. She also served as Professional Development Chair of the National Arab American Medical Association’s NextGen chapter and continues to mentor students navigating the intersection of culture, identity, and health. Raised by Lebanese immigrant parents, Dianna is drawn to the kinds of conversations that make room for nuance and depth. Her interest in lifestyle medicine, narrative healing, and patient-centered care aligns with the Bur Oak Foundation’s mission to explore questions that connect the sciences with the human experience. In her free time, she enjoys being outside, connecting with others, and finding beauty in the everyday.
Matthew Nelson
Matthew Patrick Nelson is a first-year MD/PhD student at the University of Michigan Medical School and a native of Grand Rapids. After receiving his Bachelor of Science with High Distinction and Honors from the University of Michigan, he spent the subsequent three years at the National Institutes of Health as the lead molecular biologist on a team developing CRISPR interference screens for neurodegenerative diseases. A longtime friend of the classics, Matthew is literate in Latin and strongly interested in the lessons philosophy, history, and literature teach about life as well as medicine.
James Miller
Jim is a clinical pharmacist in surgical critical care at University of Michigan Health and holds an adjunct faculty appointment with the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy. He also directs the critical care pharmacy residency program. In those capacities he has trained pharmacy students and residents in critical care pharmacy since 2008, and has been recognized as Preceptor of the Year by both the College of Pharmacy and the pharmacy residency program. His clinical research interests include ICU sedation and delirium, critical care pharmacy services, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic changes during critical illness, long-term complications of critical illness and bioethics. He volunteers with both the Board of Pharmaceutical Specialties and the National Board of Medical Examiners. Jim's interest in the work of the Bur Oak Foundation arose from both his children's training in classical education along with his own theological pursuits. He is a Bible study teacher, scout leader, runner, and aspiring fisherman.
Maria V. Rivera-Santana
Santiago Schnell
María V. Rivera-Santana is an MD/PhD student at Michigan Medicine with a deep interest in the intersection of ethics, theology, and lived human experience. She is drawn to fundamental questions of suffering, sacrifice, personhood, faith, and culture—both in their abstract dimensions and in their concrete realities within medicine and research, where ethical considerations are ever-present and deeply consequential. Ultimately, she values communities that foster intellectually challenging conversations, where life’s deepest questions are explored through the lens of our own lives and those of great thinkers before us.
Santiago served as the Chair of the Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology at the University of Michigan Medical School, while holding the John A. Jacquez Collegiate Professorship of Physiology. Santiago is recognized internationally as a pioneer in the field of mathematical and computational biology. A native of Venezuela, he received his Licentiate in Biology from Universidad Simón Bolívar and a doctorate in Mathematical Biology from the University of Oxford. He held a Junior Research Fellowship at Christ Church, and was Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow at the Wolfson Centre for Mathematical Biology in the Mathematical Institute at the University of Oxford. His academic experience at Oxford inspired the conviction that scientists are enriched by acquiring a broad humanistic formation, and that the university is the ideal setting for this endeavor. After spending 15 years at Michigan, Santiago began his tenure as Dean of the College of Sciences of the University of Notre Dame on September 1, 2021. He currently serves as Provost of Dartmouth College. Santiago is a founding member of the Bur Oak Foundation.