OUR TEAM
Claire Ashmead-Meers
Jose A. Bufill
Claire Ashmead-Meers is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Michigan Medical School and 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.
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 co-founder and President of the Bur Oak Foundation.
Kristin M. Collier
Matthew Nelson
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 and chief residency at U of M Medical Center. As a member of the medical school faculty, Kristin led undergraduate seminars on healthcare and religion. She has come to recognize that scholarship related to the spiritual dimension of human existence enriches the undergraduate experience and should be continued throughout a students’ time at university. As associate director of the internal medicine residency program, she engages young physicians from top-ranked medical schools, and is convinced 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. In response to the call to value diversity, equity and inclusion at Michigan, Kristin founded the Program on Health, Spirituality and Religion.
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.
Santiago Schnell
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. Santiago is co-founder of the Bur Oak Foundation.