Basic Information

Name: Valeri Lantz-Gefroh
Title: Director of Communication Education
Institution: UC San Diego / Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion
Discipline: Communication studies
Years of experience: 14

Teacher/Training

• Postgraduate
• Continuous Professional Development

Description

Three keywords describing expertise and interest:

1. medical humanities, compassionate communication, medical education, STEM education,

Description of field of expertise, major interests, and consultation topics:

Over the last 14 years I have served in leadership positions in 3 start ups at the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, The Burnett School of Medicine and the Center for Compassionate Communication at UC San Diego. The focus of my work has been to develop arts and humanities curricula to build stronger connections between healthcare providers and patients, and to help move the needle on physician/nurse wellness. I have worked with undergrads, grad and medical students, healthcare professionals, medical educators, artists, leadership in national labs, and Nobel prize winners. I’d be happy to discuss the work I’ve built in a multidisciplinary team and to offer advice/mentorship to others who are just stepping into this journey.

Brief biography:

Val is a professional actor, director, and teacher. In 2021, she came to UC San Diego’s Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion where she serves as the Director for Communication Education in the Center for Compassionate Communication. For the last 14 years she has created unique curricula based on arts and humanities disciplines to help healthcare providers, students and researchers connect and engage more effectively with their audiences.

As Artistic Director at the Burnett School of Medicine, she led the development of an innovative communication curriculum called The Compassionate Practice® to fulfill the mission of the school to train physicians to become Empathetic Scholars®. From 2009 to 2018, Val was the founding Improvisation Program Director at the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science where her curriculum has been taught to over 15,000 undergrads, grad students, post-docs, faculty, senior researchers, business professionals, medical students, doctors, nurses, and Nobel Prize winners around the world.

Val’s background as an actor began with training from the prestigious University of North Carolina School of the Arts. She has worked in professional theater for 30 years, and in her spare time, Val tours Standing in my Shoes, a one-woman story about her brother’s death, to medical schools and hospitals to create conversations around empathy and resilience.

Val has worked as a consultant and mentor with business leaders, educators, and theater artists. Above all, she thinks of herself as a teacher. She loves working with students from all walks of life and helping them discover and hone their talents and their connections with themselves and their audiences.