Our Team

Questions? Contact About Narrative Medicine

Overview

The UCSF Narrative Medicine initiative involves clinicians and scholars spanning various departments.

Pediatrics

Anoushka Sinha, MD, MS

Narrative Medicine Website Lead; Assistant Professor, Pediatrics

Sara Buckelew, MD, MPH

Professor, Pediatrics

Roxanne Almas, MD, MSPH

Associate Professor, Pediatrics

Almas_Headshot
Dr. Roxanne S. Almas is a Professor of Pediatrics in the Developmental Medicine Division at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital specializing in children with complex neurodevelopmental conditions. She also serves as the wellness coordinator for her division. Fluent in French, proficient in Spanish, and committed to equity, she centers whole-person care that honors trauma and family partnership. Certified as a Yoga Nidra facilitator through the Daring to Rest program and trained in Narrative Medicine, she explores how rest and storytelling foster resilience and healing in medicine. She co-founded UCSF’s Narrative Medicine Circles, led workshops at national conferences, and was selected as a writer for one of the films in the Breathe: Honoring the Voices of Healthcare series. An invited speaker at the 2025 AAP Conference and the inaugural Narrative Medicine Symposium at OHSU, Dr. Almas also co-chaired the Santa Clara County Medical Association’s Physician Wellness Committee during the pandemic. She wrote a chapter entitled “The Gift of Our Stories” in the upcoming book “Spiritual Care and Clinical Practice Transformed: At the Intersection of Vulnerability and Awe” to be published in May 2026. Her writing appears in Bioethics Today and KevinMD, and she advocates for building a “rest ethic” as a foundation for compassion, creativity, and sustainable care. Outside medicine, she enjoys writing, gardening with family, and finding the sacred in everyday life.

Valerie Gribben, MD

Associate Professor, Pediatrics

Thomas McNalley, MD

Professor, Pediatrics

Helen Pu, MD

Clinical Fellow, Pediatrics

Family & Community Medicine

Shieva Khayam-Bashi, MD

Professor, Family & Community Medicine

Humanities & Social Sciences

Brian Dolan, PhD

Professor, Humanities & Social Sciences

Laurel Waycott, PhD

Assistant Professor, Humanities & Social Sciences

Medicine

Aniqa Azim, MD

Assistant Professor, Medicine

Rahmat Balogun, DO

Assistant Professor, Medicine

Danielle Chammas, MD

Associate Professor, Medicine

Bassem Ghali, MD

Associate Professor, Medicine

Robin Goldman, MD

Associate Professor, Medicine

Zhenya Krapivinsky, MD

Associate Professor, Medicine

Pramita Kuruvilla, MD

Associate Professor, Medicine

Ashley McMullen, MD

Associate Professor, Medicine

Caroline Nguyen, MD

Assistant Professor, Medicine

Andrew Orr, MD, MSEd

Associate Professor, Medicine

Michael Rabow, MD

Professor, Medicine

Emily Silverman, MD

Assistant Professor, Medicine

Psychiatry

Nicki Bush, PhD

Professor, Psychiatry & Pediatrics

David Elkin, MD

Professor, Psychiatry

Michelle Riederer, MD

Assistant Professor, Psychiatry

Radiology

Matthew Bucknor, MD

Professor, Radiology

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