Dev Gingrich is a medical student at the University of Michigan Medical School. She found her way to medicine after several years spent farming, gardening, and teaching across New York State, and is still always happiest with her hands in the dirt. Confronted by the fact that she no longer has a job outside, she’s come to Auxocardia as a way to find beauty and humanity in medical training through her own writing and collage and through the community it provides. She hopes to continue to make space for healthcare providers in training to dip into the emotional, vulnerable, and transformative capacity of this work.

Limi Sharif is a medical student who has always had a passion for the visual arts. She enjoys creating watercolor paintings of all kinds, but particularly illustrations of her Ethiopian heritage. She is interested in the intersection of the arts and medicine and how encouraging medical trainees to engage in the arts can create more compassionate physicians. Through Auxocardia, she has found a way of bridging the gap between those interests and hopes to continue engaging in similar spaces throughout her career.

In her spare time, She enjoys getting outdoors, staying active, and connecting with nature.

Madison Caldwell is a first-year medical student at the University of Michigan. You can usually find her jogging through Ann Arbor, curled up with a book and a latte, or picking through vegetables at a farmer's market. She strongly believes that everyone has a story to tell if you are willing to listen, and her background in anthropology showed her that all of those stories have something to teach. She came to Auxocardia to continue her mission of collecting and sharing stories, hoping to contribute to a space where her peers could showcase the complexities, challenges, and rewards of medical training.

The idea for Auxocardia emerged, for Molly, during her clinical year, where the humanity and inhumanity of medical education and practice seemed to collide. Seeking a place to engage in a conversation about the process of becoming a care-provider, she sought to create such a home for contributors and readers in Auxocardia.

Molly grew up on a llama farm outside Detroit, and studied at Bryn Mawr College. She is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, serving in Belize from '14-'16. Her work has been published in Real Simple online, The Fairy Tale Review, NPR.org, Burnt Pine, K’in Literary Journal, Everywhere Stories, Not Very Quiet, Alimentum Journal, Cicada Magazine, Tendon, and Intima, among others.

She is published academically as M. Margaret Fessler, or Mary Margaret, because all of her five sisters are Mary Fessler too.

It’s a long story.

She remains in awe, and incredible gratitude, that you have found Auxocardia.

Ellie Lorenzana is a medical student at the University of Michigan planning to pursue a career in pediatrics. She is currently pursuing a master's degree in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University. In her free time, she enjoys daydreaming, exploring new places, and writing poetry. You can find her poetry at elenalouisepoetry.com.