a global consortium to advance awareness about
shame in healthcare
The Shame Space Consortium is an international network of professionals who use creative storytelling and research to advance shame awareness, shame resilience, and shame-sensitive practice in healthcare, with the overarching goal of creating more connected, authentic, and safe healthcare systems for all. The consortium was formed in 2022 by scholars studying shame at the University of Exeter, Duke University, and Duke—National University of Singapore Medical School.
Our goal is simple: to bring shame in healthcare into the light. Our consortium leverages the power of research and storytelling to advance cross-cultural understanding of shame, catalyze open conversations about shame, and promote wholehearted engagement with shame. In utilizing empiric research and creative media such as graphic medicine, documentary film, and audio storytelling, we hope to convey the essence and impact of shame in healthcare and illuminate a path to shame resilience and shame-sensitive practice among its members and within its environments.
Will Bynum, MD
Will is a Raleigh-based family medicine physician practicing and teaching at the Duke University School of Medicine where he is a residency program director and advisor to the Medical Student Wellness Committee. Will is completing his PhD in Health Professions Education at Maastricht University and researches the role of shame in medical education. He has an amazing wife Carson and boys Mason and Brady, and his interests include coffee, his daily cookie, writing, music, and not sleeping much. He created The Shame Conversation, a resource hub to advance discussion and awareness of shame in medicine.
Luna Dolezal, PhD
Luna is an academic philosopher based at the University of Exeter. Her research is primarily about understanding lived experience, emotion and embodiment and how these intersect with social, political and institutional frameworks. Luna is a passionate shame researcher and currently runs a research project called Shame and Medicine, which looks at the role of shame in health and medicine. Luna is also a yoga teacher and mum to Theo.
Barry Lyons, MB, FCAI, FJFICMI, PhD
Barry is a paediatric anaesthesiologist and chair of the Clinical Ethics Service at Children’s Health Ireland, and associate professor in Medical Ethics & Law at Trinity College Dublin. He has a particular interest in the tensions between law, regulation and medicine, and emotional and psychological aspects of clinical practice. He was a core collaborator on the Wellcome-funded Shame and Medicine Project.
Charlotte Wu, MD, MSC
Charlotte is a primary care internal medicine physician and clinician innovator passionate about leveraging creative storytelling, design-thinking, and technology to improve health and wellness. She is the founder and principal at Harness Health Global, is a visiting lecturer and programme lead of the Leading and Managing Innovation executive education course at University College London, and has published multiple collaborative graphic narratives in book and article form touching areas ranging from clinical ethics to shame in medicine.
Penelope Lusk, CUNY School of Medicine
Penelope is an interdisciplinary researcher and current faculty member at CUNY School of Medicine, where she teaches ethics and humanities to undergraduate students and medical students. In her research, she draws together philosophy, literary studies, and educational theory to examine shame and other complex emotions in education, with particular interest in identity shame, shame and learning, and shame in dialogue. A proud former student intern with the Shame and Medicine project (2020-2021), she is passionate about talking and thinking about shame in medicine and education and its impacts on social life. She is also a knitter and a sourdough person.
Mikako Obika, MD, PhD
Mikako is a physician and a senior assistant professor in general medicine at Okayama University School of Medicine in Japan, where she is teaching with specialists of the humanities. Mikako has a
keen interest in the role played by shame and stigma in medical settings, based on her experience as a family member of a brain tumor patient. Mikako is also mum to Kyoko and Hanako.
Susy Stirling, MBChB, MSc, MPH, FPH
Sandy Miles, MBBS MRCGP