Improv and Healthcare

Dr. Marshall Chin is the Richard Parrillo Family Distinguished Service Professor of Healthcare Ethics at the University of Chicago. He is a practicing general internist, Associate Director of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, and Co-Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Advancing Health Equity: Leading Care, Payment, and Systems Transformation Program. Dr. Chin's major research focus is improving the quality of care and health outcomes of marginalized populations in resource-constrained settings, including facilitating communication and shared decision making among health professionals and LGBTQ racial/ethnic minoritized patients. He has extensively applied improv and Theatre of the Oppressed to teach trainees and health care professionals how to improve patient care and advance health equity.

Gretchen Eng is the Director of Education at the iO Theater and has performed in the Chicago comedy community since she was sixteen. She has been a performer, producer, and teacher at iO for over ten years, specifically with flagship shows Armando and Devil's Daughter, as well as teaching all levels of the iO Training Center and at improv festivals around the world. She has also served as a professor in Roosevelt University's Chicago College of Performing Arts for 7 years and has worked extensively for classical music organizations, such as Fourth Coast Ensemble and Lyric Opera of Chicago. She oversees professional development and applied improv for iO at universities, nonprofits, and companies around the world.