Christopher T Caldwell, D.O.

Dr. Caldwell has served as the Medical Director of the Montana Spine and Pain Center in Missoula.  He has long been an advocate for the biopsychosocial model, having studied psychology and pre-med at Wheaton College, a faith-based liberal arts school that prides itself on the integration of faith and reason. 

This early exposure to the role of the mind, body, and spirit in health informed his medical studies at the founding school of Osteopathic Medicine in Kirksville, MO where he also served as a teaching fellow in clinical anatomy. He completed a surgical internship prior to his residency training and board certification in Neuromusculoskeletal Medicine & Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine and was awarded Outstanding Resident by the American Osteopathic Association. He left the faculty in the manual medicine department at his alma mater to complete his Anesthesia Pain Medicine fellowship at the University of Iowa under Richard Rosenquist, MD, current Chair of Pain Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. He has also served as President of the Utah Academy of Pain Medicine during his tenure practicing in Park City and is a graduate of the Montana Medical Association's Physician Leadership Program.  He served as the Pain Medicine representative to the Neuroscience Leadership Council for Providence St. Joseph Health. He is active as a continuing education lecturer to his peers and serves regularly as preceptor to health professions students (medical, PA, pharmacy and PT) and family medicine resident physicians. 

Christopher Comer, PhD

Dr. Comer is a Professor Emeritus of Biology & Neuroscience at the University of Montana. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and was a Postdoctoral Associate at Cornell University. Before Montana, he was at the University of Illinois at Chicago and also served for 2 years at The National Science Foundation as Program Director for Behavioral Neuroscience. His research concerns the design and evolution of brain circuits for processing visual and touch sensory information.  Chris has taught in the areas of neurophysiology, immunology, and behavioral biology. During the summers he leads an interdisciplinary program in Dublin, Ireland: “Brain, Mind and the literary Imagination.”  His interests in the community include integrating brain science into teacher training and he is active in speaking before community groups on the interactions of brain science with the arts and humanities.

Ashby Kinch, PhD, MA

Professor of English at UM since 2003, Ashby Kinch is the Associate Dean of the Graduate School and Director of the University of Montana Press. He received his AB in English and Comparative Literary Studies from Occidental College, and his MA and Ph.D. in Medieval Literature from the University of Michigan. He was a Luce Scholar, living in Malaysia in 1995-96.

Ashby has published a book on late medieval art and literature, Imago Mortis: Mediating Image of Death in Late Medieval Culture (Brill, 2013), and has published numerous articles on medieval literature and art, as well as having co-edited an anthology of essays on the 14th century poet, Alain Chartier. He is the editor of the medieval volume of the forthcoming Bloomsbury Cultural History of Death Ages (2022). He also writes and teaches about neuroscience and literature, especially poetry. 

Dana Kopp, MLS, AHIP(S)

Dana is the Medical Librarian at Providence St. Patrick Hospital, she received her BA in English – Secondary Education from Montana State University and her MLS degree from the University of North Texas. Dana has been with Providence since 2001 in both Technical and Professional Library roles serving locally in The Learning Center and across the System as a member of System Library Services. Dana has received award funding to create relaxation and education stations within the hospital, update public computer access in waiting rooms and received the Medical Library Association’s Hospital Library Scroll of Exemplary Service Award in 2019.

Outside of Librarianship, Dana and her family run a small ranch, raising cattle and horses. They enjoy riding in the mountains, playing Cowboy Polo and other horse games, fishing and rarely having any downtime.

Amy Ratto Parks, MA, MFA, EdD

Amy Ratto Parks serves as the Executive Director of the IHH. She is also the Associate Director of the Writing and Public Speaking Center at the University of Montana. She holds an MA in literature, an MFA in poetry, and an EdD in Education from the University of Montana. Her research areas include meta-cognition, writing instruction, and the psychology of writing; she writes regularly about integrating meta-cognitive strategies into classroom pedagogy. Her creative works, Bread and Water Body (2004), Song of Days Torn and Mended (2015), Radial Bloom (2018), and How to Remember the World (2019), explore the physical experiences of illness, loss, grief, and gratitude.

Laura Shelton, MD

Dr. Shelton is a family physician with Florence Family Medicine. She graduated with honors from the University Of North Dakota School Of Medicine in 1994. Having more than 24 years of diverse experience, especially in FAMILY PRACTICE.

Janet Stone, ex officio

Janet Stone lived in Missoula from 1976 to 1992.  A graduate of Emory University, she earned a Master of Education degree from the University of Montana. She taught school in both the Missoula and Frenchtown school districts as well in other states where she taught for twenty years in K-8 classes and also served in school administration.

John Stone,Ph.D., MD, MA, BA, ex officio

Dr. Stone is co-founder of the Institute of Medicine and Humanities (now IHH); a physician and philosopher/bioethicist; Professor, Creighton University Center for Health Policy and Ethics, Dept. of Interdisciplinary Studies; Dept. of Medicine, School of Medicine; Graduate Faculty, the Master's Degree in Health Care Ethics of the Center for Health Policy and Ethics; and Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director, Creighton's Center for Promoting Health and Health Equality(CPHHE). He has a BA from Emory University, an MA in Philosophy from the University of Montana, an MD from Johns Hopkins, and a Ph.D., from Brown University in Philosophy (social justice/bioethics).

The CPHHE is a community-academic partnership working to eliminate health inequalities through community outreach, community-based participatory research, and health disparities research training. John's focus is on unjust inequalities in health and healthcare. His work includes teaching, scholarship/writing, grants, and programs.

John's post-graduate training included a residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in internal medicine and at the University of Missouri Medical Center-Columbia, a cardiology fellowship, and a year as chief resident in medicine. He served two years in the U.S. Public Health Service. John then practiced cardiology primarily in Missoula, Montana. He is a former Associate Professor with the National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care, Tuskegee University, Alabama. At Tuskegee, John taught, conducted research and scholarship, and collaborated in NIH-funded programs to address health inequalities (cancer, cardiovascular disease) with colleagues at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, and Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta.

In his spare time, John enjoys being with his family, studying Spanish (conversation, literature, film), woodworking, exercise, diverse reading, and health-focused collaboration with the Maya (Guatemalan) Community in Omaha, Nebraska.

Jan VanRiper, JD, PhD, IHH Chair

Dr. VanRiper brings a background in health policy and insurance, law, and bioethics to the IHH Board. She is the immediate past Executive Director for IHH and had previously served on the Board for nine years. She is currently the Executive Director for the Montana Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association. Past appointments include CEO of the National Association of State Health CO-OPs; Assistant Clinical Professor at the Center for Health Policy and Ethics at Creighton University; Assistant Professor and Director of Health Care Reform Initiatives at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University; General Counsel and Vice President of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana; and Chief Deputy Insurance Commissioner for the State of Montana. She holds a J.D. from the University of Montana and a doctorate in Philosophy with an emphasis on applied ethics from the University of Utah. She also serves on the Board of the Montana State Workers’ Compensation Fund.

When not working she enjoys hiking mountains, kayaking the lakes and streams of Montana, and frolicking with her rambunctious grandchildren.