collaborators
Dr. Annie Brewster
Dr. Annie Brewster is an Assistant Professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, a practicing physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, in Boston, a writer and a storyteller. She is also a patient, diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2001. In response to the disconnection she experienced in healthcare, both as a patient and a provider she founded Health Story Collaborative (HSC) in 2013. HSC is dedicated to helping individuals navigating health challenges find meaning, and ultimately heal, through storytelling. She is excited by interdisciplinary, cross-institutional collaborations that break through resistance to change.
She is widely published and a frequent public speaker. Her new book, The Healing Power of Storytelling: Using Personal Narrative to Navigate Illness, Trauma, and Loss, will be out February 1, 2022.
Annie and Unfixed are co-directing the Unfixed Mind: Navigating Mental Health Today in 2023.
Dr. Moyez Jiwa
Dr. Moyez Jiwa is a family physician, associate dean and professor of Health Innovation at the Melbourne Clinical School, University of Notre Dame.working in Australia. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Health Design.
He was the author of the book on the Art of Doctoring and the host of the Health Design Podcast. Moyez believes that doctors can heal even when it is not possible to cure and the best companions are those who nurture us when we are broken.
Moyez and Unfixed co-created The Course for Clinical Confidence, a certificate course for medical students.
Journal of Health Design, Mettle Health and Unfixed are a consortium of aligned organizations working together to create human-centered patient experiences and elevate their narratives.
Elizabeth Jameson
Elizabeth Jameson is an artist and writer who explores what it means to live in an imperfect body as part of the universal human experience. Before her diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, she served as a public interest lawyer representing incarcerated children and those living with chronic illness.
As her disease progressed, she began using her MRI’s to create art as a way of reclaiming agency of her own medical data. Her work is part of permanent collections both nationally and internationally, including the National Institutes of Health, major universities, and medical schools. She now writes personal essays and speaks across the country sharing her experiences living with illness and disability. Her essay, “Losing Touch, Finding Intimacy,” was included in the New York Times book, About Us, released in September 2019 by Norton Publishing.
Elizabeth directs MS Confidential, an Unfixed media production.
Michael Wolcott
Michael Wolcott is an Emmy award-winning filmmaker who has made films for public television and worked with nonprofit organizations to create fundraising films as well as other content. From the terrorist attack in San Bernardino, CA to women dealing with vesicovaginal fistulas in Chad, the stories he’s been a part of telling strive to help make a positive impact.
Michael joins the team as editor of Long Haul Voices, Unfixed Mind, Life Rebalanced Chronicles: Season II, and the short-film Unsung
Gustavo Serafini
Gustavo Serafini holds two degrees from University of Chicago and a law degrees from George Washington. He is an entrepreneur and founder and host of The Enabled Disabled Podcast. Born with proximal femoral focal deficiency (PFFD), disability has taught Gustavo many life lessons, and allowed him to meet with incredible friends and mentors along the way.
The Enabled Disabled Podcast is created for people with disabilities, as well as their families, friends, clinicians and therapists. The platform helps dive into how our guests have experienced disability; what has it taught them about themselves, about life, about others; what tools or experiences have helped them to better navigate and adapt to the world; what do they wish other people knew about them; what are they working on now; how would they like to improve the world.
Cynthia Ryan
Cynthia Ryan is Executive Director of the VeDA - Vestibular Disorders Association. She has worked in non-profit management for over 15 years, and previously was General Manager and Vice President of a financial research firm. Cynthia's mother, Eileene, suffers from Meniere's Disease.
VeDA, Cynthia and Unfixed/Kimberly Warner collaborate on the Life Rebalanced Chronicles and co-host and co-produce the ICU (I See You) Podcast.
Daniel Defabio
Daniel Defabio is Associate Director of Global Genes. At the age of 12 months Daniel’s first child Lucas was diagnosed with the rare disease Menkes Syndrome. His documentary about his son’s story led to Daniel co-founding DISORDER: The Rare Disease Film Festival and later The Disorder Channel, both dedicated to spreading awareness for patient families facing any of the more than 7,000 rare diseases.
Daniel has created videos and marketing materials for American Cinematographer, PBS, RightRice, bio-techs, hospitals, most major movie studios, TNT’s “The Closer” and HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” among others.
Daniel, Global Genes and The Disorder Channel collaborate with Unfixed on a number of workshops and content creation/distribution that empowers patients to tell their own stories through film.
Sara Nesson
Sara Nesson is a writer, dramatist, and director with a lifelong dedication to storytelling in its many forms. A graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Harvard College, and the Graduate Theological Union, she spent years as a performing singer-songwriter before chronic illness reshaped the arc of her life.
Today, she facilitates a creative cohort for artists living with chronic illness and shares original monologues with audiences across the country. She is currently directing Unbound, a hybrid dance film produced by Unfixed Media and Kimberly Warner, which explores the tension between limitation and freedom through the language of movement.
Sara lives on a quiet hillside in Marin County, California, with her husband and two high-personality cats. On any given evening, you might find her listening for owls and coyotes, or dancing in the living room with her beloveds, in celebration of what the body can do.