As a consultant for I AM A ZEBRA, Deana serves as a sounding board for Ingrid and Jessica’s ideas about using performance and improv skills to enhance medical and healthcare student and provider learning. Deana also provides her skills and connections as an academic, community and industry leader and liaision. She is excited about the creativity that stems from bringing performance art, especially improvisational theater, to education and the potential impact on provider/patient relationships, interdisciplinary collaboration and shifting how the healthcare systems work from the inside.  Her hope is that Ingrid and Jessica’s big ideas create a different and better way for us – all stakeholders – to think about and behave, within the world’s of medicine and healthcare….and that she gets be a part of a potentially profound paradigm shift. 

Deana Herrman PT PhD is a physical therapist and educator in the Chicagoland area. She is the parent of 2 children, one of whom is a disabled activist and author. Her experiences as a therapist and parent made her question everything she thought she understood about disability: meanings, systems of care, advocacy and how healthcare providers should work with people with disabilities. Deana completed her PhD in Disability Studies examining how physical therapists learn about the concept of disability, health equity for people with disabilities and how best to collaborate with disabled folks to inform physical therapy education. 

Deana met Ingrid as she was in the middle of course work. She was immediately intrigued by Ingrid’s perspective and grateful for Ingrid’s openness about her experiences and the opportunities she created to continue the discussion about learning experiences in medicine and healthcare. 

I AM A ZEBRA

Performance Art for Learning in the Worlds of Medicine and Healthcare