People news: Upstate Medical names Garden assistant dean for disability and inclusion

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Upstate Medical University announced it has appointed Rebecca Garden assistant dean for disability and inclusion.

Garden is an associate professor of public health and preventive medicine at the medical school.

As assistant dean for disability and inclusion, she will expand her role as co-chair of the disability and inclusion task force to align Upstate Medical University with “best practices for disability awareness and accessibility,” the organization said in a news release. Those efforts will include faculty development, inclusive teaching, and integrating disability as subject matter into the curriculum. The initiative will help “create greater access for all in the university, particularly diverse populations,” the school contends.

Garden’s research and teaching are in a field called the health humanities, and she uses literature — particularly autobiographical narratives — as well as literary and disability studies to address social, cultural, and ethical issues in health care and public health, Upstate Medical said. Her most recent research looks at popular and literary narratives of aging and dementia, exploring the social and ethical issues, and how disability studies’ perspectives may help to address bias and disparities.

Garden serves as executive director of the consortium for culture and medicine, an interdisciplinary and inter-institutional organization for education and research. The group brings together students and faculty from different disciplines and professions at Upstate Medical University, Syracuse University, and Le Moyne College, the medical school said.

Garden joined Upstate Medical University in 2004 and has served as a professor of bioethics and humanities.

Contact the Business Journal News Network at news@cnybj.com

Photo credit: Upstate Medical University website