Dan Shapiro, Ph.D. is professor and Chair of the Department Humanities at Penn State College of Medicine. His research focuses on coping with medical crises and physician-patient communication. He has received research awards from the American Psychological Association and clinical teaching awards from the senior residents at the University of Arizona. Dr. Shapiro earned his Ph.D. at the University of Florida and went on to Harvard Medical School where he completed an internship at McLean Hospital and an endowed fellowship in medical crisis counseling at Boston Children’s Hospital, the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His professional writings have appeared in Ethics and Behavior, Health Psychology, and the Journal of Psychosomatic Research. His personal essays have appeared in the New York Times, JAMA, the American Psychological Association’s Monitor and he has had a few commentaries on National Public Radio’s: All Things Considered. As a result of expertise as someone who has lived on “both sides of the bed”, he is a consultant to the hit television series, “Grey’s Anatomy” and has been featured in the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, ABCNEWS.COM, Salon.Com and a number of other periodicals. A humorist who also uses drama, he speaks widely to lay and professional groups.