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Dr. Zelenski is the Director of Education Innovation and Scholarship in the Department of Medicine. She specializes in graduate medical education, including curriculum design and education research. With a background in theater, Dr. Zelenski has designed courses that use improv techniques to help healthcare providers and scientists hone their expertise in storytelling, spontaneity, and using observational skills to adjust to patients and team members.
Dr. Zelenski is a member of the International Association for Communication in Healthcare, the American Educational Research Association, the Society for General Internal Medicine, and the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine. She serves as the chair of the Education Innovation Grants Subcommittee for the Department of Medicine and is an affiliate of the UW–Madison Arts Institute and the UW–Madison Teaching Academy. Dr. Zelenski is also an Associate Editor for the Journal of General Internal Medicine.
Dr. Zelenski's research focuses on teaching physicians how to engage in empathic behaviors with their patients, learners, and interprofessional colleagues, and how increased skill in empathic behavior can increase the quality of patient care and decrease healthcare provider burnout and personal distress.