PHSRC Welcomes Laura Dammer Hess — A Champion for Narrative Medicine and Student Growth
By: Emma Walytka
Laura Dammer Hess is the Pre-Health Student Resource Center's Director, stepping into the role in February 2026. In this blog, we get to know more about Hess through her passions for art and her experiences as an educator in non-traditional settings. We at the PHSRC are incredibly grateful to have her leadership, knowledge, and admiration for working in health-oriented spaces.
To exemplify what it means to be an educator: to find her life’s meaning in helping others find it within themselves; to view life as interconnected, even in indirect paths; to see the value in integrating art into medicine rather than in differences; and to recognize the power of integrating art into medicine rather than focusing on differences. She leads with a deep appreciation for the medical community, finding the most fulfillment in seeing students ignite a light of passion for the field and community she has worked with in multiple ways and forms.
Laura Dammer Hess is the Pre-Health Student Resource Center’s new director as of February 2026. Before she was with us, she led a life of many stories, experiences, and pathways, all leading her to this moment, and she continues to live through her passions alongside her work with us.
Hess’s career has long been rooted in work that places collaboration at its core, with nearly the past 26 years of her life spent on the Twin Cities campus, weaving together art and her passion for being an educator in non-traditional settings in innovative ways. Academically, she holds a Master of Liberal Studies with a concentration in Art and Community-Based Education, as well as a BA in Spanish and Studio art.
Though Hess holds a Master of Liberal Studies, she built much of her educational foundation by engaging in learning opportunities outside the classroom, including AmeriCorps service, community-based learning programs, and helping pre-health students reflect on their personal stories to create meaningful personal statements.
It was through Hess’s 12 years of experience as a Coordinator at the U of M Center for Community Engaged Learning, where her main goal was not only to help students in an honors program for community work complete the program, but also to create a reflection session, that she first worked directly with pre-health students.
Hess says that during this work, she spoke with many pre-health students about why they were pursuing the pre-health track, and what their community work was teaching them about the kind of health care they wanted to pursue.
Outside of her professional experiences, Hess is frequently seen creating hand-built ceramic pieces and taking courses at the Northern Clay Center.
Many of her projects are rooted in collaboration, with her master's project bowl being touched, molded, and glazed by different hands.
As with her artistic work, pre-health students are shaped by numerous life experiences, personal identity, research projects, and mentors – giving each applicant a unique mold, just like her creative works.
Wanting to share her personal connection and adoration with the intersection of art and medicine, Hess played a big role in starting Community Art @ Health Sciences. This program aimed to fill the walls of the Health Sciences Education Center, enabling a more lively, comfortable working space.
Through the program, health sciences students, faculty, and staff create community-based exhibition spaces. Hess works to recruit artists and establish rolling galleries, helping prospective exhibitors bring their visions to life.
“I’m kind of reaching back to some things that I have experienced in my education, like those experiences in reflection, arts, community engagement, health, and sciences, and now some of those things are coming together,” Hess said.
Before starting as the PHSRC Director, Hess was the director of the Center for Health Interprofessional Programs (CHIP) for nine years, fostering connectedness and belonging among health sciences students. During her time at CHIP, Hess says she was exposed to communities in narrative medicine, enabling her to participate in a workshop through Columbia University.
“I learned about the connection between reflective writing, creative writing, and reading literature and poetry, and how people in the health sciences and health science education use that to connect with patients,” Hess said
One of the ways these two subjects have come together is through co-teaching a pharmacy class for nearly three years with her colleague, Chrystian Pereria, that discusses medicine access, stigmas attached to medication, and how family history impacts our relationship to medicine.
Although Hess has only been with the PHSRC for a short time, she says that talking with students about their personal statements has been incredibly rewarding. In fact, last Spring Hess taught AHS 3401: Writing a Personal Statement for a Health Program and says that it was the one-on-one appointments with students, helping them make meaning of their experiences, that brought her closer to understanding what it takes to prepare for entering the health professions
“It’s a very cool experience you get to have with somebody when they're telling you about an experience that meant a lot to them, and you get to help them dig into how that's shaped them or changed who they are,” Hess said. “And so, in a way, this can be this kind of deep conversation.”
Outside of her professional experiences, Hess has two children, and shared an experience about her own son's premature birth and the role of healthcare professionals in shaping the experience in a positive, formative way.
It was just before the time when Hess was working for CHIP, and since Hess’s son was born a month early, she had to be in the NICU frequently. She recalled a moment where an EMT picked her up from Fraser Hall, and remembers how safe they made her feel.
Hess says she will always remember how kind a nurse at the NICU was in helping her gain confidence in feeding her baby for the first time because he “felt so fragile.”
“I truly came out of that experience over the top appreciative,” Hess said. “These people are amazing, and I will never forget them.”
Hess says that this life experience elicited a true motivation to be a part of shaping future healthcare workers.
“Make sure you're doing the things that you care about,” Hess said. “Have that openness to doing things just because you love them, even if they don't have a direct connection. You will find the connection between them.”
To end the blog, we have a special segment to showcase a little more about Hess apart from her academic and professional experiences (we hope you find inspiration or connection):
