A panel of local healthcare practitioners will speak to University of Arkansas students, faculty and staff on the topic of "Multiple Dimensions of Modern Healthcare" at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 22, in Peabody Hall 309.

The panel will educate and raise awareness about complementary, functional, and integrative approaches to healthcare and healthcare careers outside of conventional medicine.

The panel will include Meg Staires, CPM, LLM, a certified professional midwife; Jacob Ponder, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, a nurse practitioner at Salt Health who is certified in functional medicine; Whitney Dwyer, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M, an acupuncturist at Steel Creek Acupuncture and Wellness; Nicholle Edwards, LMT, CMLDT, CYT, a massage therapist who specializes in myofascial release/lymphatic drainage; and Maria Chowdhury of Birth Song Botanicals Co., a master herbalist and Qigong instructor.

"We are excited for the opportunity to expose students to important perspectives on healthcare and health career paths that might be less familiar to them. These approaches are ones that contemporary patients are increasingly seeking as complements to more traditional treatments, and often, they are finding deeper meaning and higher satisfaction with their outcomes," said Casey Kayser, director of the Medical Humanities program.

The event is co-sponsored by the University of Arkansas Medical Humanities Program and Registered Student Organization and Alpha Epsilon Delta, the premedical honor society.