Bio

Dr. Maren Monsen is a physician, filmmaker, and clinical ethicist who uses film to share patient stories and shine light on challenging issues in public health and medicine. Her films have been screened at Sundance, Cannes, the Skoll World Forum in Oxford, and several TEDx events run by Melinda Gates as well released theatrically and broadcast nationally and internationally.

She founded the Program in Bioethics and Film at the Stanford University Center for Biomedical Ethics which she ran for more than 20 years, and was the co-director of the Scholarly Concentration in Biomedical Ethics and Medical Humanities for the Medical School. She is affiliate faculty at the University of Washington Department of Bioethics and Humanities.

She has worked clinically seeing patients as an emergency physician, palliative care physician and clinical ethicist, and has taught clinical and research ethics as well as bioethics and film.

Dr. Monsen received her Bachelors in Art History at Stanford University, studied film at the London International Film School, received her Medical Doctorate from the University of Washington, and returned to Stanford to complete her residency in Emergency Medicine and a fellowship in Palliative Care and Clinical Ethics.

Academic Appointments

Administrative Appointments

  • Director, Program in Bioethics and Film (1998 - Present)

Professional Education

  • MD, University of Washington (1991)
  • BA, Stanford University, Art History (1984)

Contact

  • Academic
    mmonsen@stanford.edu
    University - Emeritus staff Department: School of Medicine - Biomedical Ethics Position: Staff Emeritus Retiree

Additional Info

  • SUNet ID(s):
    mmonsen

Links

Current Research and Scholarly Interests

Maren Monsen, MD has directed multiple documentary films that have been nominated for Emmy Awards, broadcast on PBS, translated into many languages for international broadcast, and used in 75% of medical schools across the country. Her films include The Revolutionary Optimists, Rare, Worlds Apart, Where the Highway Ends and The Vanishing Line. She is the founder and director the Program in Bioethics and Film at Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics.

Projects

  • The Revolutionary Optimists

    The Revolutionary Optimists feature documentary film, Co-Directed by Nicole Newnham and Maren Monsen, is a powerful, inspiring, and unprecedented look at slum children--not as victims--but as innovators and agents of change. The film won the Hilton Sustainability award at the Sundance Film festival in 2013 went on to a theatrical release with policy screenings at UNICEF and USAID. It broadcast on national public television as part of the Independent Lens series, and was selected to be included in the Women and Girls Lead Campaign were it broadcast in 9 countries and was translated into 5 languages. Shorts from the film screened at the Skoll World Forum at Oxford as well as three TEDx events run by Melinda Gates. The Revolutionary Optimists went on to inspire Monsen and Newnham to start Map Your World, a mobile-to-online data and storytelling platform to make change in the public health of their communities.

    Location

    Kolkata India

All Publications

  • Hold Your Breath Producer and Director Monsen, M. 2005: 58 min
  • Worlds Apart Producer and Director Maren Grainger-Monsen 2003: 4 x 15 mins
  • The impact of film in teaching cultural medicine. Family medicine Murphy-Shigematsu, S., Grainger-Monsen, M. 2010; 42 (3): 170-172

    View details for PubMedID 20204891

  • The Mind in the Movies: A Neuroethical Analysis of the Portrayal of the Mind in Popular Media Neuroethics: Defining the Issues in Research, Practice and Policy Grainger-Monsen, M., Karetsky, K., Illes, J. (Ed.) 2006
  • Dilemmas of a Divisive Concept. Science Cho, M., Grainger-Monsen, M 2003; 300 (5618): 434
  • The Vanishing Line Producer and Director Maren R Monsen 1998: 52 min
  • Grave Words Producer and Director Maren R Monsen 1996: 25 min
  • Wilderness medicine. Academic emergency medicine ZLOTNICK, B. A., MONSEN, M. R., Auerbach, P. S. 1994; 1 (2): 183-186

    View details for PubMedID 7621183

  • Where the Highway Ends Producer and Director Maren R Monsen 1989: 30 min