Bonnie B. O'Connor, PhD is a folklorist, ethnographer, and career medical educator with expertise in cultural/cross-cultural issues in healthcare; health belief/behavior; patients' expectations and experiences of health, illness, and care; complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine; bioethics across multiple perspectives; healthcare communication; and patient safety.A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she pursued a post-doctoral fellowship Medical Humanities at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, then joined their faculty in Community and Preventive Medicine for 10 years. She moved to Brown Medical School in Providence, RI in 2000, where she is now Professor of Pediatrics (Clinical) and Associate Director of the Pediatric Residency (Hasbro Childrens Hospital).She has been a cross-cultural mediator in healthcare settings; co-created a curriculum to train conventional physicians and complementary medical providers in team-building and patient co-management; co-created and implemented train-the-trainer programs in teambuilding for nurses and other healthcare professionals; and served for 23 years on hospital ethics committees, actively involved in clinical ethics consultation and mediation among differing interests and viewpoints in safety-critical, high-consequence and emotionally charged situations.