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About the Matheson Lecture Program
The Power of Presence and Performance to Cultivate Human Connection in The Intelligent Age
Health sciences librarians and healthcare simulation leaders have a lot in common. We are curious people who enjoy learning and applying new knowledge. We are adaptable and flexible in upskilling ourselves to keep apace with the ever-growing demands on the healthcare professionals and learners with whom we work. Our presence for faculty, students, researchers, providers, and other community members serve as a gateway to their transformational learning experiences. Significantly, much of this effort is hidden labor. Now, in this Intelligent Age, it is more important than ever for us to cultivate and amplify our presence and the value we bring to health professions education.
To ask and answer critical questions: What are the unique contributions that health sciences librarians make to health professions education and why does this matter? How are health sciences librarians envisioning new technology applications—including AI—in ways that complement versus replace their critical roles? How does the presence of health sciences librarians singularly advance learners in ways that interactions with machine learning—including AI—cannot?
This presentation will encourage participants to collaboratively explore these questions through the theoretical and practical lenses of presence and performance. Presence and performance concepts are action-oriented, human-centered, and utilized by theater artists, social scientists, and others to inspire and study human engagement. We will use these concepts to explore the aforementioned critical questions as we navigate The Intelligent Age by further cultivating human connection.
About the Presenter
Lou Clark, PhD, MFA, Executive Director, M Simulation at the University of Minnesota
Dr. Lou Clark is an award-winning theater artist, human communication scholar, and internationally recognized healthcare simulation leader. She is the Executive Director of M Simulation at the University of Minnesota, where she leads a team who creates and implements more than 34,000 annual learner contact hours across eleven health professions schools and programs and four UMN campuses. Lou is also an Associate Professor with the UMN Department of Medicine and a Clinical Skills Course Director. In 2025, she received the Department of Medicine Faculty Education Excellence Award for her ongoing work teaching patient-centered communication skills to first- and second-year medical students. As a researcher, she has published more than 40 peer-reviewed manuscripts, co-edited the book Comprehensive Healthcare Simulation: Implementing Best Practices in Standardized Patient Methodology, and serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Healthcare Simulation. Lou is also the immediate Past President of the Association of Simulated Patient Educators and received the 2026 Outstanding SP Educator Award from the association. Whatever her role or endeavor, Lou’s work as a theater artist and educator is anchored in her embodied knowledge that performance has the power to positively transform people’s lives.