Two new co-leaders have joined the Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine Study Trip to Auschwitz that heads to Poland this week for the fourth consecutive year.

Abram Brummett, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Foundational Medical Studies, and Katie Chaka Parks, Ph.D., director, Education, The Zekelman Holocaust Center, join the trip for the first time in 2025.

They will co-lead the trip with Jason Wasserman, Ph.D., Dean’s Distinguished Professor.

This year’s cohort leaves today and returns June 19.

The donor-funded OUWB Study Trip to Auschwitz is designed to prompt students to delve into this distinctive and tragic era in the history of medicine and critically reflect on its implications for one’s own personal and professional development within the medical profession.

Wasserman said Brummett and Parks will take the program to the next level.

“Their backgrounds and professional expertise will amplify the insights we can provide the students in ways we couldn't before” he said. “Additionally, collaborating with Dr. Parks will, I hope, help us strengthen our relationship with the Holocaust Memorial Center and build and establish additional programs and projects, which we are already brainstorming about.”

Brummett joined OUWB in 2020. He primarily teaches medical humanities and clinical bioethics to first- and second-year medical students, and has served on various committees, including scholarship and curriculum. He also holds a master’s degree in history.

Wasserman said that Brummett “has a deep knowledge of bioethics and well-established relationships with the students that will help us expand on concepts we've discussed in the curriculum already, but in ways that are far more complex and transformative.”

“I'm excited to see how he can take the experiences on this trip and use them to amplify the insights he's already been sharing with the students throughout the first-year curriculum to build an even deeper appreciation for the importance of ethics and humanism in medicine,” he added.

Brummett said he feels “a great sense of responsibility to ensure the program continues to achieve its goals and remains something our school is proud to offer.”

“I want an experience like this to be something that goes beyond readings and discussions about medicine and the Holocaust,” he said. “We must continue to develop every generation of physicians with an understanding of how far things can go when the medical profession prescinds from its moral core.”

Parks started working at The Zekelman Holocaust Center as a docent in 2017. She joined the staff part-time in 2021, and was named director of Education earlier this year.

She is a Holocaust historian specializing in women, gender, and sexuality in modern Germany during World War II and the Holocaust. She earned a Ph.D. in history from Wayne State University and bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Oakland University.

Her presentation, “Where are All the Women? Untold Experiences from the Holocaust,” has become the center’s most requested virtual program, and her insights have significantly influenced the storytelling in the museum’s new permanent exhibit, which opened in January 2024.

She has helped welcome OUWB students who visit the center annually as part of their Study Trip to Auschwitz preparations.

“I was very excited to be able to give these students a foundation before they go to a memorial like Auschwitz that is so gripping and moving,” said Parks. “I’ve been very lucky to lead that group through the museum and make sure they have that experience before they go to Poland.”

Parks said early this year Wasserman asked her if she would be interested in being part of the trip.

“Dr. Parks brings a true expertise in medicine and the Holocaust that we need for this experience,” he said. “I'm so excited to have her with us and participating in these discussions with our students.”

Parks said she looks forward to serving as a resource for students on the trip and help them “unpack all the information and answer any questions.”

“It might not be while they’re on the walking tour of Krakow…it might be later at dinner when they are really grappling with these deep and heavy topics and they want to talk and explore more,” she said.

Also, Parks said she will always keep in mind that she will be helping educate future physicians.

“They’re not just your average students walking through the memorial,” she said. “They’re people who are going into these future professions that do have a disproportionate impact on safety and health in society.”

“For them to understand the necessity of having that moral and ethical line in the sand before you’re forced to cross it is really important,” she said.

For more information, contact Andrew Dietderich, senior marketing specialist, OUWB, at [email protected].

To request an interview, visit the OUWB Communications & Marketing webpage.

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