René Claxton will lead a new program in Pitt’s Institute for Bioethics

René Claxton, a professor in the School of Medicine, has been named the inaugural director of the Humanistic Communication in Medicine program in the University of Pittsburgh Institute for Bioethics. In the role, Claxton will develop, test and disseminate scalable, evidence-based strategies to improve communication among clinicians, patients and families, with a particular focus on integrating these innovations into medical school curricula and graduate training programs.

Claxton serves as director of palliative care undergraduate and graduate medical education in the Department of Medicine. She is a national leader in serious illness communication, serving as a VitalTalk Distinguished Faculty member and recipient of a 2025 VitalTalk Faculty Leadership Award.

Claxton’s work has been recognized with multiple honors, including the Tara Cook Palliative Care Teaching Award from UPMC in 2021 and the Eric Neilson Leadership Award from the Association of Specialty Professors in 2022.

With more than 15 years of expertise in teaching and developing communication skills curricula across medical education, Claxton has designed and led innovative communication training programs for hundreds of learners — from medical students through attending physicians — across more than a dozen medical specialties. Her educational efforts focus on teaching communication skills and training other faculty educators in the science of learning, as well as practical teaching skills for use with simulated patients and in didactic settings.