Report from the 2025 New England Graphic Medicine (NEGM) Summit by Lisa Daria Kennedy

Posted by Submitted by Lisa Daria Kennedy on 2026-08-30

Graphic Medicine conferences create a space to foster dialogue and connection across disciplines while providing opportunities to share artwork, scholarship, and ideas. They also serve as a space to reinforce the field’s guiding principle as an inclusive visual storytelling practice that makes room for voices frequently overlooked. 

This principle shaped the return of the New England Graphic Medicine Summit, hosted at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences on October 24, 2025. The theme “Incubator” was designed to illuminate and bring local and global attention to the region and encourage community. Since the event’s original launch in 2019 as the New England Graphic Medicine Comic-Con, the Graphic Medicine community in Boston and the surrounding area has grown considerably. The Summit brought together artists, authors, and scholars from across New England and beyond to build community and collaboration at the intersection of healthcare and comics.

The Summit, hosted on Boston's Longwood Avenue, is a world-renowned hub for hospitals, medical research centers, and academic institutions—including the hosts, MCPHS University and Harvard Medical School's Countway Library. The 2025 Summit consisted of presentations, panels, and workshops—both in-person and virtual—to connect, highlight, and expand the area’s Graphic Medicine community. As organizer and moderator, Dr. A. David Lewis remarked, 

“True to our New England setting and here along Boston Harbor and the Charles River, we in Graphic Medicine walk along the coasts of a massive territory. We continue to make inroads and move towards a shared center, but there is no question that we are still charting the borders of this mutual space. With that in mind, Boston looks to be a lighthouse, a beacon, for all those either seeking to join us, looking to express their stories, searching for a new heading, or trying to connect from their own homes and communities. Perhaps the territory is unending, and the map is never complete – no matter. At least we can see each other and come together to help shine a light for others.”

Contributors
Contributors included individuals who resided in New England, focused their work on the region, compared their region to New England, or created material specifically about or for New England.

Prior to the Summit, planning committee members were featured in interviews by local and national media. Dr. A. David Lewis was interviewed by Executive Producer Dan Guzman for WBUR News in Boston NPR’s All Things Considered, and Caroline Hu and Briana L. Martino interviewed by Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon of Fanbase Press.

Video Recordings
This issue documents the conference proceedings by providing a hub for recorded video presentations, further positioning the conference in the global discourse.

NEGM25 Summit recordings, available on YouTube here.

• Opening Comments from A. David Lewis
• Introduction from co-organizers
• Panel A: Tom Hart & Suzy Becker, Sequential Artists Workshop - "Rituals of Graphic Medicine”; and Caroline Hu, MassArt (Moderator)
• Panel B: LB Lee - “Quick’n’Dirty Plural Artistic History”; Meredith Kustina, Cambridge Health Alliance - “Mornings Are Rough: A Book for Children with Autism”; Sylvia Lardeaux - “A Body Out of Order: Living through Long COVID before It Existed"; Michael Anthony - “Ink, Appetite, and Identity: A Graphic Talk on Meat, Health, and Change”; and Lisa Daria Kennedy, MassArt (Moderator).
• Panel C: Publishers panel featuring Zach Clemente; Street Noise Books; Alexandra Gallant-Lee; and Joel Christian Gill, Boston University (Moderator)
• Panel D: Nealie Ngo, Cambridge Health Alliance - "Creating Comics About Psychotropic Medications for Kids” (lightning talk); Scarlett Shiloh, Boston University - "Communicating Previvorship in Zines and Graphic Memoirs”; Briana Martino & Ellen Grabiner, Simmons University - “Keywords/Keyimages in Graphic Medicine: Picturing”; Annika Mengwall, Yale University - "Artistry & Accuracy: Striking a Balance in Health Education Materials”; Tavon Mei & Iris Ren, BU Graphic Medicine Club - “From Cocoa and Comics to MMM: Empowering Undergrads and Youth Medical Literacy" (lightning talk); Ellen Amster, McMaster University - "20,000 Leagues Under the Hospital: Using Comics to Explore Race and Colonialism for Medical Education and Clinical Practice" (lightning talk); and A. David Lewis, MCPHS (Moderator).

Graphic Recordings

Graphic Recordings are a form of visual note taking, captured in real time during a live event, resulting in an illustrated narrative of key points. A. Krieg Studio joined the Summit as Graphic Recorder and compiled five visual takeaways. 

Post Conference

Over 20 attendees and contributors gathered to galvanize interest and coordinate organizers for a potential larger regional conference in 2026 at Countway Library (695 Huntington Ave., Boston). In open dialogue future programming ideas were discussed, including presentations, keynote speakers, and workshops.

Art Exhibition 

A gallery exhibit featuring excerpts from graphic novels by two artists was on display throughout the event, “70/30 A Mostly Autobio Comic About Cancer” by Penelope McDonald and “New Leaves on the Tree How Trauma Affects Inheritable Gene Expression” by Lafleche Giasson.