Stephen Nix is not the doctor or even medical school professor that immediately comes to mind when imagining either.
He earned a medical degree from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and completed anatomic and neuropathology training through a Johns Hopkins Medicine residency. But he also has a bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of Arkansas and is a master’s candidate for fall graduation in writing at Johns Hopkins University.
Nix is the only board-certified practicing neuropathologist in Northwest Arkansas, contributing to the diagnosis and assessment of brain tumors and other pathologic diseases in head, neck and eye pathology.
He’s in charge of integrating arts, the art of healing, embracing whole health and health systems sciences into the medical curriculum at Alice L. Walton School of Medicine, which opened to students July 14. According to Nix, this is not something that’s normally done, at least in a longitudinal way, in medical school.
He also teaches pathology.
“When I found out they were opening a medical school that was on a museum campus and that they would highly value the health, humanities and the arts, I knew this was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up,” Nix said.
He appreciated the school’s vision, which integrated art, the humanities, and whole health into the curriculum throughout a student’s four years there.
Nix also serves on the subspecialty editorial board for “PathologyOutlines,” a free textbook website dedicated to making medical education accessible to practicing professionals worldwide. His eyelid cysts entry generated 23,431 page views in 2024 alone.
He has published over 20 peer-reviewed scientific and educational articles, primarily in pathology, and has presented his work regionally, nationally, and internationally in the field of surgical neuropathology.