Student Resolution Advocate
The College of Human Medicine (CHM) Student Resolution Advocate (SRA) is available to CHM students who are experiencing distress related to any aspect of the CHM learning environment. Contact with the SRA will provide a private, professional encounter that promotes fairness and respect for all individuals, facilitates communication, and assists students toward reaching resolutions.
Students are asked to initiate contact with the Student Resolution Advocate using the Professional Concerns and Mistreatment Report (PCMR). All communications about experiences with the College are welcome. Students may choose to report anonymously, though that may limit the investigation possible of a particular complaint or concern. No identifiable information is generated by the form and no response can be sent back to the sender unless contact information is voluntarily included on the form by the reporter. If name and contact information are given, the SRA will offer to meet with the student by phone or Zoom to learn more about the concern.
There are some circumstances where information from a report needs to be shared with administration. This includes information that raises safety concerns at the College or University, crime on or near campus, elder abuse, and child abuse or endangerment.
Dr. Blackman is a Title IX Mandatory Reporter and MSU policy requires the SRA to report to the MSU Office for Civil Rights any received information about sexual harassment, sexual violence, sexual misconduct, stalking, or relationship violence.
About the Student Resolution Advocate
Karen Blackman, MD is a graduate of MSU College of Human Medicine who completed a Family Medicine residency and later a Psychiatry residency at MSU, becoming board certified in both. She worked in community settings in each of her specialties, before her academic career as a psychiatrist in the MSU Family Medicine Department. In that role she taught at the College, did consultations, treated students with psychiatric problems at Olin Health Center, and acted as a liaison between psychiatry and general medicine. Additionally, she served for many years as faculty in the Sparrow Family Medicine Residency, helping young family physicians treat their patients with psychiatric problems. She was honored with the CHM Outstanding Clinician Award in 2010 and was inducted into the Sparrow Physician Hall of Fame in 2015 for her work bringing psychiatric knowledge to primary care. She retired from the MSU Department of Family Medicine as an Associate Professor Emeritus in 2017. Since then, she helped found the Sparrow Family Medicine Collaborative Care Team and was their psychiatric consultant till 2023. She is also a volunteer for the Physician Support Line (https://www.physiciansupportline.com), a national wellness line staffed by volunteer Board Certified Psychiatrists, to serve practicing physicians. It offers confidential support for physicians from any specialty and for medical students who contact the line.