A connector at heart
I observe, I dig into what research and popular conversation both have to say, I listen to the everyday stories we tell each other, and I embrace our lived experiences, noticing the patterns running underneath it all. That’s why I present and teach: not to hand down answers, but to bring patterns together to spark curiosity, recognition, and applicability to scholarly or personal topics. Much of my past work has lived in inclusive curriculum, making sure classrooms and institutions actually reflect the people inside them.
Lately I’ve been asking the same question in a more personal room — what does it look like to make women’s own experiences that inclusive? To treat aging, motherhood, work, and empathy not as private struggles, but as things worth naming together. From the lecture hall to the living room, I create a space to think out loud, together.
I’m open to presentations, keynotes, moderating conversations, workshops, and group facilitation. Reach out by email at marcellagemelli10@gmail.com
Thank you,
Marcella Gemelli
Empathy and Inclusion
Workshop: Attending to Empathy: Supporting Medical Student Flourishing Training
Shine Academy Innovations in Health Science Education Conference 2026
A workshop dedicated to embracing empathy through the teachable skills of self-empathy, clinical empathy, and empathy resilience as evidenced by the implementation of the empathy curriculum at The University of Texas at Tyler School of Medicine.
Workshop: Global Perspectives in Principled Innovation and Curriculum Design
Arizona State University FOLC Fest 2026
A workshop exploring how Principled Innovation and global classroom perspectives inform AI-infused curriculum design, emphasizing ethical, inclusive, and student-centered approaches.
Creating a JEDI Mindset – SOC 334 Technology & Society and More!
Arizona State University EdPlus Course Stories, Season 2, Episode #5 2022
A podcast interview discussing the intentional incorporation and promotion of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion principles in curriculum and course development. Listen to the episode.
Mothering and Motherhood
Parallel Transitions: Mothering an Adolescent While Aging
Journal of the Motherhood Initiative, vol. 16, 2025 | View | Download PDF
About
Mothering in the menopause transition is a significant experience in the life course. Using autoethnography through a feminist standpoint framework, the author places her mothering experiences under the exploration of performing motherhood, intensive mothering, and mothering and aging. The author details how being an older mother going through the physical and emotional changes of perimenopause parallels the developmental changes of her adolescent son. Because dominant discourses define menopause as a sense of loss and motherhood as a youthful endeavour, the author aims to make sense of her role as an aging mother. Through empathy, the author finds a space to mother authentically.
Motherwork in the Margins: Homeless Single Mothers
In “New Maternalisms”: Tales of Motherwork (Dislodging the Unthinkable) edited by R. Badruddoja & M. Motapanyane (Eds.), Demeter Press / Toronto 2016, pp. 130-148 | Download PDF
Understanding the Complexity of Attitudes of Low-Income Single Mothers Toward Work and Family in the Age of Welfare Reform
Gender Issues, vol. 24, pp. 101-113 | Download PDF
Marcella Gemelli, PhD 