Voice Expeditions was created in 2007 by Drs. Dugan and Frank Maddux.  It is a website devoted to hosting oral histories and audio stories.  The three original Voice Expeditions projects include Bit by Bit Technology stories from the early years of the Internet, Henscratch essays from life in rural Virginia and the Nephrology Oral History project.  The Voice Expeditions website is designed to present projects with some visual and text support, but largely in a format that celebrates the power of hearing a story told. 

Dugan and Frank Maddux both graduated from Vanderbilt University and attended medical school at the University of North Carolina.  They stayed in Chapel Hill for Internal Medicine residency and Nephrology fellowship.  While in private practice in Danville, Virginia Dugan began to write essays about children, chickens, and life on the farm.  Those stories now compose the Henscratch collection of over 100 essays.  She also wrote a collection of 21 technology essays in the Bit By Bit series.  These essays were originally published in EVINCE, a regional arts monthly paper between 1999 and 2001 during the early boom days of the internet.  Dugan became interested in readings and oral history recordings in the 1990s.  She read essays for WVTF Public Radio in Roanoke, Virginia and began to record oral histories at that time.  Her experience in story-telling and oral histories led to an opportunity to combine these interests with her Nephrology training to envision the Nephrology Oral History project.

Dr. Frank Maddux has combined his nephrology practice with an expertise in information technology.  He has been involved in health informatics for the past 25 years.  Currently he serves as Senior Vice President & Chief Medical Information Officer for Fresenius Medical Care North America.  His information technology focus has led toward the development of the Voice Expeditions website as a means to publish these Oral History & Essay projects.

Voice Expeditions will continue to grow as new stories are added to established projects and as new projects are initiated.  We believe that there is value to hearing stories in their original voice that extends the power of the written word.  Voice Expeditions offers a connection to the long tradition of human story-telling and all of the breadth of imagination that it inspires.