Hastings Center Welcomes 2024 Fellows

Hastings Center News

The Hastings Center is pleased to announce the election of the 2024 fellows. Hastings Center fellows are a group of about 300 individuals of outstanding accomplishment whose work has informed scholarship and public understanding of complex ethical issues in health, health care, science, and technology.

“Our new fellows are leaders in a wide range of areas of global importance, including ethical issues in infectious disease outbreaks, AI in health, neuroscience, reproductive rights, genetics and race, and disability,” said Hastings Center President Vardit Ravitsky. “I welcome them and look forward to working with them.”

“We are proud to announce this dynamic slate of Hastings Center fellows,” said Michele Goodwin, the chair of the Fellow’s Council, who is Linda D. & Timothy J. O’Neill Professor of Constitutional Law and Global Health Policy at Georgetown Law School. “These individuals are thought leaders whose research, scholarship, and policy advocacy have shaped the bioethics and health fields in tremendous, impactful ways. Their contributions in policy and academic discourses offer urgently needed pathways forward for tackling the most challenging health related conundrums.  We are honored to recognize them and their election to this esteemed fellowship.” 

The 2024 Hastings Center fellows are:

Carl Coleman, JD, is Associate Dean for Graduate Programs and Professor of Law at Seton Hall Law. He specializes in the legal, ethical, and public policy implications of medical treatment, research, and public health. He served as Bioethics and Law Adviser at the World Health Organization from 2006 to 2007 and has continued to work closely with WHO’s Global Health Ethics team. In addition, he is the lead author of numerous WHO guidance documents on topics such as ethical issues in infectious disease outbreaks, tuberculosis care and control, and clinical trials oversight. From 2010 to 2013, he was a member of the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Human Research Protections, which is charged with providing expert advice to the Office for Human Research Protections of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Prior to joining the Seton Hall faculty, he served as Executive Director of the New York State Task Force on Life and the Law, supporting the Task Force’s work in the areas of end-of-life decision-making, assisted reproductive technologies, and genetic testing and screening. Carl H. Coleman – Seton Hall Law School

Jennifer L. Gibson, PhD, is the Sun Life Financial Chair in Bioethics and Director of the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics (JCB) and an associate professor in the Division of Clinical Public Health and the Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. She is a health policy ethics scholar whose research, teaching, and policy work focuses on ethical issues in contemporary health institutions and systems. She has advised governments and policymakers on issues such as medical assistance in dying, public health emergencies, health technology assessment, drug funding and supply, and resource allocation. From 2020 to 2022, she created and co-chaired the Ontario Covid-19 Bioethics Table and served as bioethics advisor to several planning tables of the Ontario Ministry of Health. In 2018, she founded the JCB’s Ethics and AI for Good Health Program, which explores and engages in ethics and governance issues associated with AI in health care and public health through research and training initiatives. In addition, she is a member of the WHO Expert Group on Ethics and Governance of AI for Health and recently completed a three-year ministerial appointment as Vice-Chair of the Ontario Health Data Council. Her research and policy interests are increasingly turning toward the ethics in and of wicked problems, including problems involving convergent existential risk and their implications for health and a sustainable future for all.

James Giordano, PhD, DPhil, is the Pellegrino Center Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Biochemistry and Chief of the Neuroethics Studies Program at Georgetown University Medical Center. He is senior bioethicist of the Defense Medical Ethics Center and adjunct professor of Psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences; Distinguished Visiting Professor of Health Promotions, Technology and Ethics at the Coburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany; Stockdale Fellow in Science, Technology, and Ethics at the United States Naval Academy; Senior Science Advisory Fellow of the Strategic Multilayer Assessment Branch of the Joint Staff, Pentagon; and Chair Emeritus of the IEEE Brain Initiative Project on Neurotechnology and Ethics. Previously, he was Fellow and Task Leader of the Neuroethics Study Section of the European Union Human Brain Project. He is an elected member of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary’s Advisory Committee; Fulbright Professor of Neuroscience and the European Academy of Science and Arts Neuroethics at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich; and Associate Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics. He is an elected founding member of the Neuroethics, Legal, and Social Issues Advisory Panel of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), an elected member of the European Academy of Science and Arts; and an Overseas Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine in the U.K. https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/00336000014Tm4oAAC/james-giordano-phd

Elizabeth Heitman, PhD, is a professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in the Department of Psychiatry’s Division of Ethics and the Program in Ethics in Science and Medicine, with secondary appointments in the Department of Applied Clinical Research and the O’Donnell School of Public Health. Her work focuses on cultural aspects of ethics in clinical medicine, biomedical science, and public health, particularly international standards of research ethics and education in the responsible conduct of research. She co-directs two National Institutes of Health-sponsored collaborative research ethics education programs in Mozambique and Peru, and is the co-editor of four ethics texts, most recently Race and Research: Perspectives on Minority Participation in Health Studies (American Public Health Association, 2024). As a national associate and report author for the National Academy of Sciences, she has trained her expertise in the ethics of technology assessment on technologies with public health impact: bioterrorism countermeasures using animal models, gene drive technology, and research with dual use potential. In 2023, she was named as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Elizabeth Heitman, Ph.D. – Faculty Profile – UT Southwestern

D. Micah Hester, PhD, HEC-C, is the Chair of the Department of Medical Humanities and Bioethics and Professor of Medical Humanities and Pediatrics at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, as well as clinical ethicist at Arkansas Children’s Hospital and research ethics consultant for the UAMS Translational Research Institute. He was trained in philosophy with a focus on American pragmatism and is recognized as a leader in “pragmatic bioethics.” He has written extensively on the ethics of patient-professional relationships (Community as Healing, Rowman& Littlefield, 2001) and end-of-life issues (End-of-life Care and Pragmatic Decision Making, Cambridge University Press, 2010]. In both these texts, he argues for a pragmatic and narrative approach to bioethical considerations, which are the bases of much of his scholarly work. His two books on ethics committees and ethics consultation–Ethics By Committee (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008) and Guidance for Ethics Committees (Cambridge University Press, 2012, with a second edition in 2022) are widely used textbooks. D. Micah Hester, Ph.D. | UAMS Department of Medical Humanities and Bioethics

Judy Illes, CM, PhD, is a professor of neurology, Distinguished University Scholar, and Distinguished Professor in Neuroethics at the University of British Columbia. She is director of Neuroethics Canada and faculty in the Centre for Brain Health and at the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute. In addition, she holds associate appointments in Population and Public Health and in Journalism at UBC and in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle. Dr. Illes is a pioneer in the field of neuroethics. Her research, teaching, and outreach initiatives are devoted to ethical, legal, social and policy challenges at the intersection of the brain sciences and biomedical ethics. She has made groundbreaking contributions to neuroethical thinking for neuroscience discovery and clinical translation across the life span, and to entrepreneurship and the commercialization of health care.  Dr. Illes has held many leadership positions. She serves as Chair of the International Brain Initiative, co-Lead of the Canadian Brain Research Strategy, expert consultant to UNESCO and WHO on the ethics of neurotechnology, as the expert advisor to EuroBioImaging, and as a member of the Ethics, Law and Humanities Committee of the American Academy of Neurology. Most recently, she became Vice Chair of the newly incorporated Bioethics Council for Canada. She held the Canada Research Chair in Neuroethics from 2007 to 2021. In 2017, Dr. Illes was awarded the Order of Canada, the country’s highest recognition of its citizens. Neuroethics Canada University of British Columbia

Michelle N. Meyer, PhD, JD, HEC-C, is the Chief Bioethics Officer at Geisinger, an integrated, nonprofit health system in Pennsylvania, and associate professor and Chair of the Department of Bioethics and Decision Sciences at Geisinger College of Health Sciences. In addition to conducting normative ethics scholarship and empirical legal research, she uses survey experiments and qualitative methods of investigating judgments and decision-making related to science, innovation, and health. She is also faculty codirector of Geisinger’s Behavioral Insights Team, which designs, implements, and uses large field experiments to rigorously evaluate behavioral science-informed provider and patient-facing interventions that aim to make healthy choices easier. Her work has appeared in leading journals of bioethics, law, science, and medicine, as well as in the New York Times, Slate, Wired, and the Los Angeles Times. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the National Science Foundation, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Roybal Center for Behavior Change in Health, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and covered by Science, The Economist, and many other leading media outlets around the world. Michelle N. Meyer – About

Stuart Rennie, PhD, is a professor in social medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine Center of Bioethics. His current work focuses on research ethics, public health ethics, and medical ethics, particularly in the context of the developing world. He was co-principal investigator of two National Institutes of Health/Fogarty International Center bioethics educational projects, in the Central Francophone Africa (Building Bioethics Capacity and Justice in Health) and South Africa (Advancing Research Ethics in Southern Africa). He was also co-principal investigator of a NIH-funded research project on the social and ethical implications of HIV cure research and is part of the ethics program of UNC’s Center for AIDS Research. He is currently co-principal investigator of two NIH-funded collaborative projects with Stellenbosch University in South Africa: a PhD program in research ethics and a project entitled Research for Ethical Data Science in sub-Saharan Africa. With support of the NIH and in collaboration with the Pacific Institute of Research and Evaluation, he has conducted research on the responsible conduct of HIV-related research among adolescents in western Kenya. Stuart Rennie | UNC Center for Bioethics

Charmaine DM Royal, PhD, is the Robert O. Keohane Professor of African & African American Studies, Biology, Global Health, and Family Medicine & Community Health at Duke University. She is also a senior fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics and a faculty associate at the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History of Medicine. She directs the Duke Center on Genomics, Race, Identity, Difference and the Duke Center for Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation. She is a human geneticist and bioethicist whose global research and scholarly pursuits span ethical, social, scientific, clinical, and policy implications of human genetics and genomics. She focuses primarily on issues at the intersection of genetics and “race,” with a twofold goal of 1) dispelling notions of the validity of biological human races and racial hierarchies and 2) dismantling intellectual and institutional structures that are based on those false notions. Her empirical and normative work has been published in a wide range of journals covering the life sciences, medicine, social sciences, and humanities. She has served on numerous national and international advisory boards and committees for government agencies, professional organizations, research initiatives, not-for-profit entities, and   corporations. 

Jason L. Schwartz, PhD, MBE, is an associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Yale School of Public Health and the Section of the History of Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine. His research examines vaccines and vaccination policy, decision-making in medical regulation and public health policy, and the structure and function of scientific expert advice to the government. The overall focus of his work is on the ways in which evidence is translated into regulation and policy in medicine and public health and the role of values and value judgments in those activities. His research has been published in leading journals of medicine, health policy, public health, bioethics, and related fields. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he served as an advisor to the State of Connecticut, colleges and universities, K-12 schools, and other organizations regarding their Covid policies. His research, analysis, and perspectives have been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post,CNN, NPR, BBC, and elsewhere.

Margaret “Gretchen” Schwarze, MD, MPP, is the Morgridge Professor of Vascular Surgery and a professor in the Departments of Surgery and Medical History and Bioethics at the University of Wisconsin. She is a practicing vascular surgeon and health services researcher who also directs the hospital ethics committee. Her research interests focus on informed consent, high-stakes decisions, and end-of-life care for older patients with complex illnesses. With her research, she aims to improve communication between older patients and their surgeons so that patients can avoid unwanted treatment and make decisions that align with their values, preferences, and goals. She is an alumna of the Greenwall Faculty Scholar and the Cambia Foundation Sojourns Scholar programs.  She is currently funded by the National Institute on Aging. 

Holly Tabor, PhD, is the Director of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics. She is a professor in the Department of Medicine at Stanford University and by courtesy with the Departments of Pediatrics and Epidemiology and Population Health. She is a globally recognized expert on the ethical issues surrounding health care and research for patients with disabilities, especially intellectual and developmental disability, and on the ethical, legal, and social issues in genetics. Her research has shed light on the benefits and risks of participating in genomic research, particularly of rare and undiagnosed diseases. She is editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Bioethical Empirical Research. In 2022, she received the Stanford School of Medicine Henry J. Kaiser Award for Excellence in Preclinical Teaching and the Stanford Faculty Women’s Forum Allyship Award, specifically for her advocacy for trainees and faculty with disabilities. https://med.stanford.edu/profiles/holly-tabor

Katie Watson, JD, is a professor at the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, teaching medical ethics, humanities, and law to medical students and students in the master’s program in medical humanities and bioethics. Before becoming an academic she clerked in the federal judiciary, worked as an appellate public defender for death row inmates, practiced poverty law at Legal Aid of Chicago, and practiced health law at the firm of Ross & Hardies. In 2017-2018, she left the Feinberg School of Medicine faculty part-time to serve as senior counsel for the ACLU-IL Women’s and Reproductive Rights project. In bioethics Watson is best known for her scholarship in abortion ethics, practice, and law. She is the author of Scarlet A: The Ethics, Law, and Politics of Ordinary Abortion (Oxford University Press, 2018). Her articles on these topics have appeared in publications including JAMA, the New England Journal of Medicine, the Lancet, the American Journal of Bioethics (AJOB), and The New Yorker, and when abortion is in the news she is regularly interviewed and quoted in media outlets including CNN, the Washington Post, and the New York Times. She has been a member of the Northwestern Memorial Hospital Ethics Committee for over 15 years, and she is currently a Board member of the Midwest Access Coalition and a member of the ethics committee of the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO). Katherine L Watson: Faculty Profiles: Feinberg School of Medicine