WelcomeI am an assistant professor in the Department of Medical Humanities and Bioethics with a secondary appointment in Psychiatry at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
I also serve as a clinical ethicist for the UAMS Health system and Arkansas Children's. |
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About Me
I joined UAMS in July 2017, shortly after receiving my Ph.D. in philosophy from Georgetown University. I became Healthcare Ethics Consultant-Certified (HEC-C) in 2020. My professional role has four different dimensions: clinical responsibilities, teaching, scholarship, and service.
My clinical work primarily consists of rounding throughout the hospitals, offering ethics education to different clinical groups and units, providing 24/7 ethics consultation on an individual model, developing and revising policies, contributing to ethical climate, and leading QI/QA and data collection projects for the ethics service. I participate on the ethics committees at both hospitals, and I am the Chair of the UAMS Medical Ethics Advisory Committee Policy Subcommittee. As a consulting clinical ethicist, I work collaboratively to find ethically supportable resolutions in cases as diverse as those dealing with end of life decisions, complex pregnancies, code status, and religious objections to treatment, among others. (See more under Ethics Consultation.)
I am passionate about teaching bioethics with undergraduates, graduate students, students across the health professions, and clinicians. I have been the Course Director for Genetic Counseling Ethics (master's degree requirement), Caring for Vulnerable Patients (a new elective for fourth-year medical students), Death & Dying (elective for fourth-year medical students and third-year pharmacy students), and Physician Assistant Medical Ethics (PA degree requirement, co-director with Dr. Jamie Carlin Watson). I am an invited lecturer for several other courses around our interdisciplinary campus. (See more under Teaching.)
My research focuses on psychiatric ethics, disability bioethics, vulnerability in clinical settings, the interaction between institutional structures and autonomous agency, and quality standards in ethics consultation. In 2020, I contributed to numerous projects related to COVID-19, including national guidelines through the Hastings Center. I co-authored Basics of Bioethics, Fourth Edition (Routledge, 2020) with my teacher and mentor, Robert M. Veatch. I co-edited Moral Expertise: New Essays from Theoretical and Clinical Bioethics (Springer, 2018) with Jamie Carlin Watson and Applying Nonideal Theory to Bioethics: Living and Dying in a Nonideal World (Springer, 2021) with Elizabeth Victor. I have articles in Hastings Center Report, Journal of Medical Ethics, Nursing Ethics, Journal of Clinical Ethics, Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics, AMA Journal of Ethics, and others. (See more under Research).
As part of my service to the university, I am a reviewer on the UAMS Institutional Review Board. I am also proud to be a member of the Strategy Council for the UAMS Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, a leader for their LGTBQ+ Subcommittee Education Focus Group, and an educator for their Academy of Inclusive Excellence. I am a co-founder and co-chair for the Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Affinity Group of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, and I serve on the ASBH Conference Program Committee.
Outside of work, I love spending time with my dogs and partner, reading fiction, attending the theatre, and traveling. The header of each page of this website includes photography from my travels.
My clinical work primarily consists of rounding throughout the hospitals, offering ethics education to different clinical groups and units, providing 24/7 ethics consultation on an individual model, developing and revising policies, contributing to ethical climate, and leading QI/QA and data collection projects for the ethics service. I participate on the ethics committees at both hospitals, and I am the Chair of the UAMS Medical Ethics Advisory Committee Policy Subcommittee. As a consulting clinical ethicist, I work collaboratively to find ethically supportable resolutions in cases as diverse as those dealing with end of life decisions, complex pregnancies, code status, and religious objections to treatment, among others. (See more under Ethics Consultation.)
I am passionate about teaching bioethics with undergraduates, graduate students, students across the health professions, and clinicians. I have been the Course Director for Genetic Counseling Ethics (master's degree requirement), Caring for Vulnerable Patients (a new elective for fourth-year medical students), Death & Dying (elective for fourth-year medical students and third-year pharmacy students), and Physician Assistant Medical Ethics (PA degree requirement, co-director with Dr. Jamie Carlin Watson). I am an invited lecturer for several other courses around our interdisciplinary campus. (See more under Teaching.)
My research focuses on psychiatric ethics, disability bioethics, vulnerability in clinical settings, the interaction between institutional structures and autonomous agency, and quality standards in ethics consultation. In 2020, I contributed to numerous projects related to COVID-19, including national guidelines through the Hastings Center. I co-authored Basics of Bioethics, Fourth Edition (Routledge, 2020) with my teacher and mentor, Robert M. Veatch. I co-edited Moral Expertise: New Essays from Theoretical and Clinical Bioethics (Springer, 2018) with Jamie Carlin Watson and Applying Nonideal Theory to Bioethics: Living and Dying in a Nonideal World (Springer, 2021) with Elizabeth Victor. I have articles in Hastings Center Report, Journal of Medical Ethics, Nursing Ethics, Journal of Clinical Ethics, Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics, AMA Journal of Ethics, and others. (See more under Research).
As part of my service to the university, I am a reviewer on the UAMS Institutional Review Board. I am also proud to be a member of the Strategy Council for the UAMS Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, a leader for their LGTBQ+ Subcommittee Education Focus Group, and an educator for their Academy of Inclusive Excellence. I am a co-founder and co-chair for the Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Affinity Group of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, and I serve on the ASBH Conference Program Committee.
Outside of work, I love spending time with my dogs and partner, reading fiction, attending the theatre, and traveling. The header of each page of this website includes photography from my travels.