Speakers

SEAN AAS, PhD

Dr. Aas is a Senior Research Scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics and an Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at Georgetown.His primary areas of research are bioethics, metaethics, and social and political philosophy, with a significant focus on issues of disability: disability as social construct, disability and political egalitarianism, disability and health. These interests tie to broader projects: on the construction of social facts; the grounds of egalitarian justice; and the import of diverse embodiment for health care ethics and health policy. Dr. Aas earned a PhD in philosophy from Brown University in 2013, and served as a Fellow at the Justitia Amplificata Project at Goethe University in Frankfurt and a Fellow at the Department of Clinical Bioethics in the Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda prior to joining the Kennedy Institute of Ethics.

“Disability & the Definition of Health”– Monday, June 3 at 2:45 pm

ANTHONY FAUCI, MD

On July 1, 2023 Dr. Fauci was appointed Distinguished University Professor in Georgetown University’s School of Medicine’s Department of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases, an academic division that provides clinical care, conducts research and trains future physicians in infectious diseases. He holds an additional appointment in the university’s McCourt School of Public Policy. Dr. Fauci most recently served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the National Institutes Of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, where he oversaw an extensive research portfolio of basic and applied research to prevent, diagnose, and treat established infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, respiratory infections, diarrheal diseases, tuberculosis, and malaria as well as emerging diseases such as Ebola, Zika and COVID-19. He also led the NIAID research effort on transplantation and immune-related illnesses, including autoimmune disorders, asthma, and allergies.

Dr. Fauci advised seven Presidents on HIV/AIDS and many other domestic and global health issues. He was one of the principal architects of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a program that has saved more than 20 million lives throughout the developing world. He was a key advisor to seven presidents and their administrations on global HIV/AIDS issues, and on initiatives to bolster medical and public health preparedness against emerging infectious disease threats such as pandemic influenza and COVID-19.  As an HIV/AIDS researcher he was involved in the scientific effort since AIDS was recognized in 1981, conducting pivotal studies that underpin the current understanding of the disease and efforts to develop therapies and tools of prevention.  

Dr. Fauci is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society, as well as other professional societies including the American College of Physicians, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American Association of Immunologists, and the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. He serves on the editorial boards of many scientific journals and as an author, coauthor, or editor of more than 1,400 scientific publications, including several textbooks.

“Pandemic Preparedness: Lessons from COVID-19” — Wednesday, June 5 at 9:00 am

JAMES GIORDANO, PhD, MPhil

James  Giordano, PhD, MPhil, is Chief of the Neuroethics Studies Program, Scholar-in-Residence, leads the Sub-Program in Military Medical Ethics, and Co-director of the O’Neill-Pellegrino Program in Brain Science and Global Health Law and Policy in the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics; and is Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Biochemistry at Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA.  He is also Distinguished Visiting Professor of Brain Science, Health Promotions and Ethics at the Coburg University of Applied Sciences, Coburg, Germany, and was formerly 2011-2012 JW Fulbright Foundation Visiting Professor of Neurosciences and Neuroethics at the Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany.

Prof. Giordano currently serves as Chair of the Neuroethics Program of the IEEE Brain Project, and an appointed member of the Neuroethics, Legal and Social Issues (NELSI) Advisory Panel of the Defense Advanced Research Projects’ Agency (DARPA). He has previously served as Research Fellow and Task Leader of the EU Human Brain Project Sub-Project on Dual-Use Brain Science; an appointed member of United States Department of Health and Human Services Secretary’s Advisory Council on Human Research Protections (SACHRP); and as Senior Science Advisory Fellow of the Strategic Multilayer Assessment Branch of the Joint Staff of the Pentagon.

 The author of over 290 publications in neuroscience and neuroethics, 7 books, and 15 government whitepapers on neurotechnology, ethics and biosecurity, he is an Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Philosophy, Ethics and Humanities in Medicine;  Associate Editor of the Cambridge Quarterly of Health Care Ethics; and Contributing Editor of Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 

His ongoing research addresses the neurobiological bases of neuropsychiatric spectrum disorders; and neuroethical issues arising in and from the development, use and misuse of neuroscientific techniques and neurotechnologies in medicine, public life, global health, and military applications. 

 In recognition of his work, he was elected to membership in the European Academy of Science and Arts; named an Overseas Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine (UK); received City University of New York’s Outstanding Alumnus Award; Coburg University’s Gold Medal for Distinguished Achievement, and was awarded Germany’s Klaus Reichert Prize in Medicine and Philosophy.

“Complicated Neuroethics Consultation” — Panel on Tuesday, June 4 at 2:00 pm

JOHN KEOWN, DPhil, PhD, DCL

Dr. Keown is a Senior Research Scholar in the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University, where he holds the Rose F Kennedy Chair in Christian Ethics. He was previously University Senior Lecturer in the Law and Ethics of Medicine in the Faculty of Law at the University of Cambridge. He has produced seven books and many articles, mainly on law and ethics at the beginning and end of life. His research has been cited by distinguished bodies worldwide, including the United States Supreme Court and the Law Lords.

Introduction and Welcome — Monday, June 3 at 9:45 am

MAGGIE LITTLE, BPhil, PhD

Dr. Little is a Senior Research Scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, and Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown. Widely published, a Rhodes Scholar and fellow of the Hastings Center, she has twice served as Visiting Scholar in residence at the National Institutes of Health Department of Bioethics, and was appointed to the Ethics Committee of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Among her other projects, she has co-founded The Second Wave Initiative, which works to promote responsible research into the health needs of pregnant women, launched the KIE’s Introduction to Bioethics MOOC (new window) in April 2014. She is founder and director of Ethics Lab (new window), a unique team of Philosophers and Designers at Georgetown University that develops new methods to help people build ethical frameworks to better address real-world problems.

“Data Ethics & Health Informatics” — Wednesday, June 5 at 2:45 pm

DAVID G. MILLER, PhD

David G. Miller is the Associate Director for Academic Programs and Administrator for the Center for Clinical Bioethics at the Georgetown University Medical Center, where he co-directs the bioethics courses for first- and second-year medical students and the Certificate and MA Program in Catholic Clinical Ethics (CACE). He served as a senior research analyst for both President Obama’s Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues and President Bush’s President’s Council on Bioethics. The philosophy courses he taught most recently at Georgetown are Philosophy of Medicine (with Dr. Pellegrino) and Bioethics and Public Policy. Current issues in bioethics that interest him most include conscience/refusal clauses, health care reform, and professionalism and bioethics education in medical schools.

“Healthcare Funding and Bioethics: Dr. Pellegrino’s Unfinished Legacy”– Tuesday, June 4 at 10:00 am

JOEL MICHAEL REYNOLDS, PhD

Joel Michael Reynolds, PhD, MA, is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Disability Studies at Georgetown University, Senior Research Scholar in the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Senior Bioethics Advisor to and Fellow of The Hastings Center, Faculty Scholar of The Greenwall Foundation, Faculty Fellow of Georgetown’s Ethics Lab, and core faculty in Georgetown’s Disability Studies Program. They are the founder of The Journal of Philosophy of Disability and co-founder of Oxford Studies in Disability, Ethics, and Society from Oxford University Press, both of which they co-edit. Dr. Reynolds is the author or co-author of over fifty journal articles, book chapters, and scholarly commentaries in outlets such as The New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Biotechnology, The Journal of Medical Ethics, The American Journal of Bioethics, Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, The Hastings Center Report, and Biological Psychiatry. They are also author or co-editor of five books, including The Life Worth Living: Disability, Pain, and Morality (University of Minnesota Press) and The Disability Bioethics Reader (Routledge), both of which came out this year, as well as The Meaning of Disability (Oxford University Press) and Philosophy of Disability: An Introduction (Polity), both of which are forthcoming in 2024. Current research includes a multi-year, externally funded project from The Greenwall Foundation on the relationship between disability concepts and quality of life assessments as well as a trade book on the history and promise of bioethics currently entitled Never Again: How Bioethics Can Save Humanity From Itself. 

“Quality of Life”– Wednesday, June 5 at 2:00 pm

ALLEN H. ROBERTS II, MD, MDiv, FCCP, FACP

Allen H. Roberts II is originally from Alexandria, Va. After graduating from EHS, He took his B.A. from the University of  Virginia in 1977 and his M.D. from George Washington University in 1983. He completed his M.Div. at Reformed Theological Seminary in 2013, and his M.A. in Bioethics at Trinity International University in 2017.During his fellowship in Critical Care Medicine in 1992, Allen met Afsoon, who now practices Infectious Disease Medicine at George Washington University. They have two daughters.In 2003 Allen retired from the US Navy Medical Corps, after a 20-year career in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary and Critical Care, during which time he served as White House Physician under President George H.W. Bush. For the past 20 years he has practiced Critical Care Medicine at Georgetown University Hospital, where he now serves as the Physician Executive Director for Inpatient Operations, Associate Medical Director for the hospital, and Chair of the Clinical Ethics Committee. Allen is a Professor of Clinical Medicine and Affiliate Scholar at the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics, both at Georgetown, and serves on the Ethics Committee of the Christian Medical and Dental Association

“Life Sustaining Treatment & ICU Consults” — Panel on Tuesday, June 4 at 2:00 pm

MYLES N. SHEEHAN, SJ, MD

Dr. Sheehan is a Jesuit priest, physician, and  lecturer in the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics. Trained in Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, he practiced in these fields and served until 2009 as the Senior Associate Dean at Loyola University Chicago’s Stritch School of Medicine and the Ralph P. Leischner Professor and Chair of the Leischner Institute for Medical Education. From 2009 to 2014 Fr. Sheehan was the Provincial for the New England Province of the Society of Jesus and from 2015 to currently he serves as the Provincial Delegate for Senior Jesuits for the Maryland and USA Northeast Provinces of the Society of Jesus. His interests include end of life care, care of older persons, spirituality in healthcare, and medical education.

“The Internal Morality of Medicine: Vital Concept or Quaint Relic?” — Tuesday, June 4 at 9:00 am

CLAUDIA RUIZ SOTOMAYOR, MD, DBe

Dr. Claudia Sotomayor is Chief of the Clinical Ethics Consultation service of the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics, a Cura Personalis Fellow, and an Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine at GUMC. She holds a Medical Degree from Universidad Autonoma de Chihuahua, in Chihuahua, Mexico, and a Doctorate in Bioethics from Loyola University in Chicago, Il, USA. Claudia also completed a fellowship in Clinical Bioethics at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. (USA). She has been a Research Scholar for UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights since 2012, where she has worked in the area of Multiculturalism, Bioethics and Religion. She is member of the Theology and Ethics Advisory Council of the Catholic Healthcare Association (CHA), and member of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH). She is particularly interested in the intersection between values, cultures,
religions, and the decision-making process in a healthcare setting.

“The Process of Consultation” — Panel on Tuesday, June 4 at 2:00 pm

KAREN STOHR, PhD

Dr. Stohr is the Ryan Family Professor of Metaphysics and Moral Philosophy and a Senior Research Scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics. Her primary research area is ethics, and her publications cover topics such as practical wisdom, moral imagination, beneficence, friendship, social conventions regarding disability, and the moral aims of dinner parties. Dr. Stohr is the author of three books and a number of articles. Her first book, On Manners (Routledge, 2011) is a defense of the moral importance of manners. In her second book, Minding the Gap: Moral Ideals and Moral Improvement (Oxford University Press, 2019), she focuses on the task of individual and community moral improvement and the role of social practices in facilitating it. Her third book, Choosing Freedom: A Kantian Guide to Life (forthcoming from Oxford University Press in January 2022) is a reader-friendly exploration of Immanuel Kant’s ethical theory, emphasizing its practical applications in everyday life.

Dr. Stohr’s writing has appeared in the New York Times and other newspapers. With Dr. Sulmasy, she has written columns for the Washingtonian magazine’s “Ask a Coronavirus Ethicist” feature. She has been a guest on a variety of radio shows and podcasts, including the Kojo Nnamdi Show and Philosophy Talk. Within bioethics, Dr. Stohr is particularly interested in how social conventions structure our interactions, both in medical care and in related contexts. In her paper, “Pretending Not to Notice: Respect, Attention and Disability” (Disability in Practice: Attitudes, Policies, and Relationships, Oxford, 2018), she explores conventions of noticing and pretending not to notice as they pertain to social exchanges involving people with disabilities. She is also working on several projects about beneficence and friendship in the context of serious illness and death—how we aid and accompany our friends and family members through challenging and potentially traumatic health care situations. Her paper, “Aristotelian Friendship and Ignatian Companionship” (Spirituality and the Good Life: Philosophical Approaches, Cambridge University Press, 2021) explores the moral demands of friendship in such circumstances and argues that the Ignatian spiritual tradition has important insights into how we can best meet those demands.  

Dr. Stohr routinely teaches introductory ethics courses in which she emphasizes the value of ethical reflection for everyday decision-making. For the past decade, she has been deeply involved with the Engelhard Project for Connecting Life and Learning. In those courses, she collaborates with mental health professionals on topics relevant to both the course material and the immediate well-being of students. Engelhard topics in her courses have included the following: the use of Adderall as a study aid; the challenge of preventing sexual assault on college campuses; alcohol abuse; inclusion and exclusion in campus social life. Dr. Stohr holds a B.A. in government and philosophy from the University of Notre Dame, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“Beneficence” — Monday, June 3 at 2:00 pm

WILLIAM F. SULLIVAN, MD, PhD

Dr. William F. Sullivan serves as the Joseph P. Kennedy Senior Chair in Bioethics, Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University. He brings to this position qualifications and experience in family medicine and a Ph.D. in Philosophy (Bioethics). Prior to this appointment, he was Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. His clinical and academic work integrates ethics and primary health care of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). He is also interested in developing methods for effective collaborative research on complex ethical and clinical questions.

“Addressing Ethical Vulnerability: A Method for Supporting Clinical and Public Healthcare Deciding and Doing” — Wednesday, June 5 at 10:00 am

DANIEL P. SULMASY, MD, PhD

Daniel P. Sulmasy, MD, PhD is the André Hellegers Professor of Biomedical Ethics in the Departments of Medicine and Philosophy and serves as Director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University. He is a faculty member of the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics. A practicing internist and a philosopher, he is Editor of the journal Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, and has written extensively on many topics in bioethics, especially regarding care at the end of life. His seven books include Methods in Medical Ethics, The Rebirth of the Clinic, and Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia: Before, During, and After the Holocaust.

“Autonomy” — Monday, June 3 at 10:00 am

RESEARCH SPECIALISTS

Make sure to visit our Bioethics Research Library for a one-on-one research consultation with one of our specialists if you’ve got a project or topic in mind! Home to more than 100,000 pieces of print and audiovisual materials, the Library is the world’s largest collection of scholarly bioethics materials in the world. Meet the specialists who’ll be ready to work with you at this year’s IBC below.

ROXIE FRANCE-NURIDDIN, BA

Ms. France-Nuriddin is the Collection Curator for English language resources for the Islamic Medical and Scientific Ethics (new window) collection and database, a joint project of the Bioethics Research Library and the Georgetown School of Foreign Service Library in Qatar. She joined the KIE with more than fifteen years experience as an editorial project manager and researcher for a popular scholarly press.

MEET MS. FRANCE-NURIDDIN »

PATRICIA MARTIN, MA