Andrew is originally from Grand Rapids, Michigan, and attended medical school at Loma Linda University where he completed whole person care training. He is a US Army general surgery resident at the University of Chicago. While he is undecided for fellowship training, he is very decided that he loves hiking, running, and drinking tea over a good book.

Catherine grew up in the Chicago area and is very excited to be back. When not at work she enjoys hanging out with her family and friends, spending an excessive amount of time leisurely reading, and playing in a community concert band. A clinical neonatologist and assistant professor of pediatrics, Catherine’s research interests include ethics, end-of-life care, and bereavement.

Vivien is a neurology resident at the University of Chicago. She is from California and will be returning  to the Bay Area for neuro-oncology fellowship next year.

Hannah is a transplant hepatology fellow at the University of Chicago. A Hyde Park native, she studied anthropology at Vassar College and lived abroad prior to deciding to pursue a career in medicine. She returned to Hyde Park to complete medical school at Pritzker and stayed on at University of Chicago for Internal Medicine residency as well as Gastroenterology fellowship. She is interested in the ethics of liver transplant, the global transplant landscape and the ethics of international travel for transplant.

Jacob is a fourth-year pediatric resident in the medical educational scholarship track at the University of Chicago. He is simultaneously obtaining his Master of Health Professions Education at the University of Illinois Chicago. His academic interest is in studying the application of restorative justice practices in medical education. After finishing residency, Jacob will apply for a pediatric emergency medicine fellowship position.

Scott J. Schweikart, JD, MBE is a Senior Policy Analyst at the American Medical Association (AMA) in Chicago, where he works for the AMA’s Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs (CEJA), the body charged with writing and updating the AMA Code of Medical Ethics. Scott provides research support for CEJA’s work by contributing detailed research analysis, written policy reports, and analytical memoranda. He also reviews and provides analysis to the AMA’s Litigation Center for any bioethical issues that arise in their amicus briefs. Scott is also the Contributing Editor of the AMA Journal of Ethics, where he writes articles related to law and bioethics and edits legally-oriented journal submissions. Before joining the AMA, Scott worked at Thomson Reuters (Westlaw) where he was an attorney editor and reference attorney. He has research interests in health law, health policy, and legal aspects of bioethics. Scott earned his Master of Bioethics (MBE) from the University of Pennsylvania, his JD from Case Western Reserve University, and his BA from Washington University in St. Louis.

Tara spent the first 26 years after medical school practicing emergency medicine and loved it. However, for many years she felt herself drawn to the practice of hospice and palliative medicine which resulted in completing her fellowship in 2020. Tara has since practiced palliative care in a hospital setting.

Conrad is currently a consultation-liaison psychiatry fellow at the University of Chicago Medical Center. He completed his undergraduate career at Loyola University Chicago with a major in molecular biology and a minor in chemistry. He then went on to medical school at Loyola Stritch-School of Medicine, where he pursued a global health emphasis to his medical education, graduating with Global Health Honors. Conrad then went on to complete his psychiatry residency at Loyola University Medical Center, where he served as chief resident and was involved in various research projects exploring catatonia and delirium. His current academic interests include the exploration of neuropsychiatric disorders, enactment of the Collaborative/Transitional Care Model in psychiatry, and the intersection between psychiatry and medical ethics in capacity evaluations of those with severe mental illness.

Joe is a fellow in endocrine surgery at the University of Chicago. Originally from Canada, he studied poetry and philosophy before becoming a general surgeon. He is interested in the aesthetic experience in surgery, and the ways in which abstract thinking in the humanities can benefit the practice of medicine.

Hanna is originally from Iowa and attended the University of Chicago for medical school. After a brief stint in Boston for residency, she is happy to back in her favorite city for pulmonary and critical care fellowship. Outside of medicine, she enjoys cooking, trying new restaurants, and hiking.

Jocelyn is originally from the Washington, DC area, and came to the University of Chicago for medical school and residency in OB/GYN. She is currently completing a two-year fellowship in Complex Family Planning.

Joy is originally from London, United Kingdom. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Chicago. After obtaining her BA, she returned to the UK to obtain a graduate degree and briefly worked as a research statistician in the UK. She completed her medical degree at Tulane University, where she further developed an interest in general surgery and healthcare disparities. She is a General Surgery resident at New York Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital,  and is currently completing a Pediatric ECMO fellowship at The University of Chicago. Joy‘s current academic interests focus on our understanding and application of ethical principles across cross-cultural divides and within marginalized communities. 

Kathryn is a pediatric surgeon who serves as a professor of surgery at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, section chief of pediatric surgery at Carilion Children’s Hospital, and medical director of pediatric trauma in the Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center.

With knowledge and experience gained through the MacLean Fellowship, Kathryn aims to provide a pediatric ethics consultation service back at her hospital. She is interested in supporting medical teams in their delivery of care to the critically ill through evidence-based ethical inquiry and impacting moral distress amongst her hospital’s medical teams through providing deeper understanding of ethical practices. And, in bringing this knowledge to her professorship, Kathryn hopes to teach medical humanism and ethics to medical students and residents.

Kylie is currently a general surgery resident and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) Fellow at the University of Chicago Medicine. Originally from Houston, Texas, she loves all sports and her pets (one dog and two cats). Kylie is working towards becoming a pediatric surgeon.

Through the MacLean fellowship, she hopes to gain the tools to tackle ethical dilemmas in her career. Kylie is particularly interested in topics related to pediatric trauma and pediatric ECMO.

Kirsten is an assistant professor at Rush University Medical Center. In 2022, she completed her postdoctoral research fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. Prior to this, she earned her PhD at Rush University, MSN at Saint Xavier University, RN at Yale University, and AM at the University of Chicago. Kirsten’s program of research utilizes community-engaged participatory approaches towards the optimized delivery of trauma-focused services with and for populations experiencing homelessness and in correctional settings. She utilizes mixed analytic approaches to her work, focusing on centralizing the voices and perspectives of stakeholders.

Through the MacLean Center Fellowship, Kirsten aims to explore the ethics of community-engaged participatory research delivery with disinvested, trauma-affected populations, in addition to the principle of justice in designing and implementing community-based services within existing health service models. Furthermore, Kirsten hopes to apply research ethics while engaging peers with lived expertise of trauma, homelessness, and incarceration as research leaders.

Andrea grew up in North Carolina and went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) for undergrad, studying biology, psychology, and English. She then worked as a clinical researcher for a few years before moving to New York for medical school. Andrea is currently a general surgery resident at the University of Chicago Medicine with an interest in specializing in transplant surgery.

Andrea has taken an interest in medical ethics since she was a medical student. Her interests in ethics pertain to the allocation of scarce resources, shared decision making, and equitable access to care in transplant medicine.

A clinical oncologist by training, Achille is drawn to the field of cancer genetics to learn more about the inherited risk of cancers in early onset of cancers in Africa. His passion stems from a personal, immediate family history and the stories he encounters daily in his clinic. Achille is currently enrolled in a research year at the University of Chicago, to learn clinical medical ethics and to hone his laboratory skills.

Through the MacLean Fellowship, Achille is interested in answering the growing conundrum around the governance, consenting, and data ownership in cancer genomic biobanks in Africa through a consensus-based framework.

Kimberly works as a nurse practitioner in palliative care medicine at the University of Chicago Medical Center. She has been a nurse for 21 years, with a 13-year stint in orthopaedic surgery before switching to palliative care. At home, she has a dog named John Henry and two cats, Chelsea and Buttercup.

During her time in the MacLean Center Fellowship, Kimberly is interested in exploring the role that race, age, and gender play in goals of care/end-of-life discussions for adult trauma victims.

Gautham is a gastroenterologist and hepatologist at the University of Chicago, where he serves as the associate section chief for the Section of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition. His primary research interests are in the development of novel therapeutics for rare liver conditions and in medical education.

Gautham’s interests in ethics include exploring workforce shortages and ethical concerns in liver transplantation.

Saajidha is currently a neonatology fellow at the University of Chicago Medicine. After completing medical school in Indiana and pediatrics residency training in Central Illinois, she is excited to be back in her hometown and the greatest city — Chicago. Saajidha is passionate about investigating and addressing health inequities as it relates to pediatrics, and focuses her fellowship research on understanding the experiences of birthing and non-birthing parents in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Outside the hospital, Saajidha enjoys traveling internationally, biking the lake front, and trying new cuisines throughout the city and world.

As a NICU fellow, Saajidha often encounters very ethically challenging scenarios that the medical team tries to navigate with families. Through the MacLean Fellowship, she hopes to gain the principles and expertise to identify and address these scenarios in a humanistic and structured way. Saajidha is most interested in investigating health inequities among the families they serve in the NICU.

Katherin is currently a consultation-liaison psychiatry fellow at the University of Chicago Medical Center. She is originally from Brooklyn, New York, but spent part of her childhood in Poland. She received her bachelor’s degree from Rice University in Houston, Texas, majoring in psychology and cognitive science. Between college and medical school, Katherin worked as a research coordinator at the Columbia University Department of Psychiatry, studying mood disorders and suicide. She received her medical degree from the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine in North Haven, Connecticut, and went on to complete a general adult psychiatry residency at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, where she served as the chief of consultation-liaison and emergency psychiatry services. She is currently pursuing her consultation-liaison psychiatry fellowship at the University of Chicago. Katherin’s academic interests include the neurobiology of suicide and the bioethics of end-of-life care in patients with a history of suicidality.

Katherin’s intended career path involves consultation-liaison psychiatry work in the acute hospital setting where ethical challenges are woven into the fabric of day-to-day responsibilities. Through the MacLean Fellowship, she aims to learn to skillfully navigate these challenges in a way that does justice to her patients, and greatly enriches the educational experience of her consult-liaison psychiatry fellowship. As part of this fellowship, Katherin is interested in exploring the ethical dilemmas that arise in end-of-life decision making for patients who express suicidal ideation or have a history of suicidal behaviors.

Leah grew up in Massachusetts and attended Northeastern University for her undergraduate degree. She then moved to Chicago to attend medical school at the University of Chicago. This year, Leah is applying to residency in OB/GYN. In her free time, Leah enjoys swimming in the lake and ballet.

Leah’s goal is to become a reproductive endocrinologist, so, through the MacLean Fellowship, she is hoping to delve into fertility ethics. Leah is specifically interested in family balancing in IVF and incentives for egg donations.

Heather is a research assistant professor in the Department of Radiology at the University of Chicago. Heather received a Master of Science in medical physics from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and Master of Science and PhD in physics from Vanderbilt University. While at Vanderbilt, she trained and conducted research at the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science with John Gore as her advisor, and additionally collaborated with faculty in the Department of Radiation Oncology. Before coming to the University of Chicago, Heather was a tenured professor of physics at a small liberal arts college, where she fostered an NIH-funded research program in medical physics in collaboration with faculty in radiology at the University of Chicago.

At the University of Chicago, she conducts research in computer-aided diagnosis of breast and ovarian cancer, focusing on the modalities of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound. Her primary areas of interest are in artificial intelligence and radiomics across the imaging and classification pipeline, from image acquisition to performance evaluation and data harmonization. Heather also conducts research and collaborates in the Medical Imaging and Data Resource Center (MIDRC). Within MIDRC she works on methods of task-based distributions, interoperability between data enclaves, and monitoring and studying the diversity and representativeness of the MIDRC data commons to foster research in AI and health disparities.

Heather’s research involves studying the potential of AI of medical imaging to identify and monitor health disparities, as well as investigating sources of bias all along the pipeline for AI of medical imaging, all towards the goal of developing tools to support clinical decision making. The MacLean Fellowship is a great opportunity to be both a learner and contributor as she learns more about clinical decision making and hopefully can contribute insights from using AI of medical imaging as a tool to help with ethical decision making.

Amanda is currently a general surgery resident at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She has previously completed a pediatric surgical critical care fellowship and is now doing pediatric surgery research at Children’s Hospital in Wisconsin.

Amanda has long had an interest in surgical ethics, especially as it relates to pediatric and critical care. Through the MacLean Fellowship, Amanda is hoping to expand on her current research, which focuses on decision making and quality of life in the setting of congenital anomalies.

Mary works as a neurology intensive care unit (ICU) registered nurse in the University of Chicago Medical Center. Outside of her work at the hospital, Mary loves to kayak, Peloton, and hang out with her dog, Winnie.

Mary was drawn to the MacLean Fellowship by her interest in end-of-life decision making as well as brain death testing.

Julia is a fourth-year general surgery resident at the University of Chicago Medical. 

Danielle is a nurse at the University of Chicago Medical. 

Marie is a general surgery resident at the University of Chicago. She is currently completing her second year of breast cancer research with Dr. Katharine Yao at NorthShore University HealthSystem.

Marie completed her ethics fellowship last year and is now a senior fellow at the MacLean Center. She is especially interested in the ethics of surgical decision making and health care disparities.

Collin received his BS in pharmaceutical sciences from Purdue University and his MD from Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University. He is completing his residency in combined internal medicine-pediatrics and will start his fellowship in palliative medicine at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Lurie Children’s this coming July. Academically, his interests include the intersection of virtue ethics and the medical field, and how the practice of virtue formation promotes flourishing, a sense of belonging, and character development. He is looking forward to an academic career practicing palliative medicine, with a focus on medical ethics and education.

Karlie graduated magna cum laude from Carleton College with a degree in environmental studies before attending the University of Michigan for medical school. She is currently in her fourth year of general surgery residency at the University of Wisconsin, working under the mentorship of former MacLean Fellow Gretchen Schwarze. Karlie’s research over the last two years has focused on shared decision making and informed consent. Next year, she is looking forward to returning to clinical duties and applying clinical medical ethics inside and outside of the operating room.

Originally from northeast Ohio, Rachael graduated from Miami University with a BA in biology. She attended Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine and is completing her pediatric residency this year at the University of Chicago. In the past year, her research focused on developing a simulation curriculum for care provider resilience and moral distress during pediatric acute trauma events. She will be attending fellowship for pediatric emergency medicine this coming year at University of California, San Francisco.

Lea completed medical school at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and is currently a general surgery resident at the University of Chicago as well as a current senior fellow of the MacLean Center. She will be returning to full-time clinical residency in July for her final two years of general surgery training and plans to apply for fellowship in trauma surgery and surgical critical care.

Jack completed his undergraduate training at Tufts University where he double-majored in biology and community health before graduating with distinction from Georgetown University School of Medicine as a Population Health Scholar. He continued on to a general surgery residency at the University of Chicago, where he is in his fourth year. Over the past year Jack has researched racial and socioeconomic disparities in physiologic frailty among thoracic surgery patients. He will be returning to his clinical training next year where he expects to use the tools gained from the MacLean ethics fellowship in guiding his clinical practice.

Karin is currently one of the chief residents of psychiatry at the University of Chicago. She went to the University of Michigan for her undergraduate degree and Loyola University Chicago for medical school. This past year, she has been pursuing research evaluating what factors may affect the ethical decision making of psychiatrists around involuntary psychiatric hospitalization by creating a validated instrument of clinical vignettes. Next year she will be attending University of California, San Francisco for a fellowship in addiction psychiatry. Her interests include addiction, community health, and psychotherapy.

Michael is a third-year internal medicine resident at the University of Chicago Medicine. 

Andy completed medical school at the University of Chicago in 2018. He is a rising PGY6 general surgery resident at the University of Michigan. He will be pursuing fellowship in complex abdominal transplant surgery upon completion of his residency in 2025. During his time in the MacLean fellowship, he has pursued research on moral distress among surgeons, shared decision making in the surgical intensive care unit (ICU), the acceptance of deceased kidney offers for patients with scheduled living donor operations, and the practice of non-citizen/non-resident liver transplantation in the United States.

Sarah is a fourth-year medicine/pediatrics resident at the University of Chicago Medicine. 

Nirali was born and raised in New Jersey. She graduated from Boston College with a double major in English literature and biology. She subsequently returned home to attend medical school at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. She is currently a fourth-year otolaryngology – head and neck surgery resident and is conducting research looking at medical decision making and ethics of pediatric tracheostomy. Following residency, she plans to pursue a fellowship in pediatric otolaryngology.

Hannes is a chief resident from the Section of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Chicago. He completed his medical studies at the University of Arizona and next year will be moving on to do a craniofacial surgery fellowship at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. His research this year focused on the ethical implications of palliative surgery with emphasis on decision making in complex head and neck reconstruction.

Manish is an assistant professor in the division of pediatric surgery, Associate Program Director of the Pediatric Surgery Fellowship program, and Director of Adolescent Bariatric Surgery at the University of Chicago Medicine.

Bharat has a PhD from Indiana University and has completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Notre Dame. He has also given presentations at conferences such as American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH), and currently has a Brooks Professorship at the University of Nebraska.

Michelle attended school at Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic campus, and trained in the combined pediatrics/medical genetics residency program at the Rainbow Babies & Children’s/University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center. In July, she is starting additional fellowship training at Akron Children’s Hospital for pediatric palliative care. Michelle plans on utilizing her formal ethics training as a fellow at Akron Children’s, and has already been offered a job to stay at Akron Children’s, combining her passions of pediatric palliative care, genetics, and ethics.  Michelle married Joe Littman on May 27, 2023.

Nicole is completing her fourth year of general adult psychiatry residency at the University of Chicago. Her current research projects have focused on QI improving resident well-being and psychiatry consult turnaround time, implementing an AgileMD pathway for decision making capacity guidance, and animal-assisted interventions to improve wellness in medical students. After graduation, she will join faculty at the University of Colorado as an attending psychiatrist in their inpatient psychiatric unit.

Ankur is a chief internal medicine resident at the University of Chicago Medicine. 

Mark attended Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine before moving on to a family medicine residency at MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn, Illinois. He furthered his education at the University of Chicago with a fellowship in palliative care, and has since worked at Swedish and Weiss Hospitals serving as a palliative care consultant while working for AccentCare as a hospice medical director. In the course of the ethics fellowship, he has pursued research in advance care planning (ACP), and the ethics of slow codes and full code patients enrolled in hospice. After finishing the fellowship, Mark will be continuing his work as a palliative care consultant while increasing his presence in the ethics committees of both Swedish Hospital and AccentCare hospice.

Faith is an assistant professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. More specifically, she is trained as a pediatric psychologist, and currently works as an implementation scientist in the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital where she leads the research for the Substance Use and Prevention Program. Her academic interests are focused on health equity and justice to center the values and needs of historically marginalized communities. She combines this perspective with organizational, implementation science, and bioethical frameworks to examine health inequities in relation to structural disenfranchisement.

Mary Acosta, MD, is a cardiology fellow at the University of Chicago. She previously received her Bachelor of Science from the University of Notre Dame before receiving her medical degree from the FAU Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine. After serving as chief resident during the 2022-2023 academic year, Mary plans to pursue further training in the field of cardiology. Her primary interests are in informed consent including the impact of language barriers as well as transplant organ allocation.

Mohannad Al-Tarakji, MD, CABS, is a general surgeon and clinical fellow in the Acute Care Surgery Department. He graduated from Damascus University and joined American University of Beirut for a surgical internship, then a surgical research fellowship. Mohannad joined Hamad Medical Corporation-Qatar where he did his residency in general surgery and was awarded his board degree from the Arab Board of Health Specializations. An active researcher and member of quality and patient safety and research committees, he has a special interest in uncommon surgical diseases. He has published numerous articles and has many more in different phases of progress.

Daniela Anderson, MD, studied biology and classical piano at Bard College. She completed a Watson Fellowship studying barriers to care of leprosy in multiple countries for a year. She graduated from University of Utah School of Medicine in 2018 and began internal medicine/pediatric training at the University of Chicago where she is currently in her fourth year of training. She is working on several projects involving sickle cell disease and is researching thrombosis in acute lymphoblastic leukemia. She is also in the Women’s Health and LUCENT Primary Care Programs. 

Meghan Arnold, MD, is a clinical associate professor in the Section of Pediatric Surgery at the CS Mott Children’s Hospital at the University of Michigan. She received her medical degree and completed general surgery training at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She pursued additional training in clinical research at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She completed fellowship training in pediatric surgery as well as surgical critical care at the University of Michigan. She is board certified in general surgery, pediatric surgery and surgical critical care.

Barbara Birriel, PhD, completed her BSN at Bloomsburg University, MSN at Thomas Jefferson University, post-graduate adult critical care nurse practitioner at the University of Pennsylvania, and PhD in nursing and bioethics at the Pennsylvania State University. Her clinical practice as a critical care nurse practitioner is in the heart and vascular intensive care unit (ICU) at Penn State Hershey Medical Center. Barbara is an assistant research professor and director of nurse practitioner programs in the Penn State College of Nursing. She is involved in collaborative research in implementation science with a research focus related to ethics issues in critical care, primarily family surrogate decision making.

Christine Cahaney, MD, is a current pediatrics attending at the University of Chicago. She completed her Bachelor of Science in neuroscience at McGill University in Montreal, and received her medical degree from Stony Brook University in New York. After completing her residency she is planning to pursue a career in pediatric hematology/oncology. Her research interests include health care disparities and the ethical issues within pediatric palliative care, specifically examining barriers that exist to referring to palliative care.

Randolph Jay Carlson, PhD, is a medical ethics instructor at Lake Forest College, the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, and the Teen Learning Lab of Greater Chicago. He completed his PhD in philosophy at Loyola University in Chicago, an MA in philosophy from the University of Houston, and a BA in philosophy from Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. He completed a clinical ethics internship at Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Illinois. His research interests explore epistemological issues related to decision making in clinical and public health settings generally, and specifically involving patients with spinal cord injuries.

Heeyeon Cho, MD, received her medical degree from Seoul National University College of Medicine. She completed pediatrics residency, and pediatric nephrology fellowship at Seoul National University Children’s Hospital. She received her PhD in molecular genetics in 2011 from Seoul National University College of Medicine. She is an associate professor of pediatrics and an adjunct professor of Department of Medical Humanities at Samsung Medical Center Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine which is located in Seoul, South Korea. Her research interests include the ethical issues at the end-of-life of children, and education of medical ethics as an integrated component of clinical teaching with simulation.

Katie Cunningham, NP, completed her BSN from Lakeview College of Nursing and her DNP from the University of Illinois at Chicago, specializing as a neonatal nurse practitioner. She currently works in the neonatal intensive care unit (ICU) at Comer Children’s Hospital. Her research interests include prenatal and perinatal trauma, determination of brain death in infants, and resource allocation in families with children of complex medical needs.

Aseel Dalton, PhD, received her BA in pharmacy from Nottingham University, her LLM in medical law and ethics from the University of Edinburgh, and her PhD in medical ethics from the University of Aberdeen. She completed her formal training in the field of medical ethics from Yale’s Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics where she is currently a visiting scholar and senior research fellow. She is also serving as a member of the biomedical ethics consultation team at Denver Health Hospital and Authority.

Ina Dervishi, MD, is a neurocritical care fellow at the University of Chicago. From Albania, she completed her medical school at the University of Marmara School of Medicine in Turkey, Istanbul. She plans to train in neurocritical with a research focus in disorders of consciousness and the ethical issues that surround decision making in this patient population.

Claire Dugan, MD, was born and raised in and around Washington, DC. She graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in English and spent a few years before medical school working in health policy and community health. She moved to Chicago to attend the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago where she became interested in clinical ethics during a first-year course with Dr. Mark Siegler. She is a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. She is interested in the ethics of end-of-life discussions and shared decision making.

Rachael Essig, MD, went to Butler University for undergraduate school and then West Virginia University School of Medicine. She is completing general surgery residency at Georgetown University Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC, and is currently completing her research time including a surgical critical care fellowship and pediatric surgery ECMO fellowship at the University of Chicago Hospital.

Colin Eversmann, MDiv, ThM, works as a chaplain ethicist at Swedish American Hospital in Rockford, IL, and teaches a bioethics class at the University of Illinois, Rockford. He is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church. He received his BA from Moody Bible Institute, MDiv and ThM from Trinity International University, and D.Bioethics from Loyola Stritch School of Medicine. His research interests include health care for prisoners and ethics consultation from a global perspective.

Ava Ferguson Bryan, MD, is a general surgery resident at the University of Chicago, a surgical research fellow at the Center for Surgery and Public Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and MPH candidate at the Harvard School of Public Health. She has a BA in English from the University of Texas at Austin as well as an AM in Humanities and an MD from the University of Chicago. Her research interests are the effect of health policy on access to care, surgical education, and patient perceptions of receiving medical care, evaluated with both qualitative and quantitative methods.

John T. Fortunato, MD, is a fourth-year neurology resident at the University of Chicago. He completed a master’s degree in bioethics from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, before completing medical school at the Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine in Rochester, Michigan. He completed a transitional year residency program in Detroit, Michigan before coming to Chicago for neurology residency. His research interests involve end-of-life ethics, particularly issues surrounding death declaration criteria and organ donation after cardiopulmonary death. John is also interested in clinical ethics in neuro-oncology.

Catherine Frenkel, MD, is board certified in general surgery and specializes in head and neck surgical oncology, microvascular reconstruction and trans oral robotic surgery. Her clinical research interest is in the management of advanced head and neck cancer in immune suppressed/transplant patients. She received her medical degree at Albany Medical College where she was awarded the Vosburgh Scholarship for Medical Ethics from the Alden March Bioethics Institute. Catherine completed her residency at Stony Brook University, during which she was recognized by the American College of Surgeons with a Leadership Scholarship. She then completed her fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania.

Luke Gatta, MD, is a maternal-fetal medicine research fellow at Duke. He is from Brooklyn, New York,  attending undergraduate at Saint Louis University, medical school at Drexel University, and completed his obstetrics and gynecology residency at Duke. In residency he received funding to start Ethics on Tap, a joint endeavor with OB/GYN residents from University of North Carolina and Duke to study and discuss reproductive ethics. He currently sits on Duke’s ethics committee and consult service. His research interest includes shared decision making at the maternal-fetal interface, as well as surgical obstetrics.

Vitalii Gurskyi, MD is an assistant in the Department of First Emergency Medical Aid and Emergency Medical Treatment at Ternopil National Medical University (Ukraine). He received his MD in internal medicine from Ternopil National Medical University in 2007. He works as a cardiologist at Ternopil University Hospital. He also takes part as a sub-investigator in several international clinical trials. His research interests include myocardial infarction and cardiac rehabilitation after myocardial infarction.

Omar Jamil, MD is a fifth-year internal medicine-pediatrics resident at the University of Chicago. He is from Libertyville, Illinois, and attended Northwestern University where he studied anthropology. Afterwards, he was a Teacher for America corps member and earned a Masters in Teaching from Dominican University. He subsequently attended medical school at the University of Illinois at Chicago where he earned his MD. His research interests include obesity, fatty liver disease and endobariatrics. He has an interest in understanding the ethics of medical futility and the utilization of finite resources to prolong life for family visitation.

Misun Jung, MD is currently a second-year fellow of neonatal perinatal medicine at Vanderbilt. She went to Yale for undergrad and medical school at UT Southwestern. She then completed her pediatrics residency and chief residency at University of Chicago’s Comer Children’s Hospital. She is hoping to pursue neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) fellowship, and her research interests include prenatal counseling focusing on periviability and extreme prematurity. In her free time, she likes to partake in jam sessions with kindred musicians, bike/run along the lake, and water her growing plant collection.

Daniel T. Kim, PhD, MPH, will begin an appointment as Assistant Professor at the Alden March Bioethics Institute, Albany Medical College, this August. He received his PhD in religious ethics from the University of Chicago this June and MPH from the Yale School of Public Health. He has served as Assistant Director of the Program on Medicine and Religion, University of Chicago; Senior Associate of the Center for Ethics and Professionalism, American College of Physicians; and Managing Editor of the journal Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics. His research during this fellowship will focus on questions of moral anthropology and end-of-life care.

He is currently a AMA Senior Policy Analyst / Poetry Editor at the American Medical Association in Chicago.

Dr. Russell is board certified in adult psychiatry and addiction psychiatry. His particular clinical focus is on the treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and behavior addictions as well as trauma, mood and anxiety disorder.

She is renowned in the surgical management of complex thyroid, parathyroid, benign and malignant endocrinopathies and adrenal disease. She has research interest that include vulnerable patient populations (incarcerated and psychiatric patients), quality of life after thyroid and parathyroid surgery, communication in the end-of-life care, military medical ethics, informed consent, as well as the surgeon patient relationship.

Dr. Applewhite is passionate and active in implementing ethics teaching for medical students and general surgery residents. She has presented both nationally and internationally at recognized conferences and has been published in various high impact journals including Journal of American College of Surgeons, American Journal of Surgery, AMA Journal of Ethics, and Annals of Surgical Oncology.