Michelle is a Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Fellow at The University of Chicago Medical Center. Coming from Florida (Go Gators!), Chicago was a bit of a climate change for Michelle, but she survived her first winter here! She has long been interested in pediatric hematology/oncology and ethics and loves being here at the University of Chicago! Michelle received her masters in bioethics degree concurrently with her medical degree and is excited to be doing a clinical medical ethics fellowship now. She has two cats that provide plenty of entertainment and loves finding new coffee shops around the city.
Through the MacLean Fellowship, Michelle hopes to delve deeper into her interest in pediatric assent (particularly in oncology clinical trials) and allocation of resources as it pertains to chemotherapy medications.
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, she hopes to teach medical humanism and ethics to medical students and residents.
Kylie is currently a General Surgery Resident and ECMO Fellow at University of Chicago Medicine. Originally from Houston Texas, she loves all sports and her pets (1 dog and 2 cats)! Kylie is working towards becoming a Pediatric Surgeon.
Through the MacLean fellowship, Kylie hopes to gain the tools to tackle ethical dilemmas in her career. She is particularly interested in topics in pediatric trauma and pediatric ECMO.
Kirsten A. Dickins, PhD, AM, APRN, FNP-C 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. Her 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 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 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.
Dr. Reddy is a gastroenterologist and hepatologist at The University of Chicago where 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.
Dr. Reddy's interests in ethics include exploring workforce shortages and ethical concerns in liver transplantation.
Saajidha is currently a neonatology fellow at 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 focus her fellowship research on understanding the experiences of birthing and non-birthing parents in the 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.
Katherine is currently a Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Fellow at The University of Chicago Medical Center. She is originally from Brooklyn, NY but spent part of her childhood in Poland. She received her bachelor’s degree from Rice University in Houston, TX, majoring in psychology and in cognitive science. Between college and medical school, Katherine 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, CT and went on to complete a general adult psychiatry residency at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, TN 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. Katherine's academic interests include the neurobiology of suicide and the bioethics of end-of-life care in patients with a history of suicidality.
Katherine'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 enrich the educational experience of her consult-liaison psychiatry fellowship. As part of this fellowship, Katherine 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 M. Whitney, PhD is a research assistant professor in the Department of Radiology at the University of Chicago. Dr. Whitney 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, she 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. She also conducts research and collaborates in MIDRC, the Medical Imaging and Data Resource Center. 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 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.