Scholars
Hastings scholars come from a wide range of disciplines, including philosophy, social psychology, law, political science, education, and theology. Their research takes on some of the most difficult dilemmas and controversies in the areas of human reproduction, genetics, population health, aging, and end-of-life care, and the risks and benefits of new technologies.
Vardit RavitskyPhDPresident
Vardit Ravitsky, PhD, is the President and CEO of The Hastings Center, an independent, nonpartisan bioethics research institute that is among the most prestigious bioethics and health policy institutes in the world. Ravitsky joins the Center from the University of Montreal where she was Professor at the Bioethics Program, School of Public Health. She is also a Senior Lecturer on Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She received her PhD from Bar-Ilan University in Israel, ...Nancy BerlingerPhDSenior Research Scholar
Nancy Berlinger is a senior research scholar at The Hastings Center and a Hastings Center fellow. Her training is in the humanities. Her current scholarship and empirical research focus on ethical, societal, and global dimensions of population aging (Bioethics for Aging Societies), with special attention to dementia care and to housing equity for older adults. She also works on ethical challenges in immigrant and community health, with attention to the role of policy in limiting or expanding heal...Virginia A. BrownMA, PhDResearch Scholar
Virginia A. Brown is a research scholar in social justice and population health. She joined The Hastings Center in September 2023 from the University of Texas at Austin Dell Medical School where she served as an assistant professor in the department of population health in the division of Community Engagement and Health Equity and as the associate director of the Liberal Arts Honors program in the College of Liberal Arts.Michael K. GusmanoPhDSenior Research Scholar
Michael Gusmano investigates health care equity in the U.S. and other countries. His research and publications have focused on health policy, aging, and comparative welfare state analysis. He is the codirector of the World Cities Project, the first effort to compare the performance of health, social, and long-term care systems in New York, London, Paris and Tokyo, the four largest cities among the wealthy nations of the world. In addition to being a research scholar at The Hastings Center, he is ...Athmeya JayaramPhDResearch Scholar
Athmeya Jayaram works at the intersection of political theory and technology ethics, particularly on how we can make legitimate and fair decisions on the design and use of AI and gene editing technologies.Josephine JohnstonLL.B., MBHL.Senior Research Scholar
Josephine Johnston is an expert on the ethical, legal, and policy implications of biomedical technologies, particularly as used in human reproduction, psychiatry, genetics, and neuroscience. In addition to numerous scholarly publications, her commentaries have appeared in Stat News, The New Republic, Time, Washington Post, and The Scientist. Ms. Johnston is interviewed frequently by the media, appearing in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, Wired, and Vice Med...Gregory E. KaebnickPhDDirector, Research Department; Editor, Hastings Center Report; Senior Research Scholar
Gregory E. Kaebnick explores questions about the values at stake in developing and using biotechnologies and, particularly, in questions about the value given to nature and human nature. He is also the director of the Research Department, and one of the editors of the Hastings Center Report, and a Hastings Center fellow. He has testified before Congress on ethical issues concerning synthetic biology and served on a National Academy of Sciences committee, Gene Drive Research in Non-Human Organi...Karen J. MaschkePhDSenior Research Scholar; Editor, Ethics & Human Research
Karen Maschke has expertise on the ethical, regulatory and policy issues involving the development, assessment, and use of new biomedical technologies. She is the editor-in-chief of The Hastings Center’s journal Ethics & Human Research and is a Hastings Center fellow.Thomas H. MurrayPhDPresident Emeritus
Thomas H. Murray was president of The Hastings Center from 1999 to 2012. He was formerly the director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics in the School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University, where he was also the Susan E. Watson Professor of Bioethics. He serves on many editorial boards and has testified before many Congressional committees. Among other current posts, he serves as an international expert advisor to Singapore’s Bioethics Advisory Committee and vice chair of Charity...Carolyn P. NeuhausPhDResearch Scholar
Carolyn P. Neuhaus explores philosophical and ethical questions that arise throughout biomedical research and medical practice, from the philosophical foundations of the use of animals in biomedical research to the development of digital medicine and use of AI in healthcare. She is currently engaged in research in The Hastings Center’s Humans and Nature and Science and the Self project areas.Danielle PaciaMBEResearch Associate
Danielle M. Pacia focuses on bioethics topics related to individualized therapies, community health, and the ever-changing landscape of reproductive health care in the United States. She is interested in high-level questions related to reciprocity, relationality, and solidarity, and how these concepts impact health policy in the U.S. and inform pathways for improved health care access.Erik ParensPhDSenior Research Scholar
Erik Parens is a senior research scholar at The Hastings Center and director of the Center’s Initiative in Bioethics and the Humanities. He is a Hastings Center fellow. He has taught bioethics as an adjunct professor in the Science, Technology, and Society programs at Vassar and Sarah Lawrence, as well as in the Master of Bioethics program at Harvard.Mildred Z. SolomonEd.D.President Emerita
Mildred Solomon has an international reputation for her research on, and advocacy for, wiser health care and science policy. She was President of The Hastings Center from 2012 to June 2023. She is Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine, part time, at Harvard Medical School, where she directs the school’s Fellowship in Bioethics. Dr. Solomon is both a bioethicist and social science researcher. The primary focus of her bioethics scholarship has been on the ethics of end-of-life care for ...Faith E. FletcherPhDSenior Advisor
Faith Fletcher is an assistant professor in the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor College of Medicine, a senior advisor to The Hastings Center, and a Hastings Center fellow. Drawing from diverse disciplines and methodologies from bioethics, public health, and behavioral science, her empirical research investigates pressing health concerns and inequities facing traditionally marginalized populations. In her scholarship, she focuses on issues relating to reproductive health and...
Rosemarie Garland-ThomsonPhDSenior Advisor
Rosemarie Garland-Thomson is a disability justice and culture thought leader, bioethicist, educator, and humanities scholar. She consults on many academic and bioethics projects, gives frequent lectures, presentations, and media interviews, publishes in a range of media, and participates in a wide range of web events. Her 2016 op-ed, “Becoming Disabled,” was the inaugural article in the ongoing weekly series in the New York Times about disability by people living with disabilities.Rosemary GibsonM.S.Senior Advisor
Rosemary Gibson writes and lectures about health care, health care reform, Medicare, and patient safety. She is a senior advisor at The Hastings Center. She led national health care quality and and safety initiatives at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She was chief architect of the foundation’s decade-long strategy that successfully established palliative care in more than 1,600 hospitals in the United States. She is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Ac...Gretchen GreeneC.Phil, MS, JDSenior Advisor
Gretchen Greene is an internationally recognized expert on face and emotion recognition and AI and AV policy and ethics whose advice to governments has been read in 8,000 cities. She is a senior advisor at The Hastings Center.Bruce JenningsMASenior Advisor
Bruce Jennings is a political scientist whose research spans a wide range of subjects, including environmental ethics, health policy, and end-of-life care. He is an adjunct associate professor at Vanderbilt University’s Center for Biomedical Ethics and a senior fellow at the Center for Humans and Nature, a nonprofit research center that studies environmental ethics and policy. He was executive director of The Hastings Center from 1991 to 1999 and is a Hastings senior advisor and a Hastings ...Lisa MosesVMDSenior Advisor
Lisa Moses is a veterinarian and animal focused bioethicist. After nearly 30 years as a practicing veterinary specialist for the MSPCA Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston, Dr. Moses became a faculty member at Harvard Medical School’s Center for Bioethics. Dr Moses is the chair of both the Animal Ethics Study Group at Yale’s Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics and the Harvard-Yale Animal Ethics Faculty Seminar, and she holds a visiting scientist appointment at the Broad Institute of MIT...Joel Michael ReynoldsPhDSenior Advisor
Joel Michael Reynolds Senior Advisor to The Hastings Center, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Disability Studies at Georgetown University, Senior Research Scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, and Faculty Scholar of The Greenwall Foundation. He is also the founder of The Journal of Philosophy of Disability and co-founder of Oxford Studies in Disability, Ethics, and Society. His research and public engagement center on foundational issues concerning ethics, society, and embodiment. W...Lauren A. TaylorPhD, MDiv, MPHSenior Advisor
Lauren A. Taylor, PhD, MDiv, MPH, is an assistant professor in the Department of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. She primarily studies health care through an organizational lens, applying theoretical frameworks from business ethics and political philosophy to managerial and policy dilemmas. At NYU, she teaches health policy and leadership courses to masters and undergraduate students. She holds a PhD from Harvard Business School, an MDiv from Harvard Divinity School, and an...Wendell WallachM.Ed.Senior Advisor
Wendell Wallach is an internationally recognized expert on the ethical and governance concerns posed by emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence and neuroscience. He is a consultant, an ethicist, and a scholar at Yale University’s Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, where he chairs the working research group on technology and ethics. He is a Hastings Center senior advisor. He is co-author (with Colin Allen) of Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong, which maps t...
