Our Medical Ethics Scholars and Health Policy scholars are individuals from Baylor College of Medicine or affiliated institutions in the Texas Medical Center. Scholars conduct collaborative research, attend or speak at center-sponsored events and meetings, and participate in teaching, outreach activities, and student mentoring. This new level of membership implies a greater level of involvement in the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy's core missions and participation in center activities.
Scholars are appointed for one-year and the appointment can be renewed on an annual basis.
Health Policy
April Dionne Adams, M.D.
Assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine in the departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Molecular and Human Genetics She is also the associate program director for the maternal-fetal medicine and combined maternal-fetal medicine/medical genetics fellowship programs and the Maternal Medical Director for Quality and Safety at Ben Taub Hospital. Research Interests: placental development, pregnancy loss, stillbirth, and health disparities in reproductive genetics.
Lynnette Astrid Averill, Ph.D.
Co-director of the ELIPSIS Program, Clinical Research Psychologist, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Clinical Research Psychologist at Baylor College of Medicine and the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center and an adjunct Assistant Professor at Yale School of Medicine and the Clinical Neuroscience Division of the VA National Center for PTSD. Research Interests: psychoneurobiology of suicidality and PTSD; psychedelics
Cedric Dark, M.D., M.P.H, FACEP
Assistant Professor, Emergency Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine
Research Interests: Health policy; health reform; health policy education; freestanding emergency rooms
Dorit Donoviel, Ph.D.
Director, Translational Research Institute for Space Health; Associate Professor, Dept. of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology and the Center for Space Medicine
Research Interests: space health concerns, diagnostics and countermeasures; space medicine; commercialization; biomedical research, drug development; government, academia, and private sector relations.
Kevin Furman Erickson, M.D., M.S.
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Nephrology, Baylor College of Medicine
Research Interests: Advanced chronic kidney disease; end-stage renal disease; acute kidney injury; health economics and policy research in nephrology; economics; medical economics; value-based care
Fabrizia Faustinella, M.D., Ph.D., MACP
Professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine
Baylor College of Medicine; Physician Faculty, Sunset Heights Clinic
Research Interests: Healthcare access and disparities in minority populations, patient safety and advocacy, clinical skills education, and medical humanities through film and storytelling.
Leah Fowler, J.D.
Research Assistant Professor; Health Law & Policy Institute
Research Interests: Public Health Law, Ethics, and Health legislation and Policy
N. Thao N. Galván, M.D., MPH
Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine
Research Interests: Solid organ transplantation outcomes, ethics and surgical technique, especially focused on the pediatric transplant population.
Drew A. Helmer, M.D., M.S.
Deputy Director, Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness & Safety, Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, Professor, Department of Medicine, Section of Health Services Research, Baylor College of Medicine
Research Interests: Deployment-related health concerns of Veterans, Quality and utilization of ambulatory care, Chronic Multisymptom Illness
Peter Hotez, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor; Dean for National School of Tropical Medicine; Endowed Chair in Tropical Pediatrics; US Science Envoy; Baker Institute Fellow in Disease and Poverty; Co-Editor in Chief PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Pediatrics and Molecular Virology & Microbiology
Research Interests: Vaccine development for tropical diseases; global health policy for neglected tropical diseases; drug and vaccine delivery; tropical medicine
Jared Howell, M.S.
Assistant Professor; Director, Orthotics and Prosthetics, Baylor College of Medicine
Research Interests: Technology enablement; 3D printed medical devices; brain machine interfaces; prosthetics; clinical outcomes research; health related product development
Isabelle Kusters, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Assistant Professor, Health Sciences (Public Health), Department of Kinesiology, Rice University
Research Interests: Health disparities; social determinants of health; education; medical education; health services research
SreyRam Kuy, M.D., M.H.S., F.A.C.S.
Surgeon, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Baylor College of Medicine, Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center
Research Interests: Healthcare quality, patient safety and health policy
Kimberly Kay Lopez, Dr.P.H., M.P.H.
Assistant Professor - Public Health Pediatrics; Director, Public Health; Director, Center for the Study of Adversity, Resilience, and Equality; Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's Hospital; Adjunct faculty at UT School of Public Health - Division of Health Promotion and Prevention; Faculty affiliate with the Kinder Institute for Urban Research, Rice University
Research Interests: The traumatic effects of adversities on children, families, and communities
David Mathai, M.D.
Assistant Professor at Baylor College of Medicine
Research Interests: Behavioral models of addiction and cognitive impairment, the neuropsychiatric effects of cannabis, and the complex properties of psychedelic-type therapies like ketamine, MDMA, and psilocybin
Kenisha Muse, M.D.
Assistant Professor - Temple; Anesthesiology. Research Interests: Physician advocacy
John D. "Jack" Myers, M.D.
Professor, School of Medicine- Temple; Director of Executive Health; General Internist. Research Interests: Student learners and physician advocacy
Joey Nichols, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.A.F.P.
Founder and Family Physician, Canopy Family Care
Board-Certified in Family Medicine; Telehealth Provider Across 25 States
Research Interests: Whole-person primary care, telehealth innovation, mental health integration including psychedelic-informed therapy, community health, and health policy. As a Health Policy Scholar, he collaborates on ELIPSIS-related research, explores funding opportunities, and contributes to the College’s academic and intellectual environment.
Laura Petersen, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor; Associate Chief of Staff for Research; Director, Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety, Health Services Research, Baylor College of Medicine, Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center
Research Interests: How health care policy, organization, and financing affects the quality and safety of health care; developing novel methods of measuring health care quality
Joshua M. Shulman, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor in Neurology, Neuroscience, and Molecular and Human Genetics; Investigator, Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute and Texas Children's Hospital; Principal Investigator, Laboratory for Integrative Functional Genomics; Director of the Center for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases
Research Interests: To understand genetic mechanisms of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, and to translate these insights to enhance risk prediction, diagnosis and treatment of these disorders
Cheryl Walker, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Precision Environmental Health, Professor, Department of Molecular and Cell Biology
Research Interests: Active in the field of environmental epigenomics, investigating how environmental exposures early in life reprogram the epigenome to determine disease susceptibility across the life-course
Andrew James Widmer, M.D.
Baylor Scott & White Health; Assistant Professor - Temple; General Internist. Research Interests: Physician advocacy
Medical Ethics
Stephanie DeSandro, M.S., PA-C
Assistant Professor, Physician Assistant Program, Baylor College of Medicine
Elizabeth Elliott, M.S., PA-C
Associate Professor, Physician Assistant Program, Baylor College of Medicine
Research Interests: Holistic Admissions, Breastfeeding and Breastmilk, Child Passenger Safety
Anne Jeffrey, Ph.D.
Adjunct Assistant Professor, School of Medicine – Temple, Baylor College of Medicine; Assistant professor at Baylor University, Department of Philosophy. Research Interests: the history of ethics, political and legal philosophy, bioethics, Aristotle, and philosophy of religion.
Sarah Keyes, M.S., PA-C
Assistant Professor, Physician Assistant Program, Baylor College of Medicine
Research Interests: Lifestyle medicine, weight stigma, student well-being
Devan Stahl, Ph.D.
Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Medicine – Temple, Baylor College of Medicine; Associate Professor of Religion at Baylor University. Research Interests: Medicine and the visual arts, theological bioethics, disability studies, beginning and end of life issues.
Eric Storch, Ph.D.
Professor; Vice Chair of Psychology, Baylor College of Medicine
Research Interests: The assessment and treatment of children, adolescents and adults with obsessive-compulsive and related disorders (i.e., OCD, Tourette's, Hair-pulling disorder, skin-picking, misophonia) and anxiety disorders
Kathleen Thompson, M.S., PA-C
Assistant Professor, Physician Assistant Program, Baylor College of Medicine
Research Interest: Pediatric ethics, pediatric transplantation, best interest standard, health professions education
Miranda R. Waggoner, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology
Rice University; Faculty Scholar, Baker Institute for Public Policy
Research Interests: Social structure and culture in biomedical knowledge production, medical care, and public health practice; gender, reproduction, and inequality; sociology of medicine and science; bioethics; qualitative methods
Vicki Waters, M.S., PA-C
Assistant Professor, Physician Assistant Program, Baylor College of Medicine
Linessa Zuniga, M.D., MEd
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Pediatric Residency Associate Program Director, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children's
Hospital
Research Interests: graduate medical education, burnout, and professionalism