Three Penn faculty members — Holly Fernandez Lynch, Quayshawn Spencer, and Connie Ulrich — have been named Hastings Center Fellows.
Hastings Center Fellows are selected based on the impact their work has on scholarship and public perception of ethical issues affecting the fields of health, health care, science, and technology. The Hasting Center was founded in 1969 and has over 200 current fellows. Fernandez Lynch, Spencer, and Ulrich are three of 24 new members — Penn is the only institution with more than two affiliated faculty members elected this year.
Fernandez Lynch is the John Russell Dickson, MD Presidential Assistant Professor of Medical Ethics at the Perelman School of Medicine as well as an assistant professor of Law at the Penn Law School.
Her scholarship focuses on access to investigational medicines outside of clinical trials, Food and Drug Administration policy, the ethics of gatekeeping in health care, and clinical research ethics and regulation. A study she led in 2019 with other researchers from the Medical School found that paying participants in research studies may lead them to lie about their credentials.
Spencer, a Robert S. Blank Presidential Professor of Philosophy, specializes in the philosophy of science, biology, and race. At Penn, he has taught courses such as Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Biology, and Topics in Theoretical Philosophy. In the Spring 2022 semester, he will be teaching Metaphysics of Race.
Ulrich is the Lillian S. Brunner Endowed Chair in Medical and Surgical Nursing and a professor in the School of Nursing. She is also the first nurse bioethicist — a subset of nursing that concentrates on the ethics of clinical care — at Penn. Her research focuses on “advancing empirical bioethics in both clinical practice and research.” One of her current projects studies the impact of COVID-19 on clinical ethicists and nurses.
There are currently 10 other Fellows affiliated with Penn, including Penn President Amy Gutmann.
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