Schedule of Events
Thursday, May 1, 2025
Click to expand details.8:30 am - 10:30 am Registration and Breakfast
Check in and start the day with a breakfast buffet. Name tags, information, and other materials will be available at the registration table. Registration check-in is in the Lobby. Breakfast is in the 2nd Floor Lounge.
10:30 am - 11:30 am Mentoring Roundtables
Bring your coffee to learn about opportunities and share your experience with faculty, students, fellows, and alumni involved in your areas of interest. Meet experts at the cutting edge of bioethics and explore possibilities for future collaborations. The 2nd Floor Lounge is dedicated for specific topics in clinical ethics. The Pechet Room is for social, policy, and other topics.
11:30 am - 1:00 pm Alumni and Faculty Reconnection Lunch
Come catch up with some of your favorite faulty from your time in the MBE and Fellowship programs! MBE alumni will meet in the Pechet Room. Fellowship alumni will meet in the 2nd Floor Lounge.
1:00 pm - 3:00 pm MBE Capstone Symposium
Live – or relive – the capstone experience as current students present their capstone posters and answer your questions about their work. Capstone presentations will happen in the Ground Floor Lobby.
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm "Media, Medicine, and Health: Do Stories Matter?" by Neal Baer, MD, MA, MEd
Emmy award-winning television writer, producer, and pediatrician Neal Baer, MD, MA, MEd will join us for an engaging discussion about public health issues in the media, spotlighting the bioethical plotlines he created for ER, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Under the Dome, A Gifted Man, and Designated Survivor. The keynote will happen in the Amphitheater.
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm Reception and Toast
Celebrate the past, present, and future of the Center for Bioethics with refreshments and appetizers. The Reception will happen in the Elements Café.
5:00 pm - 7:00 pm Dinner on Your Own with Alumni Colleagues
Reach out to your colleagues new and old to take an informal dinner break. Participants are free to revisit the campus grounds or explore other activities in Boston.
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Soirée at The Liberty Hotel
Join your fellow alumni for drinks and after-dinner snacks inside The Liberty Hotel – the former site of the historic Charles Street Jail. Dress up or come as you like; just be sure to bring your festive spirit! Soirée ticket required.
Friday, May 2, 2025
Click to expand details.8:00 am - 9:30 am Registration and Breakfast
Check in and start the day with a breakfast buffet. Name tags, information, and other materials will be available at the registration table. Registration check-in is in the Ground Floor Lobby.
Special update:
- Fellowship alumni will be in the 2nd Floor Lounge.
- MBE classes of 2016-2018 will be in the First Floor Balcony.
- MBE classes of 2019-2021 will be in the First Floor Balcony.
- MBE classes of 2022-2024 will be in the Ground Floor Lobby.
- Current MBE students and fellows will be in the Ground Floor Lobby.
9:30 am - 11:00 am Alumni Poster Presentations
Explore posters on inspiring bioethics topics presented by alumni. Presentations will happen in the 2nd Floor Lounge.
11:00 am - 12:00 pm Guided Walking Tour
Tour the Harvard Longwood Campus with Center Associate Director Edward Hundert, MD and learn about the history of Harvard Medical School and its programs in bioethics. Explore the latest renovations in the Tosteson Medical Education Center, the Countway Library, the iconic Gordon Hall, and more! The tours will begin outside the New Research Building on the patio.
12:00 pm - 1:30 pm Lunch Break and Lightning Talks
Enjoy lunch and good company while listening to lightning talks on key topics in bioethics, including clinical ethics, public policy, research ethics, leadership, and emerging technologies.
Bray Room:
- Latelle Barton: Raising Public Awareness of Bioethics
- Tonya Ferraro: Beyond the Compliance Box: How AAHRPP Accreditation Shapes the Research Ethics Conversation
- Rebecca Li: From Data to Discovery: Accelerating Research through Ethical and Equitable Sharing
- Barry Solaiman: The Governance of AI in Healthcare: A True Lifecycle Approach
- Benjamin Tolchin: Faster Isn't Always Better: Health System's Ethical Responsibilities in Evaluating Drug Safety and Efficacy in Cases of Expedited FDA Approval
1st Floor Balcony:
- Sana Baban: Integrating Social Justice and Bioethics: Insights from a US-Canadian Survey of Bioethics
- Gali Katznelson: Psychiatry and the Holocaust
- Hajung Lee: Navigating Moral Conflicts: Young Women's Experiences with Religious Teachings on Reproduction in the U.S.
- Marie Nicolini: Assisted Death and the Role of Reason
2nd Floor Lounge:
- Christy Cummings: Ethical Considerations for Maternal-Fetal Interventions: Innovation, Research & Oversight
- Marta Herschkopf: Moral Distress, or Countertransference? Interrogating our Emotional Responses
- Lukas Meier: The Ethics of Brain-Computer-Interfaces: Elon Musk's Neuralink
- Eli Nemetz: No Adults Allowed: Five Ethical Commitments to Adolescent Autonomy
1:30 pm - 2:30 pm Center for Bioethics Update
Join Rebecca Brendel, MD, JD and members of the Center for Bioethics team to learn more about new and ongoing activities at the Center. We look forward to hearing your ideas about possible future directions! The update will happen in the Amphitheater.
2:30 pm - 4:30 pm Reception and Ice Cream Social
Mix and mingle with other alumni and members of the Center community while enjoying snacks and ice cream as we conclude our celebration. The reception will happen in the Ground Floor Lobby.
See Who Will Be There
Center for Bioethics Leadership and Special Guests
Click to expand details.| Becca Brendel, MD, JD | Ed Hundert, MD | Wes Boyd, MD, PhD |
| Millie Solomon, EdD | Thos Cochrane, MD, MBA | Genevieve Saphier, RN, MSN |
| George Daley, MD, PhD | Neal Baer, MD, MA, MEd |
Teaching Affiliates, Faculty, and Capstone Mentors
Click to expand details.| Aaron Kesselheim | Hajung Lee | Marta Herschkopf |
| Alicia Yamin | Jade Ealy | Mary Klingensmith |
| Anna Lewis | Jennifer Kirk | Matthew Baum |
| Anne Galvin | Jess Gordon | Melissa Uveges |
| Anthony Weiss | John Halporn | Millie Solomon |
| Ausubel Pichardo | Jonathan Marron | Miranda Blodgett |
| Brooke Tempesta | Joni Beshansky | Paul Romain |
| Caitlyn Tabor | Kate Jackson-Meyer | Rachel Conrad |
| Carolyn Ringel | Katie Peeler | Rachel Glick |
| Casey Rojas | Kelsey Berry | Ramya Joshi |
| Charlene Galarneau | Kimberley Serpico | Remy Enoch |
| Christy Cummings | Kristina Larson | Robert Truog |
| Daniel Moreno De Luca | Leah Rand | Robin Jones |
| David Sontag | Leanne Homan | Sana Baban |
| Ed Hundert | Lindsay Semler | Shahla Siddiqui |
| Elaine Meyer | Lisa Moses | Stephen Brown |
| Elizabeth Nilson | Litong Jiang | Thos Cochrane |
| Eric Blackstone | Louise King | Todd Pollack |
| Erwin Khoo | Lynn Bush | Unini Odama |
| Fariba Houman | Maggi Budd | Vrushali Dhongade |
| Gakii Masunga | Maria Leister | Wes Boyd |
| Hadley Smith | Mariah Tanious |
Lightning Talks and Poster Presentations
Click to expand details.- Sana Baban, MBE will discuss integrating social justice and bioethics, using insights from a US-Canadian survey of bioethicists.
- Latelle Barton, II, MD, HEC-C will discuss raising public awareness of bioethics.
- Christy Cummings, MD will discuss the ethics of maternal-fetal interventions, and parental perspectives on decision-making at extreme prematurity.
- Jade Ealy, MBE will discuss the evolution of the prior authorization process from its inception as a utilization management tool to its current state as a complex system fraught with high administrative costs, physician burnout, and delays in patient care that compromise health outcomes.
- Tonya Ferraro, MEd, MBE will discuss AAHRPP accreditation and how it elevates bioethics in human research.
- Russell Gruen, MBBS, PhD, FRACS, FAHMS, FAMS, FISS will discuss training doctors to be empathic, compassionate and wise.
- Marta Herschkopf, MD, MSt will discuss the role of countertransference in moral distress, and the importance of interrogating our own affective responses.
- Georgina Jorge Ramírez, MBE will discuss an ethical view of environmental education.
- Gali Katznelson, MBE will discuss the professional ethics of psychiatrists during the Holocaust, based on insights gained from attending the Medical Review Auschwitz Conference.
- Hajung Lee, PhD, JD, MBE will discuss the emotional, moral, and spiritual conflicts of young women navigating reproductive issues in communities with strong anti-abortion beliefs.
- Rebecca Li, PhD will discuss accelerating research through ethical and equitable data sharing.
- Christina Martinka, MBE will discuss the impact of moral distress on EMS and the application of bioethics in the profession.
- Lukas Meier, PhD will discuss the ethics of implantable BCIs and Elon Musk's Neuralink.
- Zamina Mithani Aziz, MD, MBE will discuss the basic components of an informed refusal and how to help patients make informed refusal decisions with their families.
- Lisa Moses, VMD will discuss the unrecognized ethical issues in xenotransplantation research.
- Eli Nemetz, MBE will discuss medical decision making, focusing on adolescent refusal of care and adolescent request for care in opposition to parental wishes.
- Marie Nicolini, MD, PhD will discuss assisted death and the role of reason.
- Unini Odama, MD, MPH, MBE will discuss decision making in persons with End Stage Kidney Disease (ESKD) and its complexity in the presence of secondary neurological pathologies.
- Ausubel Pichardo, MBE will discuss the ethics of financial toxicity in healthcare, specifically oncology care.
- Barry Solaiman, PhD will discuss AI regulation in healthcare, covering research, medical device approvals and oversight post-implementation.
- Stowe Teti, DBEc, MA, HEC-C will discuss the bioethics of built space and healthcare architecture.
- Benjamin Tolchin, MD, MS, FAAN (Neurology), FAES will discuss institutional reviews of therapies receiving accelerated FDA approval without evidence of clinical benefit.
- Eva Winkler, Prof. DrMed, DrPhil will discuss topics and approaches of translational medical ethics.
