The Division of Medical Ethics is pleased to announce the members of the Class of 2019 who will be joining us this summer as postdoctoral fellows

Maddy Kilbride will receive her PhD in Philosophy from Princeton this summer. Prior to beginning her PhD, she obtained her BA in Philosophy at Bates and an MA in Philosophy (of Science), also at Princeton. Her dissertation addressed ethical questions in genetic testing, including patients’ obligations to disclose their genetic test results to at-risk relatives, clinicians’ duties to disclose to family members, and third-party payment for preimplantation genetic diagnosis. As a fellow, she will continue to pursue her interest in moral questions related to genetics, will develop an empirical research agenda in the ethical, legal & social implications of genetics, and will address her related interest in ethical questions in pediatric medicine and research.

Kellie Owens is a PhD candidate in Sociology at Northwestern. She is simultaneously a Visiting Research Fellow in the Program on Science, Technology and Society at Harvard. Prior to her PhD, she received a BA in Social Relations and Policy from Michigan State and an MA in Sociology from Northwestern. Her dissertation research involved an ethnographic study and analysis of risk cultures in obstetric medicine. As a fellow, she will pursue her interests in the nature, credibility and authority of knowledge in biomedicine, potentially with a focus on the epistemology and culture of knowledge in genetics. She also has a deep interest in and long history of promoting diversity in academia, and plans to incorporate this into her research agenda and career focus.

Anna Wexler is a PhD candidate in the HASTS (History, Anthropology, Science, Technology & Society) Program at MIT, where her dissertation focuses on the use of noninvasive electrical brain stimulation, especially in do-it-yourself settings. Prior to that, she obtained a dual BS from MIT in Brain and Cognitive Science  and in Humanities and Science with a focus in Writing and Neuroscience. She has done important empirical and conceptual work on the use of neurotechnologies outside the biomedical arena. She is also a documentary filmmaker and has worked as a science writer and editor. At Penn, she will extend her work to address the ethical and regulatory challenges raised by the full spectrum of interventions used in the home to modify brain function. She also plans to explore how do-it-yourself movements, direct-to-consumer health products, and citizen science initiatives are disrupting traditional models of medicine and science.