Faculty and Staff Directory

Leadership Team

Sean Valles

Sean A. Valles

  • Director and Professor, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice
  • Pronouns: he/him/his

Expertise: health equity, philosophy, population health, public health, race, social determinants of health

 

Karen Kelly-Blake

Karen Kelly-Blake

  • Associate Director of Academic Programming, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice
  • Associate Professor, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice, Department of Medicine
  • Pronouns: she/her/hers

Expertise: health services research, shared decision-making, decision aid development and implementation, clinical communication skills and training, mHealth, men’s health, medical workforce policy, health equity, medical education curriculum development, medical education faculty development

 

Karla Bauer

Karla Bauer

Unit Administrator

  • Pronouns: she/her/hers
  • bauerka@msu.edu
  • 517-353-5197

Karla Bauer is the Center Administrator/Fiscal Officer. She supports the Center’s Director by managing financial reporting, budget planning and administration, human resources, contract and grant management as well as strategic planning.

 

Mar Dunstone

Mar Dunstone

  • Center Assistant

Mar Dunstone is the Center Administrative Assistant. Mar supports the center by assisting wtih unit administration as well as supporting event logistics for the Center.

 

Faculty

Ariel Cascio

Ariel Cascio

  • Assistant Professor, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice, Department of Medicine
  • Pronouns: they/she

Expertise: Disability studies, neuroethics, medical humanities, empirical research on human research ethics, qualitative research, ethnography, cross-cultural studies, autism, neurodiversity, Italy

 

Leonard Fleck

Leonard Fleck

  • University Distinguished Professor, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice, Department of Philosophy
  • Pronouns: he/him/his

Expertise: medical ethics, health care policy, social and political philosophy, genome technology, precision medicine, health care rationing, democratic deliberation on bioethical issues, public health preparedness, death and dying

 

Larissa Fluegel

Larissa Fluegel

  • Assistant Professor, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice
  • Learning Society Fellow, CHM West
  • Pronouns: she/her/hers

Expertise: medical education, medical ethics, shared decision-making, social context of clinical decisions, social determinants of health, health policy

 

Monica List

Monica List

  • Assistant Professor, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice
  • Pronouns: she/her/hers

Expertise: animal welfare, environmental philosophy, feminist philosophy, food and farming systems, philosophy of science, veterinary medicine

 

Megh Marathe

Megh Marathe

  • Assistant Professor, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice
  • Assistant Professor, Department of Media and Information, College of Communication Arts and Sciences
  • Pronouns: they/them/theirs

Expertise: epilepsy, disability, LGBTQIA+ experiences, ethnography, science & technology studies, information studies, social analyses of medical and civic technology, inclusive technology

 

Jennifer McCurdy photo

Jennifer McCurdy

  • Assistant Professor, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice, Department of Medicine
  • Pronouns: she/her/hers

Expertise: clinical bioethics consultation, policy-writing, education; application of critical social theories to bioethics: postcolonialism, anti-colonialism, critical race, religious studies; health equity; interdisciplinary bioethics education; critical care ethics

 

Michelle Pham

Michelle T. Pham

  • Assistant Professor, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice, Department of Medicine
  • Pronouns: she/her/hers

Expertise: neuroethics, medical ethics, philosophy of science, social epistemology, feminist philosophy

 

Adjunct Faculty

Christopher Contag photo

Christopher Contag

Expertise: biomedicine, biomedical engineering, microbiology, molecular imaging, precision health and medicine

 

Sabrina Ford photo

Sabrina Ford

Expertise: cancer disparities, cancer prevention and intervention, health behaviors, endometriosis, ademoyosis and liemyomas, STDs and HIV in young women

 

Henry Ford Health Faculty

Karen Smith

Karen L. Smith, LMSW, PhD, HEC-C

  • Adjunct Associate Professor, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice
  • Director of Ethics Integration
  • Henry Ford Health
  • Pronouns: she/her/hers

Expertise: clinical ethics consultation, hospital policy formation, medical ethics, philosophy, social work

 

Denise White Perkins

Denise White Perkins, MD, PhD

  • Clinical Professor, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice
  • Director, Healthcare Equity Initiatives, Office of System Diversity Equity and Inclusion
  • Vice Chair of Academic Affairs, Department of Family Medicine
  • Henry Ford Health
  • Pronouns: she/her/hers

Expertise: health equity, family medicine, public health, social determinants of health, diabetes, hypertension, patient centered health care, graduate medical education

 

Research Assistants

Arynn de Leeuw

Arynn de Leeuw

  • Graduate Research Assistant
  • Pronouns: she/her

Arynn de Leeuw is a graduate research assistant working with Assistant Professor Michelle Pham on an NIH funded qualitative study involving BRAIN Pioneers. Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) methods will be used to determine best practices to support BRAIN Pioneers before, during, and after their participation in invasive and intensive experiments. Arynn has a Bachelor's degree in Health Science from Oakland University and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Public Health with a focus in biostatistics and epidemiology at Michigan State University.

 

Jacob Krehbiel

Jacob Krehbiel

  • Research Assistant
  • Pronouns: he/him

Jacob Krehbiel is a research assistant working with Assistant Professor Ariel Cascio on the project "Meanings of autism and work: Autistic and non-autistic people navigating shared spaces and conflicting conceptualizations.” He has a bachelor's degree in Journalism and Technical Communication from Ferris State University.

 

 

Nadine Shetiah

  • Undergraduate Research Assistant
  • Pronouns: she/her

Nadine Shetiah is an undergraduate research assistant working under the direction of Assistant Professor Ariel Cascio on Autism and neurodiversity research, including the project "Meanings of Autism and work: Autistic and non-Autistic people navigating shared spaces and conflicting conceptualizations." She will assist with project management, recruitment, data collection, data analysis, and dissemination. Nadine is a sophomore majoring in Neuroscience and minoring in Spanish at Michigan State University.