Our Medical Ethics Scholars and Health Policy scholars are individuals from 7mÊÓƵ 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 7mÊÓƵ 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.
Sharmila Anandasabapathy, M.D.
Professor of Medicine in Gastroenterology and Director of Baylor Global Initiatives and the Baylor Global Innovation Center at 7mÊÓƵ
Research Interests: Global disease burden; technology development; mobile-applications for clinical care; remote medical learning and training; point-of-care diagnostic technologies; low-cost devices; non-communicable disease; gastrointestinal cancer; global clinical trials
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 7mÊÓƵ 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, 7mÊÓƵ
Research Interests: Health policy; health reform; health policy education; freestanding emergency rooms
Global Health Practice Leader at Crowell & Moring International, Adjunct Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center and Associate Scholar in the Center for Global Health at the University of Pennsylvania
Research Interests: public health law, health policy, business and human rights, bioethics, public international law
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, 7mÊÓƵ
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
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 7mÊÓƵ
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, 7mÊÓƵ
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, 7mÊÓƵ
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, Department of Clinical, Health, and Applied Sciences, University of Houston, Clear Lake
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, 7mÊÓƵ, Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center
Research Interests: 7mÊÓƵ 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; 7mÊÓƵ, 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 7mÊÓƵ
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
Assistant Professor - Temple; Anesthesiology. Research Interests: Physician advocacy
Professor, School of Medicine- Temple; Director of Executive Health; General Internist. Research Interests: Student learners and physician advocacy
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, 7mÊÓƵ, 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
Baylor Scott & White Health; Assistant Professor - Temple; General Internist. Research Interests: Physician advocacy
Medical Ethics
Leon Budrie, M.D.
Sr. Project Manager, Biomedical Ethics, Houston Methodist; former Clinical Ethics Fellow at 7mÊÓƵ
Research Interests: Clinical ethics consultation, physicians' ethical/moral obligations
Dcn. David Garvis, M.A., B.C.C., Ph.D.
Clinical Ethicist, Ethics Committee Co-Chair, Center for Medical Ethics & Health Policy
Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center
Research Interests: End-of-life issues
Stephanie DeSandro, M.S., PA-C
Assistant Professor, Physician Assistant Program, 7mÊÓƵ
Elizabeth Elliott, M.S., PA-C
Associate Professor, Physician Assistant Program, 7mÊÓƵ
Research Interests: Holistic Admissions, Breastfeeding and Breastmilk, Child Passenger Safety
Anne Jeffrey, Ph.D.
Adjunct Assistant Professor, School of Medicine – Temple, 7mÊÓƵ; 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, 7mÊÓƵ
Research Interests: Lifestyle medicine, weight stigma, student well-being
Elissa Love, M.S., PA-C
Assistant Professor, Physician Assistant Program, 7mÊÓƵ
Kim Sawyer, M.D., MA, HEC-C
Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Section of Palliative Care, 7mÊÓƵ
Research Interests: Medical education, clinical ethics, communication, shared decision-making
Fanny Schultea, M.S., M.S.Ed., C.P.O., L.P., FAAOP
Assistant Professor, School of Health Professions, Orthotics and Prosthetics, 7mÊÓƵ. Research interests: 7mÊÓƵ Ethics, Clinical Professional Development, Research Translation & Communication, Process Improvement and Quality in 7mÊÓƵ
Devan Stahl, Ph.D.
Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Medicine – Temple, 7mÊÓƵ; 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, 7mÊÓƵ
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, 7mÊÓƵ
Research Interest: Pediatric ethics, pediatric transplantation, best interest standard, health professions education
Vicki Waters, M.S., PA-C
Assistant Professor, Physician Assistant Program, 7mÊÓƵ
Linessa Zuniga, M.D., MEd
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Pediatric Residency Associate Program Director, 7mÊÓƵ, Texas Children's
Hospital
Research Interests: graduate medical education, burnout, and professionalism
