Penn State Bioethics and Medical Humanities Panel

Do you find yourself asking these questions?  

• Do we have the right to health care? 

• What demands does social justice make on public health? 

• Is it wrong for governments to influence our food choices to promote public health?  

If so, the College of the Liberal Arts' Bioethics and Medical Humanities minor enables students to explore these questions and so many others using philosophy, ethics, fiction, film, and so much more. Tackling the “big questions” through an innovative, interdisciplinary lens, the intercollege Bioethics program focuses on ethical and policy issues arising in a broad range of arenas--from pandemic justice to corporate influence on public health, and from health humanities to emerging technologies.  

The College of the Liberal Arts is hosting a panel discussion for you to learn more about what it means to search for these answers. Join us on Thursday, November 18 at 5:30 p.m. EST to hear from Penn State faculty, experts in the field, and students in the minor. Read the panelists’ bios on the registration webpage. 

• Michele Mekel is the interim director of the intercollege Bioethics program at Penn State. She is also an assistant teaching professor of bioethics and an affiliate faculty member of Penn State Law and the Rock Ethics Institute. Michele has a joint appointment in the College of Medicine’s Department of Humanities. She is the co-principal investigator of Penn State’s Viral Imaginations: COVID-19 project.

• Jeffrey Catchmark is a professor of agricultural and biological engineering and an affiliate faculty member of the Rock Ethics Institute. His professional interests are ethics, bioethics, ethical leadership and decision making, and ethical organizational management.

• Jessica Barth has dual majors in Philosophy and Biobehavioral Health with a Bioethics and Medical Humanities minor. She is a senior Schreyer Scholar working on a thesis on the connection between animal agriculture and systemic injustice and racism. The Bioethics and Medical Humanities minor has influenced Jessie to apply to graduate schools for bioethics. She hopes to one day become a researcher and writer in the field of bioethics and public health. Working on the minor has introduced Jessie to issues within this field that interest her and has allowed her to begin formulating her own views on bioethical matters.     

• Chloe Connor is a senior from Yardley, Pennsylvania, majoring in Psychology and minoring in Bioethics and Medical Humanities, Global Health, and Biology. Outside of the classroom, the Schreyer Scholar competes on the club cross country team, serves on the Student Conduct Board, works as a Liberal Arts Peer Adviser, and conducts research on campus and at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Chloe’s future plans include getting a graduate degree in public health and a law degree. She ultimately wants to combine these degrees and work in public health law or science and research policy. The bioethics and medical humanities minor has been instrumental in informing Chloe’s interests in how medical ethics intersects with the law. In particular, Chloe has enjoyed delving into bioethical issues in the COVID-19 pandemic, including individual rights versus public interest, vaccine hesitancy, and equity.  

• Blake Greenspan is majoring in Premedicine and minoring in Bioethics. He is a senior from Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, the mushroom capital of the world! In his free time, he likes to play volleyball, kayak, and travel the world. Blake studied abroad in Kenya and Tanzania. He loves attending Penn State football and basketball games. 

• Emma Peoples is a Communication Arts and Sciences major with a minor in Bioethics and Medical Humanities at Penn State Berks. She is a senior and is currently working for a marketing company that specializes in pharmaceutical marketing.   

This session may be a great fit for you if you are interested in health care, food science, environmental ethics, law, global health, psychology, or biobehavioral health.

We look forward to seeing you!