Meet some of our current students!
Julia Burca
4+1 / MA in Bioethics
Julia is currently a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences at Emory University. She is finishing her undergraduate degree in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology a year early, while also pursuing a 4 + 1 Bioethics masters degree. During her senior year, she will be completing her honors research program, with an emphasis on neuroethics topics. Her preliminary project outline focuses on how faith and culture impact clinical care between individuals who do not share core values or come from drastically different backgrounds. Her work will closely follow a study on the diagnosis of depression among Tibetan Buddhist monks. Julia believes her continued education at Emory will prepare her to apply her knowledge and expertise within various healthcare departments. After completing her masters degree, she hopes to begin medical school in the Atlanta area fall of 2025.
Samantha Chipman
Doctoral Certificate in Bioethics
Samantha graduated with a BA/MA in English from Loyola University Chicago with double minors in philosophy and Chinese. She is currently an English PhD student and Bioethics Certificate candidate at Emory. At Loyola, she examined epistemic injustice faced by women and girls with Autism. There, she recognized that her neurodiversity research and advocacy address bioethics issues. Since then, she’s completed a biomedical ethics internship at the Mayo Clinic, working with Dr. Karen Meagher and Dr. Amelia Barwise on a project about language-related health inequities, public health ethics values, and the context of COVID-19 as a case study for these issues. In graduate school, Samantha hopes to explore pathways at the intersection of bioethics and her literary pursuits. Examining the history of psychiatry (especially the Early Modern period and 19th Century), disability studies, and utilizing archival methodologies can become a nexus point to consider pressing moral questions that can transform theory to practice. Not only will the bioethics certificate provide her with valuable on-the-ground experience in clinical bioethics and public health, it will further enable her to add her voice to the conversation in addressing health disparities in praxis, research, and policy.
Madison Stemples
JD/MA-Bioethics
Madison is a law student here at Emory. focusing on Health Law. During her undergraduate degree in Philosophy, she participated in the intercollegiate Ethics Bowl, an interdisciplinary ethics competition focusing on the ethical ramifications of contemporary issues. This participation sparked her passion for bioethics-it fostered the coolest, most practical, and most interdisciplinary conversations she had ever been a part of. Madison is excited to continue in her role of Philosophy Student as she studies both law and bioethics, and even more excited to see where this intersection leads her.
Meghan Hurley
4+1 / MA in Bioethics
Meghan is currently a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences at Emory University and plans to graduate in Spring 2021 with a BS in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology and a BA in German Studies.Throughout her undergraduate career, she has loved exploring the interdisciplinary applications of neuroscience, allowing her to read and learn about a wide range of topics such as philosophy, law, and technology. In the future, Meghan is interested in pursuing a law degree that allows her to integrate these fields, possibly working on science policy or the regulation of future neurotechnologies. Not only will the MA in Bioethics program help her to solidify her interests in the legal field, but she also believes that it will be the perfect steppingstone from a science-heavy undergraduate education to a formal legal education. She understands how important it is today for scientists, ethicists, and policymakers to work together to create informed policy, and hopes that her education will prepare her to be a part of this process.
Athan Tiliakos
MA in Bioethics
Dr. Tiliakos is an attending physician at both Grady Memorial Hospital and The Emory Clinic. He has been able to witness the frailties of our healthcare system. Innovations in science and technology are allowing us to provide our patients with sophisticated diagnostic and treatment modalities that have significantly impacted morbidity and mortality caused by many diseases. These innovations come at a tremendous economic cost. Should everyone have access to these innovations? Athan applied to the Bioethics program in order to help provide him with the necessary tools to study these types of questions.
Linzie Taylor
Doctoral Certificate in Bioethics
Linzie graduated from Georgia State University with a BS in Neuroscience and minored in African American Studies. They started their doctoral studies in Emory’s Neuroscience program and realized the importance and necessity of cultural perspectives like Black Feminism within scientific research. Thus, they began working with Dr. Karen Rommelfanger exploring the role bias can play within science and technology. Linzie’s overall goal while in graduate school is to begin to merge Black Feminist principles and concepts in neuroscience by creating a Black Feminist thought informed neuroethical guide to aid with their research investigating emotional regulation in Black women. Creation of this guide can serve as an emerging new perspective that can challenge traditional research approaches to establish better community engagement throughout science.
