Using the Liberal Arts to Explore and Heal from Moral Distress

Kate Jackson-Meyer, Ph.D

Kate Jackson-Meyer, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University. Her research focuses on issues at the intersection of fundamental moral theology and social ethics. Her current research investigates the problems of tragic dilemmas, moral distress, and moral injury infields such as bioethics, war, and peacemaking in order to analyze the complexity of moral decision-making and the prospects for community-based moral healing. She is the author of Tragic Dilemmas in Christian Ethics (Georgetown University Press, 2022). She earned a Ph.D. in theological ethics from Boston College, a M.A.R. in ethics from Yale Divinity School, and a B.A. in biology and religion from the University of Southern California.

Aimee Milliken, Ph.D., RN, HEC-C

Aimee Milliken, Ph.D., RN, HEC-C, is an associate professor of the practice at the Connell School of Nursing. She practiced as a critical care nurse for over a decade and spent five years as a clinical ethicist, including serving as the Executive Director of a high-volume ethics service at a large academic medical center in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She received her Ph.D. from Boston College, where her dissertation involved the development and psychometric validation of the Ethical Awareness Scale. During her postdoctoral fellowship, she received funding to research trends in ethics consultation. Dr. Milliken has taught, published, and presented nationally and internationally on the topics of nursing ethics and clinical ethics. She is the Co-Editor of the Clinical Ethics Handbook for Nurses: Emphasizing Context, Communication, and Collaboration (Springer, 2022).

Melissa K. Uveges, Ph.D., M.A.R., RN

Melissa K. Uveges, Ph.D., M.A.R., RN, is an assistant professor at the Connell School of Nursing. She practiced as a neonatal intensive care nurse for almost two decades, most recently at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, MD. Additionally, she trained for two years as a clinical ethics consultant at Montefiore Medical Center (Bronx, NY). Her research and work focus on improving the care of children with genetic conditions, and their families. Dr. Uveges received postdoctoral research training in genetics and ethics at Harvard Medical School after earning her Ph.D. in nursing at Johns Hopkins University and studying ethics, policy, management, and leadership at Yale University. She has served on hospital ethics committees and working groups at Advent Health Orlando (FL), Yale-New Haven Hospital (CT), Montefiore Medical Center (NY), and Johns Hopkins Hospital (MD). Currently, she is an Ethics Associate at Boston Children’s Hospital and a member of the hospital’s Ethics Advisory Committee (EAC).

The Common Tones of Boston College

Founded in 2015, The Common Tones of Boston College is the newest a capella organization on campus. The group was created in order to bring the passion of Boston College voices into the heart of Boston. Versatile in repertoire and dedicated to serving the community, the Common Tones are a committed, energetic, and vibrant family of singers. The Common Tones volunteer at numerous sites in and around Boston, including Rosie’s Place, and also perform at BC-sponsored events.

The Boston College Dance Ensemble 

The Boston College Dance Ensemble (BCDE) is the oldest student-run dance group on campus, providing opportunities for approximately thirty talented dancers from a variety of backgrounds to rehearse, choreograph, perform, and share their love of dance. The dance ensemble is known for its dedication, energy and diversity of talent. Performances showcase styles ranging from contemporary jazz and ballet to tap and hip hop. BCDE is proud to partner with the Campus School and to have the opportunity to collaborate with BC’s broader dance communitythrough bi-annual productions at the Robsham Theater and at other events around campus. 

Andrea Vicini, SJ

At Boston College, Andrea Vicini, SJ, is Chairperson, Michael P. Walsh Professor of Bioethics, and Professor of Theological Ethics in the Theology Department and an affiliate member of the Ecclesiastical Faculty at the School of Theology and Ministry. M.D. and pediatrician (University of Bologna), he is an alumnus of Boston College (S.T.L. and Ph.D.) and holds an S.T.D. from the Pontifical Faculty of Theology of Southern Italy in Naples. He taught in Italy, Albania, Mexico, Chad, and France. He is co-chair of the international network Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church, as well as lecturer and member of associations of moral theologians and bioethicists in Italy, Europe, and the US. His research interests and publications include theological bioethics, global public health, new biotechnologies, environmental issues, and fundamental theological ethics. During the academic year 2015–2016, he had a research fellowship at the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, NJ, on the Societal Implications of Astrobiology. Since 2021 he is a Fellow of the Collegium Ramazzini. Recent publications include three co-edited volumes—Reimagining the Moral Life: On Lisa Sowle Cahill’s Contributions to Christian Ethics (2020), Ethics of Global Public Health: Climate Change, Pollution, and the Health of the Poor (2021), and The Rising Global Cancer Pandemic: Health, Ethics, and Social Justice (2022).

Kalpana Seshadri

Dr. Seshadri is a professor in the Department of English. She specializes in Postcolonial Studies and theories of contemporary Globalization and relations of power. She teaches courses pertaining to British colonialism, colonial literature and non-western literatures in English. Her research field is the Philosophy of Race and inequality, focusing on questions of subjectivity, ethics, language and law. Courses include Global Englishes; Debates and Issues in Postcolonial Studies; British Literature and Postcolonial Criticism, Fictions of Empire. Her current research deals with the inter-relation of the consumer driven global economy with the non-human.

Filippa Anzalone

Filippa Marullo Anzalone has served as a professor and the Associate Dean for Library and Technology Services at Boston College Law School since August 2002. Anzalone has taught mindfulness for lawyers, semester in practice, advanced legal research, and an art law seminar. Legal education, mindfulness, student formation, and leadership are of particular interest to her.Before joining Boston College Law School, Anzalone worked at Northeastern University School of Law School for almost eleven years as Professor of Law and Director of Information and Research Services. Prior to entering academic law librarianship, Anzalone was the director of the law library at the Boston law firm of Bingham, Dana and Gould (now Bingham McCutchen). She also worked as a research librarian at Dike, Bronstein, Roberts, Cushman & Pfund, a public library administrator at the Cambridge Public Library, and the head children's librarian at the Medford Public Library. . She has served as a consultant to a number of law school libraries and lectured both in the United States and abroad on leadership, mindfulness, and management issues. Anzalone received a B.A. from Smith College in 1975, a M.S.L.S. from Simmons College in 1977, and a J.D. from Suffolk University in 1985.

Clare Dunsford

After serving as an associate dean in the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences at Boston College for twenty years, Clare Dunsford taught in the B.C. English Department as a Visiting Associate Professor for the past 3 years teaching Disability Studies and Medical Humanities among other courses. She currently teaches part-time in the Department. Dunsford is the author of a memoir about her experience as a mother of a boy with fragile X syndrome, Spelling Love with an X: A Mother, a Son, and the Gene That Binds Them (Beacon Press, 2007). Chapters from the book have appeared in X Stories: The Personal Side of Fragile X Syndrome (Flying Trout Press), Love You to Pieces: Creative Writers on Raising a Child with Special Needs (Beacon Press), the first literary collection on raising special-needs children, and in the winter 2006 issue of The Kenyon Review, an issue dedicated to the Human Genome Project. She is also a contributor to The Story Within: Personal Essays on Genetics and Identity (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013), edited by Amy Boesky.

Jaime Espiniella García, SJ

Jaime Espiniella García, SJ, is a Jesuit from Spain and currently a graduate student in the S.T.L. program in moral theology at the School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College. His focus is on end-of-life issues, exploring palliative care from the perspective of social justice. He received his S.T.B. theology degree from Comillas Pontifical University, a B.A. in philosophy from the Pontifical University of Salamanca, and a B.S.N. from the Red Cross School of Nursing of the Autonomous University of Madrid.