Symposium speakers are listed in order of appearance in the program. Please click here to view the program schedule and to RSVP.

Thorsten Wagner
Symposium lecturer
Executive Director for Strategy & Academics, FASPE

Thorsten Wagner is the Executive Director of FASPE and has been involved with the organization since its beginnings in 2009. He is a German historian, who grew up in Denmark and completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Tübingen, Germany, and
his graduate work at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the Technische Universität Berlin, and the Freie Universität Berlin, earning his MA from the TU Berlin in 1998. Living in Berlin for about two decades, Thorsten worked as a research fellow at the Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and started teaching at the Humboldt University in Berlin. From 2010-2019, he held a permanent position as Associate Professor at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad/University of Copenhagen.

Having authored numerous academic publications in the fields of Modern German and European Jewish History, antisemitism, Holocaust studies, cultures of memory, and Israeli history and society, he also worked as the historical consultant for the acclaimed documentary “Germans and Jews”, dealing with contemporary Germany, its relationship to its Nazi past and the reemergence of Jewish life.

Dhruv Khullar, MD, MP
Symposium Lecturer and Panelist
Physician and Associate Professor of Health Policy and Economics, Weill Cornell Medical College

Dhruv Khullar is a contributing writer at The New Yorker covering medicine, health care, and politics. He is a practicing physician and an associate professor at Weill Cornell Medical College, where he serves as the director of the Physicians Foundation Center for the Study of Physician Practice and Leadership. He is also an associate director of the Cornell Health Policy Center. His research, which focusses on value-based care, health disparities, and medical innovation, has been published in JAMA and The New England Journal of Medicine. Khullar began his work in journalism in 2013, and has contributed to the New York Times, the Washington Post, and The Atlantic. He earned his medical degree from the Yale School of Medicine and completed his medical training at Massachusetts General Hospital. He also received a master’s degree in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a fellow at the Center for Public Leadership.

Fr. Michael Rozier, SJ, PhD
Symposium Panel Moderator
Department Chair of Health Management and Policy,
Saint Louis University

Michael Rozier is an associate professor and department chair of Health Management and Policy at Saint Louis University. Rozier received his B.A. in chemistry from Saint Louis University in 2003 and upon graduation, he entered the Jesuits, an order of Roman Catholic priests. During his Jesuit formation, he earned graduate degrees in philosophy from the University of Toronto, in international health from Johns Hopkins University, and in moral theology from Boston College. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 2014 and in 2018, he earned his Ph.D. in Health Management and Policy from University of Michigan. His research focuses on the use of moral rhetoric in health policy, geospatial location’s effect on health-related privacy, and the relationship between moral imagination and social structures.

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In 2008, Rozier served as an ethics fellow with the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland; in 2012, Rozier was selected to participate in FASPE; and in 2019, he served as a GeoEthics Fellow with the American Geographical Society. Rozier has long worked with communities of need, including the homeless, incarcerated, and refugees, both in the US and Central America. Rozier serves on several advisory boards for Catholic Health Association and on the board of directors of SSM Health Care Corporation, a multi-state health care system in the Midwest. He also serves on the board of trustees of Marquette University and St. Johns’ College in Belize.

Jay Malone, MD, PhD, HEC-C
Symposium Panelist
Associate Professor of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine,
Washington University School of Medicine
Medical Director of Ethics, Saint Louis Children’s Hospital

Jay Malone, MD, PhD, HEC-C, is an Associate Professor of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Malone leads the ethics program at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, where he is the medical director of ethics and chair of the clinical ethics committee. He earned bachelor’s and medical degrees from the University of Oklahoma, where he also completed pediatric residency and chief residency. He completed his fellowship training in critical care medicine at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. He holds a master’s degree in health care ethics from Creighton University, and earned a PhD in health care ethics from St. Louis University, where he is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor of Health Care Ethics.

Michaella Baker, JD, MBA, MPH
Symposium Panel Moderator

Behavioral Health Specialist, McKinsey & Company

Michaella Baker is a Behavioral Health Specialist at McKinsey & Company, where she is combining her policy, innovation, and public health expertise by leading teams within the McKinsey Health Institute. She received her JD-MBA at Northwestern, where she focused her time on international human rights and health tech. She was previously a CDC Public Health Law Program Fellow and worked on the General Counsel team at NOCD, a mental health startup. A graduate of Yale College and Yale School of Public Health, she began her career at Global Health Strategies, an NYC-based global health advocacy and policy firm.

Victor Roy, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Pennsylvania

Victor Roy is a physician, sociologist, and author of Capitalizing a Cure: How Finance Controls the Price and Value of Medicines. His research investigates the influence of the financial sector in our healthcare system and its impacts on patients. A practicing family physician, he is Assistant Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Pennsylvania and directs the Health and Political Economy Project, a field catalyst initiative aiming to build a just and inclusive economy for health. He is a FASPE 2015 Medical Fellow. 

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He completed residency training in family medicine at Boston University, serving clinically at Boston Medical Center and Codman Square Health Center. Alongside his medical degree from Northwestern University as a Paul and Daisy Soros New American Fellow, he earned a doctorate in sociology from the University of Cambridge as a Gates Cambridge scholar and post-doctoral training in health services research from Yale National Clinician Scholars Program. Previously, he co-founded and served as Executive Director of GlobeMed, a network of students on university campuses partnering with communities around the world to tackle poverty and health inequity.

Peter Angelos, MD, PhD
Symposium Panelist

Linda Kohler Anderson Professor of Surgery and Surgical Ethics
Director, MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics

Peter Angelos, MD, PhD, FACS, MAMSE, HEC-C is the Linda Kohler Anderson Professor of Surgery and Surgical Ethics; Chief of Endocrine Surgery; and Director of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago. Dr. Angelos completed his undergraduate degree, medical school, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy at Boston University. After a General Surgery residency at Northwestern University, he went on to complete fellowships in Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago and in Endocrine Surgery at the University of Michigan. Dr. Angelos has over 300 peer-reviewed publications and has authored or co-authored over 50 book chapters.

He is a former Governor of the American College of Surgeons, member of the Academy of Master Surgeon Educators of the American College of Surgeons, Councilor of the American Board of Surgery, Chair of the Complex Surgical Oncology Board, member of the Board of Directors of the American Thyroid Association, and past President of the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons.

Karla Childers
Symposium Panelist

Karla G. Childers, BA, MSJ, MSBE 
Head, Bioethics-based Science & Technology Policy 
Office of the Chief Medical Officer 
Johnson & Johnson 

Karla Childers joined Johnson & Johnson (J&J) in October 2013 in the Office of the Chief Medical Officer where her primary responsibility has been leading and coordinating ethics-based, science and technology policy projects. Her longest running responsibility has been the support and coordination of J&J’s Clinical Trial Data Transparency Initiative, including the management of the Yale University Open Data Access (YODA) Project data sharing collaboration.  

Ms. Childers is the Chair of the J&J Bioethics Committee, which serves as an internal forum providing advice on bioethical questions. She is responsible for the management and conduct of that committee and relevant consultations. She serves as a bioethics subject matter expert for internal and external science and technology policy work and coordinates the internal bioethics educational program sponsored by the Office of the Chief Medical Officer.  

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Ms. Childers is also engaged in R&D and ethics-based work outside J&J. She co-founded the Drug Information Association (DIA) Bioethics Community. She served three years on the Public Responsibility in Medicine & Research (PRIM&R) planning committee for the Advancing Ethical Research (AER) conference. Most recently, she joined the Board of Directors for FASPE (Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics). She also serves as a lecturer in the Columbia University Master of Bioethics Program. 

Before joining J&J, she was an Associate Director in Global Project Management (GPM) in Merck Research Laboratories (MRL), where she managed cross functional drug development teams. Prior to joining GPM, Ms. Childers began her career in industry as a chemist in MRL’s Process Chemistry group.   

She received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Chemistry from Purdue University (IUPUI-Indianapolis Campus) and a Master of Science in Jurisprudence with a concentration in Health Law from Seton Hall Law School. She is also a graduate of Columbia University with a Master of Science in Bioethics.