I am an Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at the University of Utah, where I serve as Director of our new Medical Humanities Major. I am also a member of the Council of Directors for the University’s interdisciplinary Center for Health Ethics, Arts, and Humanities, and a fellowship-trained Healthcare Ethics Consultant-Certified (HEC-C) clinical ethicist.

My research is largely within ethics, philosophy of medicine, philosophy of emotion, and moral psychology. Much of my current work focuses on grief: what grief is, what grief can tell us about how we value, and why thinking about grief is important for understanding human health and flourishing. I am also interested in the medicalization of grief and the broader roles that medical institutions and diagnostic categories play in shaping how we understand each other, ourselves, and our experiences.

Before joining the University of Utah, I was a Clinical Ethics Fellow at Baylor College of Medicine’s Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy in Houston, Texas. During my time in Houston, I worked with healthcare professionals, patients, and patients’ families and loved ones as a member of Houston Methodist Hospital’s Biomedical Ethics Consultation Service. You can learn more about clinical ethics consultation work here.

I received my PhD in Philosophy from the University of Michigan in July 2024.

You can also find me on PhilPeople and LinkedIn