Faculty and Staff Directory
Leadership Team
Sean A. Valles
- Director and Associate Professor, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice
- Pronouns: he/him/his
Expertise: health equity, philosophy, population health, public health, race, social determinants of health
Karen Kelly-Blake
- Associate Director of Academic Programming, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice
- Associate Professor, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice, Department of Medicine
- Pronouns: she/her/hers
Expertise: health services research, shared decision-making, decision aid development and implementation, clinical communication skills and training, mHealth, men’s health, medical workforce policy, health equity, medical education curriculum development, medical education faculty development

Karla Bauer
Center Administrator
- Pronouns: she/her/hers
- bauerka@msu.edu
- 517-353-5197
Karla Bauer is the Center Administrator/Fiscal Officer. She supports the Center’s Director by managing financial reporting, budget planning and administration, human resources, contract and grant management as well as strategic planning.

Liz McDaniel
Communications Coordinator
- Pronouns: she/her/hers
- mcdan108@msu.edu
- 517-355-3474
Liz McDaniel manages digital media outreach and communications for the Center, including the website and blog, social media, and webinar and podcast series. Liz also provides event planning and faculty support.
Faculty
Leonard Fleck
- Professor, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice, Department of Philosophy
- Pronouns: he/him/his
Expertise: medical ethics, health care policy, social and political philosophy, genome technology, precision medicine, health care rationing, democratic deliberation on bioethical issues, public health preparedness, death and dying
Larissa Fluegel
- Assistant Professor, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice
- Learning Society Fellow, CHM West
- Pronouns: she/her/hers
Expertise: medical education, medical ethics, shared decision-making, social context of clinical decisions, social determinants of health, health policy
- Assistant Professor, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice
- Pronouns: she/her/hers
Expertise: animal welfare, environmental philosophy, feminist philosophy, food and farming systems, philosophy of science, veterinary medicine
- Assistant Professor, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice
- Assistant Professor, Department of Media and Information, College of Communication Arts and Sciences
- Pronouns: they/them/theirs
Expertise: epilepsy, disability, LGBTQIA+ experiences, ethnography, science & technology studies, information studies, social analyses of medical and civic technology, inclusive technology
- Assistant Professor, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice
- Pronouns: she/her/hers
Expertise: clinical bioethics consultation, policy-writing, education; application of critical social theories to bioethics: postcolonialism, anti-colonialism, critical race, religious studies; health equity; interdisciplinary bioethics education; critical care ethics
- Assistant Professor, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice, Department of Medicine
- Pronouns: she/her/hers
Expertise: neuroethics, medical ethics, philosophy of science, social epistemology, feminist philosophy
Adjunct Faculty

April Baker-Bell
- Adjunct Associate Professor
- Associate Professor of Language, Literacy, and English Education, Department of English, Department of African American and African Studies
Expertise: linguistic justice, antiracist pedagogies, Black language education, anti-Black racism, race consciousness and racial bias literacy in health and medicine

Christopher Contag
- Adjunct Professor
- Director, Institute for Quantitative Health Science and Engineering
- Hannah Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Microbiology & Molecular Genetics
Expertise: biomedicine, biomedical engineering, microbiology, molecular imaging, precision health and medicine

Sabrina Ford
- Adjunct Associate Professor
- Associate Professor, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology
Expertise: cancer disparities, cancer prevention and intervention, health behaviors, endometriosis, ademoyosis and liemyomas, STDs and HIV in young women
Emeritum Faculty

Judith Andre
Professor Emerita, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice, Department of Philosophy

Elizabeth Bogdan-Lovis
Senior Specialist Emerita, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice

Margaret Holmes-Rovner
Professor Emerita, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice, Department of Medicine

Tom Tomlinson
Professor Emeritus, Center for Bioethics and Social Justice, Department of Philosophy