William Andereck, MD
Medical Director
William S. Andereck, M.D. has practiced General Internal Medicine in San Francisco since 1979. He received his undergraduate degree at Vanderbilt University and his medical degree from the University of Tennessee in 1974. There he was introduced to medical ethics by Drs. Edmund Pellegrino and David Thomasma.
In the early 1980's he studied with Albert Jonsen, Ph.D., Professor of Bioethics at the University of California, San Francisco, whom he now co-directs California Pacific Medical Center’s Program in Medicine and Human Values with. Dr. Andereck is the Medical Director of this Program.
Albert Jonsen, PhD
Senior Ethics Scholar-in-Residence and Co-Director
Dr. Albert Jonsen is Emeritus Professor of Ethics in Medicine at the School of Medicine, University of Washington, where he was Chairman of the Department of Medical History and Ethics from 1987 - 1999. From 1972 to 1987, he was Chief of the Division of Medical Ethics, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco. Prior to that, he was President of the University of San Francisco, where he taught in the Departments of Philosophy and Theology. He received his doctorate from the Department of Religious Studies, Yale University, in l967. His earlier education was at Gonzaga University in Spokane and Santa Clara University in California. Professor Jonsen has written chapters in over 70 books on medicine and health care.
Katrina Bramstedt, PhD
Clinical Ethicist
Dr. Bramstedt is a former medical device engineer (cardiac implants) turned bioethicist with a special focus in transplant ethics and research ethics. She received her doctorate at Monash University, Faculty of Medicine, in Melbourne Australia and did her Fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is originally from San Diego. She is married and has two dogs, a curly coat retreiver and a weimeraner and enjoys writing and cooking. She has over 60 medical journal publications. She lives in Sausalito.
Staff
Thomasine Kushner, PhD
Tomi is a Clinical Professor of Bioethics and a Senior Research Fellow, Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley and editor of the Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics. Each year, Tomi organizes the International Bioethics Retreat. She is married and lives part-time in Sausalito and in Paris.
Steve Heilig, MPH
Steve Heilig is a San Francisco-based author, editor, ethicist, epidemiologist, administrator, lecturer and researcher specializing in health and ecological issues. He is Director of Public Health and Education for the San Francisco Medical Society and director of the Community Service Foundation there, founding Co-Editor of a leading international professional journal, the Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, co-founder and Director of the Bay Area Network of Ethics Committees, a professional education and policymaking association, and a Senior Research Associate with Commonwealth where he is co-director of the Collaborative on Health and the Environment.
Wes McGaughey
Wes, our Research Analyst, has been with the Program for over three years, directing our research as well as serving as the primary contact for persons requesting an ethics consultation. He also assists with development and administers the hospital's ethics committee. He came to us from the California State Senate.
Antonio Kruger
Antonio is the Administrator for the Program. All administrative inquiries and requests, including attempts to reach either co-director, can be made by contacting him.
Lylian Yuen
Lylian is the Program's Research Assistant. Her background is in behavioral psychology research and some research in opthalmology. She is married and a native of San Francisco. In her free time, Lylian volunteers at the San Francisco Animal Shelter.
Visiting Scholars
Lawrence J. Schneiderman, MD
Dr. Schneiderman is an internist and noted biomedical ethicist who has gained particular recognition in recent years for his seminal work in the area of medical futility and advance directives (living wills). In the first prospective controlled study of advance directives he found that, contrary to most expectations, people who sign such directives to forgo heroic measures under hopeless conditions do not shorten their lives nor consume less medical resources. He has also conducted one of the few empirical studies (including the first prospective controlled trial) of ethics consultations, a new area of medical activity.
Dr. Schneiderman is very active in the service arena, providing ethics consultations and invited talks for a variety of audiences includingacademics and practitioners in medicine, law, the judiciary, and philosophy, as well as the lay public. He organized and chaired a statewide conference exploring the possibility of establishing standards of care with respect to medical futility.
Past Visiting Scholars
Bernard J. Hammes, PhD
Clinical Ethics Specialist, Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center, La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Jacob Needleman, PhD
Jacob Needleman is a professor of philosophy at San Francisco State University and the author of many books, including A Little Book on Love, Time and the Soul, The Heart of Philosophy, Lost Christianity, and Money and the Meaning of Life.
Robert Pearlman, MD, MPH
Robert Pearlman, MD, MPH, is a Professor of Medicine (as well as Health Services, and Medical History and Ethics) at the University of Washington.