Ethics Fellowship Program

Introduction

UCLA Health Ethics Center's primary commitment is to the promotion of excellence in patient care. Given the value-laden nature of healthcare, this excellence can only be achieved in care environments where moral insight, sensitivity and commitment flourish. Our 2-year Clinical Ethics Fellowship Program exists to educate and train gifted individuals who share this vision.

Our fellows commit to a demanding clinical schedule, providing supervised clinical ethics consultation, on call coverage, education throughout the UCLA Health system, assistance in developing policies, service as a member of three ethics committees and a participating in research projects and individual scholarship.

Given the volume and complexity of UCLA ethics consultation (which includes transplant medicine, trauma surgery, oncology, emergency medicine, psychiatry, neurology, neonatology, pediatrics and gerontology), our close relationship with various academic departments at the university and the intensive individual mentorship and thorough assessment built into our program, we believe that it provides our fellows with an unrivalled opportunity to acquire and refine the full range of skills necessary to offer ethics consultation on a professional basis.
It is our confident expectation that those who graduate from our program will be uniquely placed both nationally and internationally to assume the responsibilities of leadership in clinical ethics as it emerges as a fully professional practice.

Admission Criteria

The successful candidate must have a PhD in bioethics/health care ethics or in philosophical ethics with a bioethics related dissertation.

Preference will be given to candidates with teaching experience in ethics at university-level and a demonstrated record of ethics publication in peer review journals.      

The successful candidate must have a strong aptitude for clinical ethics, commitment to the professionalization of clinical ethics, and be able to demonstrate significant potential to become a leader in the field. The ability to integrate cross-cultural care, end-of-life/palliative care, psychosocial and spiritual care into clinical care is critical to this role. We are searching for a compassionate and empathic professional with excellent interpersonal skills who is able to utilize critical and creative thinking in navigating complex ethical issues. A commitment to collaborative work in a fast-paced environment is essential.

Current Fellows

Senior Fellow 
Max Kramer, PhD (2023-2025)

Junior Fellow     

Katie Wong, PhD (2024-2026)