Meet the Center for Health Ethics Team

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Director, MU Center for Health Ethics

Medical Director and Healthcare Ethics Consultant, MUHC Clinical Ethics Consultation Service

Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Missouri School of Medicine

Dr. Lea C. Brandt is a Professor at the University of Missouri’s School of Medicine. In addition, she serves in leadership positions as the Director of the University of Missouri’s Center for Health Ethics and Medical Director of the Clinical Ethics Consultation Services for the health system.

Dr. Brandt earned a PhD from University of Missouri’s Sinclair School of Nursing, where her dissertation explored Transforming the Ethical Behavior of Clinicians through Pedagogical Innovation: Sensemaking as a means to promote ethical practice in the face of moral ambiguity. She has also earned a Master of Arts in Bioethics and Health Policy from Loyola University Chicago and a Post-Professional Doctorate in Occupational Therapy with an emphasis in Healthcare Ethics and Administration from Creighton University.

She teaches clinical ethics throughout the University of Missouri Health System and University of Missouri Graduate School. In her role with the Center, she sits on several ethics-related committees, serves as the ethics policy content expert, works as a clinical ethics consultant, chairs the clinical ethics committee, and serves as an investigator on multiple grants.

Dr. Brandt has authored and co-authored multiple publications and continuing education materials on ethics in practice. She also lectures nationally and internationally on the topics of clinical ethics, education, and professionalism in practice.

Assistant Teaching Professor (Springfield Campus), MU Center for Health Ethics, University of Missouri School of Medicine

Director of Ethics at Mercy Springfield, Mercy Health Systems

 

Adjunct Assistant Teaching Professor and Scholar, MU Center for Health Ethics

David Baggett graduated as a philosophy major with his BA from the University of Michigan-Dearborn, then earned his Master’s in Divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary and, in 2002, his PhD in philosophy from Wayne State University. Since earning his doctorate over two decades ago, he has served as a philosophy professor in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Texas. During that time, he has published over fifty articles, reviews, or encyclopedia articles, and about two dozen books, including a tetralogy on ethics and meta-ethics with Oxford University Press. He and his wife (an English professor) recently left their teaching posts in Houston (where he also served as director of a Center for the Foundations of Ethics) to attend the University of Missouri School of Law, in the hopes of using this training, combined with their earlier education and experience teaching, to provide a voice for the marginalized and to contribute in fresh ways to just causes.

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Associate Director, MU Center for Health Ethics, University of Missouri School of Medicine

Healthcare Ethics Consultant, MUHC Clinical Ethics Consultation Service

Assistant Teaching Professor, University of Missouri Sinclair School of Nursing

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Senior Scholar, MU Center for Health Ethics, University of Missouri School of Medicine

Healthcare Ethics Consultant, MUHC Clinical Ethics Consultation Service

Chair Emeritus and Professor Emeritus, Department of Medicine, University of Missouri School of Medicine

David A. Fleming, MD, MA, MACP, is Professor Emeritus of Medicine at University of Missouri's School of Medicine, where he has served on faculty since 1980. From 1999-2001, he was a US Department of Health and Human Services Primary Care Research Fellow at the Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University. He practiced internal medicine and geriatrics in North Central Missouri for nearly 20 years prior to that experience. Dr. Fleming served as Chair of Medicine at the University of Missouri's School of Medicine from 2007-2016 and was founding Director of the MU Center for Health Ethics. He is widely published and pursues research in end-of-life care, health disparity, health literacy, organizational ethics, health care access, and research ethics. Dr. Fleming also served as Chair of the Board of Governors and member of the Board of Regents for the American College of Physicians. He was president of the American College of Physicians from 2014-2015. He also served as a member of the Board of Regents for the National Library of Medicine from 2011-2015.

Administrator, MU Center for Health Ethics, University of Missouri School of Medicine

Scholar, MU Center for Health Ethics, University of Missouri School of Medicine

Healthcare Ethics Consultant, MUHC Clinical Ethics Consultation Service

Assistant Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Missouri, School of Medicine

Assistant Medical Director and Healthcare Ethics Consultant, MUHC Clinical Ethics Consultation Service

Scholar, MU Center for Health Ethics, University of Missouri School of Medicine

Assistant Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Missouri Health Care

Adjunct Assistant Teaching Professor, MU Center for Health Ethics and Department of Biomedical Informatics, Biostatistics and Medical Epidemiology (BBME), University of Missouri School of Medicine

Program Director for Missouri Alzheimer's Program, MU Center for Health Ethics

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Scholar, MU Center for Health Ethics, University of Missouri School of Medicine

Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine and Division Director of Hospitalist Medicine, University of Missouri School of Medicine

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Scholar, MU Center for Health Ethics, University of Missouri School of Medicine

Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, University of Missouri-St. Louis

Jill B. Delston has interests in social and political philosophy, normative ethical theory, applied ethics with a special emphasis on bioethics, and ancient Greek philosophy. She is affiliated with Gender Studies and the NextGen Precision Health Initiative at the University of Missouri system in addition to the MU Center for Health Ethics. Her monograph is entitled, Medical Sexism: Contraception Access, Reproductive Medicine, and Health Care. Delston is the co-editor of a textbook entitled Applied Ethics: A Multicultural Approach, Eds. 5, 6, and 7 (forthcoming). She has won UMSL's Legendary Triton Award (2016), the Emerson Excellence in Teaching Award (2018), the College of Arts and Sciences NTT Faculty Member of the Year (2019), the Gerald and Deanne Gitner Excellence in Teaching Award  (2024), and was a University of Missouri System Presidential Engagement Fellow (2021). She received her B.A. in Liberal Arts from St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from Washington University in St. Louis. Before joining the department in 2012, she was visiting assistant professor of philosophy at Mount Holyoke College.

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Scholar, MU Center for Health Ethics, University of Missouri School of Medicine

Chair and Professor Emeritus, Department of Otolaryngology, University of Missouri School of Medicine

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Scholar, MU Center for Health Ethics, University of Missouri School of Medicine

Dean and Professor of Nursing, Helen E, Nahm Chair in Nursing, University of Missouri Sinclair School of Nursing

Fellow, John A. Hartford Foundation Claire M. Fagin

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Scholar, MU Center for Health Ethics, University of Missouri School of Medicine

Clinical Instructor, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women's Health, University of Missouri School of Medicine

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Scholar, MU Center for Health Ethics, University of Missouri School of Medicine

Professor, Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri College of Arts and Sciences