Tag: medical anthropology

Ariel Cascio joining Center faculty this fall

Ariel Cascio

The Center for Bioethics and Social Justice at Michigan State University is excited to welcome new faculty member M. Ariel Cascio, PhD, who starts in August. Cascio has an anthropology and neuroethics background, and their work is also oriented around research ethics, disability studies, and medical education.

Cascio received their PhD in anthropology from Case Western Reserve University in 2015. Their research has focused on ethical and social issues related to autism and neurodiversity more broadly. During their dissertation research, Cascio spent almost a year in Italy conducting ethnographic research with youth attending autism-focused services.

Most recently Cascio was an assistant professor at Central Michigan University College of Medicine. Previously they were a postdoctoral researcher at the Pragmatic Health Ethics Research Unit of the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal (IRCM), where they conducted a multi-national, multi-lingual survey study that investigated the preferences of autistic people and parents for different types of services, and collaborated with autistic people and other stakeholders to develop person-oriented research ethics suggestions for studies involving autistic people.

Dr. Karen Kelly-Blake promoted to associate professor

Karen Kelly-Blake photoThe Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences is thrilled to announce the promotion of Dr. Karen Kelly-Blake to associate professor. Dr. Kelly-Blake holds an appointment in both the Center for Ethics and the Department of Medicine in the College of Human Medicine (CHM).

Dr. Kelly-Blake holds a PhD in medical anthropology from Michigan State University and specializes in health services research, shared decision-making, and medical workforce policy and development. She joined the Center in 2009 as a project manager on a grant of Dr. Margaret Holmes-Rovner’s, became a research associate in 2011, and assistant professor in 2014. She has played an integral part in the development and implementation of social context of clinical decisions (SCCD) content in the CHM Shared Discovery Curriculum.

Dr. Kelly-Blake is currently working with colleagues in the Department of Medicine, the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures, and the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics to resubmit an NIH R01 to assess implementation of the Office Guidelines Applied to Practice Program for medication adherence for heart disease management in people with diabetes in Federally Qualified Healthcare Centers across the state of Michigan. She is also working with colleagues at the University of Michigan to submit a new NIH R01 to assess a multi-level clinical intervention for patient navigator enhanced colorectal cancer screening in community primary care practice settings. Additionally, she is working with the Assistant Director of the Center for Ethics on a project to assess the value of patient-physician concordance on patient health outcomes.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Kelly-Blake!