April 2026 Newsletter
Lectures in Utah: Director’s Reflections
“It was an honor to go to the University of Utah as both Max P. and Sara Lee Cowan lecturer and the Priscilla B. Mayden Lecturer. I gave two lectures at the university. One was on misconceptions about race and racism in medicine, which I argue have led to racism getting neglected in conversations around health inequities, when racism should instead be foregrounded. The other lecture was about missteps in recent federal policies around public health, which I argue have been hubristic and brash, while the public health scholarly community has developed a rich literature on why humility and collaboration are vital for effective and ethical public health work.
The most impactful part of my trip, though, was being a guest lecturer in a colleague's bioethics class, inside Utah State Correctional Facility. I was presenting about an article I had written on mass incarceration as a bioethics issue. The incarcerated students were some of the most engaged, and most impressive in the insightfulness of their questions and comments, of any students I have ever taught. It was a conversation about prisons, held inside a prison chapel turned into a makeshift classroom. It was a conversation about injustices, while sitting atop toxic land next to the shrinking Great Salt Lake, where the wind blows salt residue mixed with lead and other accumulated pollution.
The conversations I had there, underscored by the visceral illustration of health inequities at the prison, made me think back to the BSJ mission we adopted five years ago. ‘There is so much more work ahead as we seek to make the health system compassionate, respectful, and responsive to people’s needs, so that equity, inclusion and social justice are available to all.’”
-Director Sean Valles
Center Professor Launches New Book Project
On March 4, Dr. Jennifer McCurdy served as co–master of ceremonies with Dr. April Mack at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado, celebrating Dr. Miguel De La Torre’s 50th book publication. During the event, McCurdy and Mack announced a new edited volume, a festschrift in honor of De La Torre, to be published by Orbis. Titled Embracing Hopelessness: Subverting Structures, the book will feature 19 essays by international scholars engaging De La Torre’s concept of embracing hopelessness as a methodology for liberation.
Recent Publications
Elmadawy, H., Pauls, S., Burke, K., Asbahi, O., Johnson, D., Lesser, K., … Cascio, M. A. (2026). The impact of food insecurity on post-secondary educational outcomes in racial groups: a systematic review. Journal of American College Health, 74(1), 129–139. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2025.2501015
Pham, M.T., de Leeuw, A., Burkhart, I., Klein, E., Goering, S. Why We Need Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) in Neuroethics, Neuroethics 19, 15 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12152-026-09643-7
Giving to the Center
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