Drs. James & Marcia Childress
Dr. James F. Childress is the John Allen Hollingsworth Professor of Ethics at the University of Virginia where he directs the Institute for Practical Ethics and Public Life. He is also Professor of Religious Studies, Professor of Public Policy in the Batten School, and Professor of Research in Medical Education in the School of Medicine. James is the author of numerous articles and several books in biomedical ethics and other areas of ethics. His books in biomedical ethics include Principles of Biomedical Ethics (with Tom L. Beauchamp), which is now in its 7th edition and has been translated into several languages. He has served on several national committees on biomedical ethics and public policy. For instance, he was vice chair of the national Task Force on Organ Transplantation and served twice on the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee. He was appointed by President Clinton to the National Bioethics Advisory Commission (1996-2001). James is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a fellow of the Hastings Center. His many awards include the Life-time Achievement Award from the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities (2004) and the University of Virginia’s highest honor, The Thomas Jefferson Award (2002). James received his B.A. from Guilford College, his B.D. from Yale Divinity School, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University.
Dr. Marcia Day Childress is an Associate Professor of Medical Education and David A. Harrison III Distinguished Medical Educator at the University of Virginia. She directs Programs in Humanities within the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Humanities and leads the Medical Center Hour, the medical school's weekly public forum on medicine and society. Marcia's interests include narrative medicine, interdisciplinary and inter-professional learning, and uses of the arts and humanities in professional education. She writes at the intersection of literature and medicine—for instance, on Virginia Woolf's illness experience and metaphoric language and the relevance of Samuel Beckett's short plays to clinical medicine. She teaches medical school courses in Literature and Medicine and Images of Medicine and supervises student research in humanities and arts. In the College of Arts and Sciences, she offers an English course, Narratives of Illness and Doctoring. She is co-founder of Clinician's Eye, a visual observation workshop in the university art museum for medical students and other clinicians. Marcia is also a charter member of the medical school's Academy of Distinguished Educators, Professor Childress has won awards for teaching, including the David A. Harrison III Distinguished Educator Award for career achievements in medical education. She is active in university service, having chaired the university's Faculty Senate and the President's Advisory Committee on Women's Concerns. In 2009, she received UVA's top women's award, the Elizabeth Zintl Leadership Award. Professor Childress holds degrees in English literature from Michigan State University (BA) and the University of Virginia (MA and PhD).
