John M. Haas is the President of The National Catholic Bioethics Center. The Center was established in 1972 to apply the teachings of the Catholic Church to ethical issues arising from developments in medicine, the life sciences and civil law. It is the largest Catholic publisher of books and periodicals on bioethics in the country. Dr. Haas received his Ph.D. in Moral Theology from The Catholic University of America and his S.T.L. in Moral Theology from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. He also has a Master of Divinity degree and has studied at the University of Munich and the University of Chicago Divinity School. Before assuming the Presidency of The National Catholic Bioethics Center, Dr. Haas was the John Cardinal Krol Professor of Moral Theology at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and Adjunct Professor at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies in Marriage and the Family, Washington, D.C.

Dr. Haas also served as a member of the Medical Moral Commission of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and was a faculty member of the Commission for Inter-professional Education and Practice at Ohio State University. He was also Professor of Moral Theology at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Worthington, Ohio. Dr. Haas has testified before the Joint Judiciary Committee of the Massachusetts Legislature on physician-assisted suicide and before the US Senate Committee on Health and Public Safety on the subject of cloning humans. He has also provided testimony to the President’s National Bioethics Advisory Commission. He has written many articles on topics ranging from the role of the laity in the Church, to sexual morality, social justice issues and bio-ethics. He is the editor of and a contributor to Crisis of Conscience (Herder/ Crossroads), a contributor to Christian Marriage: A Historical Study (Herder/Crossroads), has written Marriage and the Priesthood and Contraception: A Personal Odyssey (Scepter Press), and is a contributing editor to Crisis, the St. Austin Review and Touchstone magazines. His Opinion Pieces have appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He has lectured extensively in the United States and abroad, including Peru, Mexico, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Canada, and at the Vatican. He is a consultant to the Committee for Pro-Life Activities of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. He is a former board member of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars and is a board member and faculty member of the International Catholic University. In 2002 Dr. Haas was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Christian Ethics by the Franciscan University of Steubenville. In 2004 he was elected to the board of the International Federation of Bioethics Centers and Institutes of Personalist Inspiration based in Rome under the leadership of Bishop Elio Sgreccia and in 2006 he was appointed an Ordinary Member of the Pontifical Academy for Life by Pope Benedict XVI. For a number of years Dr. Haas produced and hosted a national television program known as The St. Charles Forum which was carried on the Catholic network EWTN.

Dr. Haas is also Founder and President of the International Institute for Culture based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Institute promotes international understanding through cultural means. It organizes and sponsors international conferences, a two month intensive summer classics institute offering instruction in Greek and Latin which draws people from around the country, a choral group known as Schola Nova which specializes in Gregorian Chant and Renaissance Polyphony, a Spanish language program in Mexico for high school students, another for executives and one for Catholic seminarians and priests. The Institute also organizes a three week international cultural program in Bavaria on the relationship between faith and culture.

In the early eighties Dr. Haas was a registered foreign agent for the National Bank of Mexico and Executive Director of Banamex Cultural Foundation, a Washington, D.C. based non-profit educational corporation which sought to promote bi-lateral relations and understanding between the United States and Mexico through cultural means. He also served as a consultant to the Department of Justice on Hispanic and Family Issues during the first Reagan Administration. He is a Knight of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta.

Dr. Haas and his wife Martha have nine children and a growing number of grandchildren and reside in Philadelphia. 

Dr. Hilliard holds graduate degrees in Maternal-Child Health Nursing, Religious Studies, Canon Law and Professional Higher Education Administration, and she has an extensive professional background in medical ethics and public policy and advocacy. She is a practicing registered nurse who has been substantially involved in health care regulation at the state and national levels for twelve years. In addition, she is a canon lawyer and serves as a resource for the United States Bishops on the implementation of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services as well as Church - State relations.
 
The Connecticut League for Nursing has recognized Dr. Hilliard for her outstanding contributions to nursing in Connecticut, and she has been recognized as well by the Connecticut Nurses' Association with the Agnes Ohlson Award for Outstanding Contribution to Nursing through Political Action. She is an affiliate member of the National Federation of Licensed Practical Nurses and has served as a board member of a number of health care oriented agencies and coalitions. She has served for two terms as an elected president of both the Connecticut League for Nursing and on the Statewide Steering Committee of the Coalition to Improve End-of-Life Care. She is past chair, and continues to sit on the Executive Board, of the National Advisory Council of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and serves on the Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People of the Archdiocese for the Military Services.
 
As a colonel in the United States Army Reserves, Dr. Hilliard continues to practice as a registered nurse. She has been the Acting Deputy Brigade Commander of the 5th Brigade, 98th Training Division, responsible for all United States Army Reserve medical training for the northeastern United States. She developed the northeastern U.S. Licensed Practical Nurse training program which was conducted out of Ft. Devens, Massachusetts and approved by the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing. She has been recognized by the Army for her contributions with the Meritorious Service Medal.
 

Dr. Hilliard has served as an advisor to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on their Task Force on Catholic Bishops and Catholic Politicians. She has been a guest at the White House at the invitation of President Clinton and has consulted with President Bush on faith and community based initiatives

Dr. Stephen Napier received his Doctorate in philosophy from Saint Louis University and his Masters from the University of South Carolina. His dissertation was on virtue epistemology and cognitive motivation and was written under the direction of James Bohman, Kent Staley and Linda Zagzebski. During his graduate school career Dr. Napier was the recipient of several awards and fellowships including, the James A. Oliver Logic Award, the Graduate-Student Research Excellence Award, the SLU2000 Dissertation Fellowship, and the Midwest Consortium of Catholic Graduate Schools Fellowship. Dr. Napier completed a two-year post-doctoral fellowship in clinical and research ethics at St. Thomas hospital in Nashville during which he performed numerous ethics consults and was involved in the hospital’s Internal Review Board. Before joining the NCBC as a staff ethicist Dr. Napier was a Human Protections Analyst at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Medical Center (ranked among the top 5 children’s hospitals in the nation) where he also served as Director of Ethics Education. Currently, Dr. Napier serves on the University of Pennsylvania’s Institutional Review Board (IRB 8 – Socio-Behavioral Board). He is married and lives in Philadelphia.

Fr. Tad is a priest of the diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts. As an undergraduate he earned degrees in philosophy, biochemistry, molecular cell biology, and chemistry, and did laboratory research on hormonal regulation of the immune response. He later earned a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Yale University, where he focused on cloning genes for neurotransmitter transporters which are expressed in the brain. He also worked for several years as a molecular biologist at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Fr. Tad studied for 5 years in Rome where he did advanced work in dogmatic theology and in bioethics, examining the question of delayed ensoulment of the human embryo. He has testified before members of the Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Virginia and North Carolina State Legislatures during deliberations over stem cell research and cloning. He has given presentations and participated in roundtables on contemporary bioethics throughout the U.S., Canada, and in Europe. He has done numerous media commentaries, including appearances on CNN International, ABC World News Tonight, and National Public Radio. He is Director of Education for The National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia and directs the Center’s National Catholic Certification Program in Health Care Ethics.

Fr. Tad has presented on the science and ethics of stem cells and cloning numerous times across the country and abroad. Some of the institutions to which he has been invited to speak are:

UCSF, San Francisco, CA; Cornell University, Ithaca, NY; Boston College, Boston, MA; University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, MA; Holy Cross College, Worcester, MA; University of Louisiana, Lafayette, LA; Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis; Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL; Jordan Hospital, Plymouth, MA; University of Chicago, Chicago, IL; University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX; Cambridge Health Alliance Hospital, Cambridge, MA; Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI; University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN; St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, Boston, MA; Salve Regina University, Newport, RI; University of Dallas, Dallas, TX; Southern New England School of Law, Dartmouth, MA; Marymount University, Arlington, VA; University of St. Thomas, Houston, TX; Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA; Stonehill College, Easton, MA; Boston University, Boston, MA.