Our Ethicists

Director of institutional relations and staff ethicist John F. Brehany joined The National Catholic Bioethics Center in January 2015. He leads implementation of the NCBC’s Catholic Identity and Ethics Review (CIER) program, a comprehensive, in-depth assessment program for Catholic health care based on the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. Dr. Brehany also serves as a consultant on a range of clinical and institutional issues and teaches in the NCBC’s certification program.

Edward (Ted) Furton directs a staff of three who produce the NCBC’s many books and serial publications. He is founding editor of the award-winning journal The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly and the longest-serving editor of Ethics & Medics, a monthly bulletin on moral issues in the health and life sciences. He and his staff have recently completed the third edition of the best-selling Catholic Health Care Ethics: A Manual for Practitioners. He has edited books by a variety of distinguished authors, including Daniel Cronin, John Leies, Marilyn Coors, Matthew Hanley, and Arland Nichols. He subscribes to the natural law theory of ethics and has written and spoken on many topics in bioethics, including stem cell research, reproductive technologies, vaccine use, brain death, organ donation, and physician-assisted suicide. He is interested in the role of religion in American public life.

Joe joined The National Catholic Bioethics Center in 2017 and became Director of Education in 2023. In this role he oversees the NCBC Certification Program, Two-Day Seminars, Chaplain Program, and undergraduate “Introduction to Catholic Health Care Ethics” course. He also produces and hosts the Center’s Bioethics on Air podcast and has authored multiple statements, guides, and book chapters for NCBC publications.

Prior to the NCBC, he served from 2015 to 2017 as the regional director of ethics and spiritual care for Mercy Health–Cincinnati and also as a lecturer at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary/Athenaeum of Ohio. From 2004 to 2009 he was an assistant professor, and from 2009 to 2015 an assistant professor (with tenure), at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, where he taught courses in health care ethics, business ethics, sexual and reproductive ethics, and Christian Marriage.

Joe earned his PhD from Marquette University in 2002, an MEd from Boston College in 1997, an MEd from Springfield College in 1991, and a BA from St. Anselm College in 1989. He has written two books and various articles and reviews, and he presents at academic conferences both domestically and internationally.

Joseph Meaney received his PhD in bioethics from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome. His doctoral program was founded by the late Elio Cardinal Sgreccia and linked to the medical school and Gemelli teaching hospital.

Fr. Tad Pacholczyk earned his doctorate in neuroscience from Yale and did postdoctoral work at Harvard. He is a priest of the diocese of Fall River, MA, and serves as Senior Ethicist at The National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia.

Senior Fellow Marie Hilliard holds graduate degrees in maternal–child health nursing, religious studies, canon law, and professional higher education administration. She has been recognized for her involvement in health care advocacy at the state and national levels and was honored at the Second Annual International Nurses Day at the United Nations for her exemplary practice in the global delivery of health care. Dr. Hilliard has been a board member of several state and national organizations, including the Canon Law Society of America. She is an Army colonel (ret.), serving for more than twenty years, including as an acting deputy commander for a United States Army Reserve Brigade responsible for nursing and medic training for the northeastern United States.