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Laurie Zoloth (born 1950) is an American
ethicist Ethics is the philosophical study of moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches include normative ethics, applied ethics ...
, currently Margaret E. Burton Professor at the
University of Chicago Divinity School The University of Chicago Divinity School is a graduate professional school at the University of Chicago dedicated to the training of academics and clergy across religious boundaries. Formed under Baptist auspices, the school today is without ...
. From 2017 to 2018, she served as the Dean of the Divinity School and as such was the first Jewish dean of the Divinity School. Laurie Zoloth writes in the fields of religious studies and bioethics, with a focus on ethics of genetic engineering, stem cell research, synthetic biology, and social justice in health care. She is the author of ''Health Care and the Ethics of Encounter: A Jewish Discussion of Social Justice'' (University of North Carolina Press, 1999); “Second Texts and Second Opinions: Essays Toward a Jewish Bioethics” (Oxford University Press, 2022); “Ethics for the Coming Storm: Climate Change and Jewish Thought” (Oxford University Press, 2023); “May We Make the World: Gene Drives, Malaria, and the Future of Nature” (MIT Press, 2023)and editor (with Dena Davis) of ''Notes from a Narrow Ridge: Religion and Bioethics'' (University Publishing Group, 1999); “The Human Embryonic Stem Cell Debate”, (with Karen LeBacqz and Suzanne Holland) (MIT 2001); “Margin of Error: Mistakes in Medicine and Bioethics” (with Susan Rubin) (University Press Publishing Group, 2003); Oncofertility: Ethical, Legal, Social and Medical Perspectives,(with Teresa Woodruff) (Springer, 2010; and (with Elliot Dorff) ''Jews and Genes: The Genetic Future in Contemporary Jewish Thought'' (Jewish Publication Society, 2015). She was co-founder of The Ethics Practice, a group that has provided bioethics consultation and education services to health care providers and health care systems nationally. She was the chair of the
Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland with additional facilities in Ashburn, Virginia. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American busin ...
National Bioethics Advisory Board for seven years. She served on the
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
National Advisory Board, which is the agency’s highest civilian committee; the NASA IACUC, NASA's Interagency National Animal Care and Use Committees, the NASA International Planetary Advisory Board, and currently serves on the NASA Ethics Committee. She was on the first national advisory board of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...
’s Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion and was a member of both the American Heart Association’s Ethics Board and the AACOG National Ethics Board. She was on the founding board of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, serving as the first chair of its ethics committee, and on the founding board of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH.) She was a member of the CDC’s Working Group on Emerging Biological Agents and served on several NIH Data Safety and Monitoring Committees. She served on the NIH’s Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (the National RAC) for six years. A fellow of the Hastings Center for Bioethics, she was elected to the Council in 2025. Zoloth has been both the president of the
American Academy of Religion The American Academy of Religion (AAR) is the world's largest association of scholarly method, scholars in the List of academic disciplines, field of religious studies and related topics. It is a nonprofit member association, serving as a profess ...
and the
American Society for Bioethics and Humanities The American Society for Bioethics and Humanities is an American learned society dedicated to promoting research and the exchange of ideas in bioethics and related disciplines in the humanities. It was founded in January 1998 from the merger betwe ...
. She is an elected member of The Hastings Center and a life member of
Clare Hall, Cambridge Clare Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1966 by Clare College, Clare Hall is a college for advanced study, admitting only postgraduate students alongside postdoctoral researchers and fellows. It was est ...
. She is a founding board member of the Society for Scriptural Reasoning.


Career

Zoloth began her career as a neonatal nurse working in impoverished communities. She has a bachelor's degree in women's studies from UC Berkeley and a second bachelor’s in science (nursing) from the University of the State of New York, now Regent’s College. From 2000 to 2003 she was Professor of Social Ethics and Jewish Philosophy at
San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...
, from which she holds a master's degree in English. She received a second master’s degree in Jewish Studies, and a Ph.D in Social Ethics from the Graduate Theological Union, graduating in 1993, and holds a Health Care Ethics Consultant Certificate (HEC-C, 2024) From 2003 to 2017 she was a Professor of Medical Humanities and Bioethics in the
Feinberg School of Medicine The Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, formerly Northwestern Medical School from 1906 to 2002, is the medical school of Northwestern University and is located in the Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Founded in ...
and Professor of Religious Studies in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at
Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...
. Since 2005 she has been an Affiliated Professor at the
University of Haifa The University of Haifa (, ) is a public research university located on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. Founded in 1963 as a branch of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Haifa received full academic accreditation as an inde ...
. She was appointed the Dean of the University of Chicago Divinity School in July 2017, making her the first Jew to become the dean of a divinity school based at an American university. As dean at the Divinity School, she tried to get the operators of the coffee shop, Grounds of Being, to pay rent. Her work has received numerous awards for teaching and for research, including an honorary doctorate from American Jewish University; the Englehardt Award in Bioethics, the 2024 Borsch- Rast Book Prize, and the Choice Award from the National Library Association.


References


External links


Faculty page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zoloth, Laurie 1950 births Jewish ethicists Living people University of Chicago Divinity School faculty American bioethicists San Francisco State University faculty Northwestern University faculty Academic staff of the University of Haifa Jewish American academics Presidents of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities 21st-century American Jews