Faculty Fellow
Joel Michael Reynolds, PhD
Associate Professor of Philosophy and Disability Studies
Georgetown University
Joel's Story
Dr. Joel Michael Reynolds’ research bridges ethical inquiry across the humanities, social sciences, and medical practice. They are Senior Research Scholar in the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Disability Studies, Director of the Disability Studies Program, and Faculty in the Medical Humanities Initiative at Georgetown University. They are also jointly appointed as Faculty at Georgetown University’s School of Medicine and Medical Center in the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics as well as in the Department of Family Medicine. Reynolds is founder and editor-in-chief of The Journal of Philosophy of Disability, co-founder and co-editor of the book series Oxford Studies in Disability, Ethics, and Society, and President of the Society for Philosophy and Disability. An internationally recognized expert on disability, their work has been translated into multiple languages, and they have given over 150 keynote addresses and endowed lectures, conference talks, and grand rounds at universities and schools of medicine across the globe. In recognition of the impact of their scholarship, they were named an Honorary Fellow of the McLaughlin College of Public Policy at York University in 2022 and elected as Fellow of The Hastings Center for Bioethics in 2023.
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A "trailblazer in the field of disability bioethics," Dr. Reynolds is regularly interviewed and cited by journalists in outlets including NPR, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Truthout. Their public scholarship includes pieces in TIME, AEON, The Conversation, Health Progress, The Hastings Bioethics Forum, The Philosopher, and a Tedx talk.
Joel's Research
Promoting Health Equity through a Networked Model of Disability
Almost no attention has been paid to the potential harms and benefits that AI models could bring about for disabled people. Conceptualizations of disability across medicine and public health are simplistic at best and biased at worst, presenting a serious problem for training AI in a way that will be of use to improve the quality of care for disabled people from the clinic to the community. This project aims to develop an equity-based framework for the use of healthcare AI in relation to disabled patients by developing a critical disability ontology usable by a wide range of LLM systems.