Thomas A Kerns, PhD

A Philosophy professor at North Seattle Community College with interests in Medical Ethics, Philosophy of Religion, and the history of philosophical thought, my undergraduate degree is from the Great Books program at the University of Notre Dame and graduate degrees (MA and PhD) are from Marquette University. I'm also currently enrolled in a Masters in Public Health (MPH) Program at the University of Washington. I have helped pioneer the multi-disciplinary, team-taught learning communities at NSCC that we call Coordinated Studies Programs. These unique ten to fifteen credit programs involve several faculty guiding students through an exploration of original texts in a seminar-based, student-centered learning community.

I've written two books on issues in medical and public health ethics.

• Ethical Issues in HIV Vaccine Trials  (1997, St Martin's Press, Macmillan, Limited in the UK).

 

• Jenner on Trial: The Ethics of Vaccine Research in the Age of Smallpox and the Age of AIDS  (1997, University Press of America).  

 

Recent invitational lectures include a lecture on the ethics of HIV vaccine research at the World Health Organization's Global Programme on AIDS in Geneva (now UNAIDS), a lecture on emerging environmental epidemics at Smith College, and a dress-up portrayal of Edward Jenner discussing his smalllpox vaccine experiment, done for the Ethics Review Committee at Madigan Army Medical Center.

• A third book, Emerging Environmental Epidemics: Ethics, Risk Assessment and Human Rights in Toxicant Induced Illnesses, has been completed and is currently in press.

 

The fourth book should probably be a best seller about something passionate and risqué, at least if any money is to be made by writing.

The most recent sabbatical has been devoted to two projects:

• Research and writing about ethical issues and human rights in toxicant induced illnesses, such as Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, asthma, and cancers. This resulted in the completion of book number three.

• Creating an online Introduction to Philosophy course for the Washington State Online Consortium.

Click here for a Curriculum Vita.

Click here for a list of public lectures I currently offer.

I am also a semi-professional stone sculptor (alabaster, marble and soapstone), a fly fisherman, a ham radio operator, an ex-commercial salmon gillnet fisherman, and also go for a short daily run. I have three grown children (one is a nurse, one a social worker, and one is a trapper who lives with his wife and two daughters out in the Alaskan Bush).

Curriculum Vita | TK homepage | Public lectures | Jenner homepage |

Philosophy homepage