Email

joanna.smolenski@bcm.edu

Positions

Assistant Professor

Center for Medical Ethics & Health Policy - Administration
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston

Education

BA from Columbia University

05/2009 - New York, New York United States

PhD from CUNY Graduate Center

09/2021 - New York, New York United States

Clinical Fellowship at UCLA Health Ethics Center

06/2023 - Los Angeles, California United States

Honors & Awards

John Jay Scholar

Awarded to approx. 2% of students per graduating class.

Columbia College, Columbia University (08/2005 - 05/2009)

Professional Statement

Joanna Smolenski, PhD (she/her) is an Assistant Professor at the Baylor College of Medicine's Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, as well as a Clinical Ethicist on the Clinical Ethics Consultation Service at Houston Methodist Hospital. In her role as Clinical Ethics Faculty, she provides teaching in bioethics and contributes to the coordination and staffing of the Ethics Consult Team. Her current research interests include ethical issues surrounding informed consent and epistemic injustice in medical care.

Dr. Smolenski received her undergraduate degree magna cum laude with honors in philosophy from Columbia University, where she was a John Jay Scholar. She then earned her PhD in philosophy at the CUNY Graduate Center and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical ethics at the UCLA Health Ethics Center. For additional information about Dr. Smolenski, as well as a complete CV, please visit her professional website.

Websites

Selected Publications

• J Smolenski "The foundations of informed consent and bodily self-sovereignty: a positive suggestion." Monash Bioethics Review. 2024 Aug 22;42(1):115–136.
• J Smolenski "Jehovah's Witnesses and the Normative Function of Indirect Consent." Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics. 2023;13(3):205-213.
• E Lanphier, F Urnov, SE Haecker, M Werner, J Smolenski "Don’t edit the human germ line." Nature. 2015 Mar 26;519(7544):410-411.
• M Kitts and J Smolenski "The (In)Capacity to Exclude: The Normative Value of Preferences in Surrogate Exclusion." The Journal of Clinical Ethics. 2025 Jun 1;36(2):112–120.

Memberships

American Philosophical Association

Member

American Society for Bioethics and Humanities

Member

European Society for Philosophy of Medicine and Healthcare

Member

International Association of Bioethics

Member

Funding

A Multi-Site Trial To Test Benefits of Adding a Personalized Risk Calculator to an Online Decision Aid for Left Ventricular Assist Device

$1,960,847.00

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Consultant on project that tests the impact of a personalized, electronically-integrated clinical decision support system for heart failure patients contemplating left-ventricular assist device (LVAD) therapy.

Languages

Polish