Welcome

***On sabbatical 2025-2026***

I am professor of philosophy at the University of Maine.  From 2014-2025, I took on a series of administrative roles on my campus. I have served UMaine as department chair of philosophy, chair of sociology, associate dean, and associate provost.

From 2021-2025, I helped develop and co-coordinated UMaine’s EMPOWER faculty mentoring program as Research Fellow for Faculty Development for the Office of the Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School. This project reflects my training and experience in professional career and executive academic coaching. I recently contributed a chapter on ethics in coaching to a volume on coaching in higher education.

My research and teaching interests include clinical ethics, medical humanities, moral psychology, philosophy and literature, feminist theory, and popular culture. Currently, I am editing a collection of essays on Bridgerton and Philosophy for Wiley-Blackwell, out in early 2026.

I am also a clinical ethicist with 20 years of experience consulting with health care systems, hospitals, physician practices, attorneys, medical and other professional associations, news media, and state and local governments. UMaine Today magazine published an article, A Philosopher’s Life, with accompanying video, about this work.

Articles/media:

• What to Know About Giving Blood, on Maine Calling, Maine Public
• Ethical Questions Surrounding Abortions Later in Pregnancy,  on Maine Calling, Maine Public
• Ethics of Mandatory Vaccinations, on Maine Calling, Maine Public Radio
• Ethics of Vaccinations, on Maine Calling, Maine Public Radio
• The Ethics-or lack thereof-of jumping the vaccine line, in the Portland Press Herald
• Protecting the Vulnerable, my op-ed in the Bangor Daily News about what we can do to help our communities during the pandemic — and why we should do it.
• When will Life Get Back to Normal? My answer in the Portland Press Herald.
• Warning: This education might trigger trauma. Are we coddling College students?
• Should the Internet Pay for your Health Care? Maine kidney surgery raises ethical quandary
• Click here for an article in the Bangor Daily News about my work on vampires and bioethics.

Email me at jessica.miller@maine.edu.