Cheryl Macpherson, PhD
Professor, Department of Clinical Skills, WINDREF Senior Research Fellow
Biography
Cheryl Macpherson is a Professor in the Department of Clinical Skills at St George’s University where she has taught bioethics to medical students since 1994 and innovated the integration of the health impacts of climate change into a required medical school course on bioethics. She also teaches and designs curriculum for bioethics in SGU’s School of Graduate Studies and teaches bioethics in the premedical program and School of Veterinary Medicine. She has served for many years on SGU’s IRB and Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC).
Dr Macpherson is also a Senior Research Fellow in the Windward Islands Research and Education Foundation (WINDREF). She is the Principal Investigator on the Caribbean Research Ethics Education initiative (CREEi, NIH-Fogarty Award # R25TW009731) which builds research ethics capacity in low resource countries of the Caribbean basin, and of its supplemental awards: the CREEi-Hastings Center Bioethics Scholars Program (2022) and the CREEi-Hastings Center Climate Bioethics Program (2023).
She serves as joint editor of the Taylor & Francis journal Global Bioethics and co-chair of the Ethics Working Group for the Coalition for Equitable Research in Low-resource settings (CERCLE), formerly the DNDi International Covid-19 Clinical Research Coalition. With over 80 publications, she authored seminal bioethics publications on climate change including the book Bioethical Insights into Values and Policy: Climate Change and Health (Springer, 2016) a forthcoming and co-authored book chapter ‘Should physicians or health organizations be environmentally active’ In Medical Professionalism: Theory, Education, and Practice. Oxford University Press.
She has reviewed for the NIH, Wellcome Trust, Wellcome Open Research, Oxford University Press, and a range of peer reviewed journals. She is a member of the Resilience Frontiers Technology Advisory Group of the UN Climate Change Secretariat (UNFCCC), consulted for PAHO and WHO on ethics and vector-borne diseases, served as President of the Bioethics Society of the English-speaking Caribbean (BSEC) 2012-2016, has been a member of the International Association of Bioethics (IAB) and its Environmental Affinity group since 1994, and is a member of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE).
Contact Information
Areas of Interest
- Bioethics
- Public health ethics
- Research ethics
- Climate change and health
- One Health
- Veterinary bioethics
- The Caribbean
- Small Island Developing States
- Low resource settings
- Capacity building
- Education for critical thinking and writing
- Community engagement
- Biobanking
Affiliations
- Windward Islands Research & Education Foundation (WINDREF), St. George's University, Senior Research Fellow
- Global Bioethics, Joint Editor
- Developing World Bioethics, Editorial board member
- Clarkson University, Adjunct faculty
- Coalition for Equitable Research in Low-resource settings (CERCLE), Ethics Working Group, Co-Chair
- International Association of Bioethics (IAB), member
- Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE), member
- Bioethics Society of the English-speaking Caribbean (BSEC), member
Selected Publications
- Macpherson, CC. Can bioethics do for our planet what it’s done for autonomy? Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. Invited. Fall, 2022. 65(4):548-558. https://doi.org/10.1353/pbm.2022.0046
- Macpherson CC. Global bioethics: it’s past and future. Global Bioethics. January 2022. 31;33(1):45-9. https://doi.org/10.1080/11287462.2021.2011009
- Jennings NP, Chambaere K, Macpherson CC et al. Medical end-of-life decision-making in a small resource-poor Caribbean country: a mortality follow-back study of home deaths. Ann Palliat Med 2021. Online First. https://dx.doi.org/10.21037/apm-21-1793
- Jennings, N, Chambaere K, Macpherson CC, Cox KL, Deliens L, and Cohen, J. Developing and validating a questionnaire for mortality follow-back studies on end-of-life care and decision-making in a resource-poor Caribbean country. BMC Palliative Care 19, no. 1 (2020): 1-7.
- Macpherson CC, Smith E, Reider TN. Does Health Promotion Harm the Environment? The New Bioethics. 26:2, 158-175. (2020). DOI: 10.1080/20502877.2020.1767918
- Macpherson CC. What Is Ethical Eating in the Age of Climate Change? The Hastings Center Forum. Nov 2019. https://www.thehastingscenter.org/what-is-ethical-eating-in-the-age-of-climate-change/
- Macpherson CC, Wills B. Living good and healthy lives on a changing earth: What should bioethics do? The Hastings Center Forum. July 2019. https://www.thehastingscenter.
- Macpherson, CC. Research ethics guidelines and moral obligations to developing countries: Capacity-building and benefits. Bioethics. 2019; 33: 399– 405. https://doi.org/10.1111/bioe.12577
- Jennings N, Chambaere K, Macpherson CC, Deliens L, Cohen J. Main themes, barriers, and solutions to palliative and end-of-life care in the English-speaking Caribbean: a scoping review. Rev Panam Salud Publica. 2018;42:e15. https://doi.org/10.26633/RPSP.2018.15
- Macpherson CC. (2018) Bringing Values, Relationships, Environments, and Climate Change to Policy Deliberations, The American Journal of Bioethics, 18:3, 63-65, DOI: 10.1080/15265161.2017.1420835 2018. Invited.
- Macpherson CC, Wynia M. Speaking up: are health professionals obligated to advocate for actions to reduce the health risks of climate change. AMA Journal of Ethics 19: 1202-1210. 2017 (http://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/2017/12/pdf/msoc1-1712.pdf ). Invited.
- Hill J, Macpherson CC. Are Physicians Obliged To Lead Environmental Sustainability Efforts in Health Care Organizations? Case Discussion. AMA Journal of Ethics 19: 1164-1173. 2017. (http://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/2017/12/pdf/ecas2-1712.pdf ). Invited.
- Macpherson CC. Individual and Collective Responsiveness to Climate Change: A Response to Dwyer. BioethiqueOnline 2016. 5/1. http://bioethiqueonline.ca/5/1. Invited.
- Macpherson CC, Akpinar-Elci M. Caribbean heat threatens health, well-being, and the future of humanity. Public Health Ethics. 2015. Vol: 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1093/phe/phv008
- 2667-193X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2022.100411, (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667193X22002289)
- Members of the COVID-19 Clinical Research Coalition. Pandemics move faster than funders. The Lancet Global Health 402, 367. July 29, 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)01282-5
- Macpherson CC., Editor. Bioethical Insights into Values and Policy: Climate Change and Health, 2016. Public Health Ethics Series, Volume 4, Springer Press, Dordrecht. http://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319261652#aboutBook
- Macpherson CC, Budrie L. Should physicians or health organizations be environmentally active? In Medical Professionalism: Theory, Education, and Practice. Eds. Gia Merlo, Tom Harter. Oxford University Press. In review.
- Waechter R, Coomansingh K, Macpherson CC, Sarma S. Ethical challenges in global health research. In Infectious Disease Work in a Changing World: People, Pathogens, and Partnerships. SpringerNature. Forthcoming, 2023.
- Ashcroft, J. Macpherson, CC. Biobanking in global health and research. In: Eds Erick Valdes, Alberto Lecaros Urzúa. Handbook of Bioethical Decisions. SpringerNature. 2023.
- Macpherson CC, Wills B. Living good and healthy lives on a changing earth: What should bioethics do? The Hastings Center Forum. July 2019. https://www.thehastingscenter.
Selected Projects
SVM Research Faculty
View the SVM faculty involved in research and SVM Adjunct and Cooperating faculty who collaborate with SVM researchers. SVM faculty also collaborate with many other researchers at institutions in North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. These collaborations are reflected within the individual SVM faculty research profile.
