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LEADERSHIP

RENEE MCLEOD-SORDJAN
PRESIDENT

Renee McLeod-Sordjan, DNP, PhD, MBA, HEC-C is System Chair of the Division of Medical Ethics at Northwell Health. She also serves as Dean and Professor of the Hofstra-Northwell School of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. She has a secondary academic appointment in the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. Dr. McLeod is also a board member of the Association of Bioethics Program Directors. As a board certified acute-care, family and palliative nurse practitioner her body of research entails advance care planning and clinical ethics curriculum development.

NICK MERCADO
PRESIDENT-ELECT

Nicholas R. Mercado, DrPH, MCHES, HEC-C is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Humanities & Bioethics at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. His primary role is Director of the Bioethics Curriculum for the 4-year MD program while also serving as a clinical ethics consultant for the University of Rochester Medical Center. His primary research interest involves the clinical and public health ethical issues that impact family caregivers.

RICHARD SIEGEL
SECRETARY

Richard A. Siegel, LCSW-R, HEC-C, has spent his professional career as a social worker and leader in healthcare. He is currently an Adjunct Professor of Social Policy and Social Health Policy  at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College.  He is also vice chair of the Board of Directors at Margaretville Hospital in Delaware County, NY.  Richard recently retired as the Director of Social Work at Metropolitan Hospital in the NYC Health and Hospitals system.  Richard was one of the chairs of the hospital Ethics Committee and one of the chairs of the system wide Ethics Council (the first non physician to be appointed to that position).


DEBORAH GRAYSON
TREASURER

Deborah Grayson, MPH, MS, RD, HEC-C is co-chair of the Visiting Nurse Health Hospice Ethics Committee. She is a member of East End Hospice's ethics committee and consults with them on nutritional issues. She's completed the Montefiore-Einstein Certificate in Bioethics and Medical Humanities program. She is a member of the Shelter Island NY Board of Ethics.

LOUIS VOIGT
FOUNDING PRESIDENT (2020-2022)


Louis Voigt, MD, MSc, was the founding president of the Empire State Bioethics Consortium (ESBC) from 2020 to 2022. Amid the first surge of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Voigt united healthcare ethics professionals across New York to address acute ethical challenges faced by care teams. With the state’s Task Force on Life and the Law dormant and no declaration of a crisis standard of care, he forged a collaborative network to support patients, families, and healthcare providers during an unprecedented moral crisis.

A specialist in critical care medicine, Dr. Voigt serves as Chair of the Ethics Committee and Associate Attending Physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). He is also an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine and Anesthesiology at Weill Cornell Medical College.

Dr. Voigt’s collaborative vision and inaugural leadership of ESBC, has built a united network of bioethics practitioners, facilitating the sharing of resources for tackling ethical issues across New York.


2026 Board of Directors

Lina R. Benson, MSW (LCSW), MA

Kenneth Berkowitz, MD, FCCP, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, US Dept. of Veterans Affairs

Liz Blackler, MBE, LCSW-R, HEC-C, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Virginia Brown, PhD, MA, The Hastings Center for Bioethics

Randi Fain, MD, MS, Columbia University, 

Deborah Grayson, MPH, MS, RD, HEC-C, VNS Health

Adira Hulkower, JD, MS, HEC-C, Montefiore Medical Center

Renee McLeod-Sordjan, DNP, PhD, MBA, HEC-C, Northwell Health, Hofstra University.

Nick Mercado, DrPH, MS, HEC-C, University of Rochester Medical Center

Jorge Rivera Agosto, JD, MS, HEC-C, Greenberg Traurig LLP

Richard Siegel, MSW, LCSW-R, HEC-C, Hunter College

Robert N. Swidler, MA, JD, Columbia University Bioethics Program

Kim Thacker, MD, MS, Columbia University 

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