Plenary Speaker Jean deBlois, CSJ, Ph.D. – Sunday, May 20, 2012

Dr. Jean deBlois, CSJ, is Professor of Systematic Theology and Director of the Master of Arts in Health Care Mission  at Aquinas Institute of Theology.  She received her Ph.D. in Moral Theology and Medical Ethics at Catholic University of America.  A sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet, Sr. Jean was a registered nurse working in critical care in her former life. She worked in the first paramedic base station west of the Mississippi and supervised a critical care unit where firemen were trained to be paramedics and where we supervised paramedics in the field.  As Director of the M.A. in Health Care Mission program at Aquinas,  Sr. Jean helps to ensure that the program provides a firm and useable grounding in the Catholic theological tradition for leaders at all levels in Catholic health ministry to help them insure the future of Catholic health care as a ministry of the Church. Recent publications include:  Health Care Ethics: A Catholic Theological Analysis (with Benedict M. Ashley and Kevin D. O’Rourke (fifth edition, Georgetown University Press, 2006.  Sr. Jean also serves as sponsor liaison to Ascension Health for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet.  She has also served on the Board of Directors of the NACC.  She is particularly interested in end of life decision making, the effects of advancing technologies on the delivery of health care, professional ethics and the relevance of Catholic social teaching to Catholic health care today. Other interests include environmental ethics and the future of Mother Earth and lay leadership and sponsorship in Catholic health care and other ministries of the church.  She has also served on the Board of Directors of the NACC.