Her research explores the ethics of health care, public health, and health policy that take seriously intersecting social relations including gender, “race,” and class. Her 2016 book, Communities of Health Care Justice, (Rutgers University Press) offers a concept of community justice that understands multiple and diverse communities as critical moral participants in determining the nature of justice in U.S. health care. Recent articles address religious exemptions in the Affordable Care Act, the in/exclusion of undocumented immigrants in health care, institutional discrimination in U.S. blood donation policy, and reproductive justice, and appear in The American Journal of Bioethics, The Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, Health and Human Rights, The Hastings Center Report, Public Health Ethics, and The Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved.
At Wellesley, Charlene teaches courses in feminist bioethics, gender justice and health policy, and public health. She has taught at the College since 2005 and has been honored with the College’s Anna and Samuel Pinanski Prize for Excellence in Teaching. In 2007, she was awarded the Outstanding Contribution to the Academy Alumni/ae Award from the Iliff School of Theology.
Charlene received her PhD from Harvard University with a concentration in religious social ethics and health policy, and holds master’s degrees from Harvard and the Iliff School of Theology (Denver). Her academic interests are inspired by her early health care work with rural community/migrant health centers and the communities they serve.
