Empowering Excellence: Ethical Practices in Nursing Conference

Associate Director of Clinical Ethics, Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics

Leanne Homan, RN, BSN, MBE, HEC-C, is a Clinical Nurse Ethicist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. She received her Associate’s Degree in Nursing from North Shore Community College in 2003 and her Baccalaureate of Science in Nursing degree from Endicott College in 2018.

Her clinical practice includes nearly two decades of emergency and critical care nursing in the community and academic medical center settings. In addition to her clinical work, Leanne served on hospital ethics committees, which led to her deep interest in bioethics. In 2020, she completed her Master of Science in Bioethics from Harvard Medical School, where her capstone project examined the impact of unit-based ethics rounds in two academic medical centers.

Her primary interests in bioethics include clinical ethics, the role of ethics in debriefing, and moral distress. In 2022, Leanne received the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH) Healthcare Ethics Consultation-Certified (HEC-C) credential.
 

Associate Professor of the Practice, Boston College Connell School of Nursing

Aimee Milliken, Ph.D., RN, HEC-C, is an associate professor of the practice at the Boston College Connell School of Nursing. She practiced as a critical care nurse for over a decade and spent five years as a clinical ethicist, including serving as the Executive Director of a high-volume ethics service at a large academic medical center in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Her academic journey culminated in a Ph.D. from Boston College, where her dissertation was a groundbreaking study on the development and psychometric validation of the Ethical Awareness Scale. This research, conducted during her postdoctoral fellowship, was funded and focused on identifying trends in ethics consultation.

Dr. Milliken has taught, published, and presented nationally and internationally on nursing and clinical ethics. She is the Co-Editor of the Clinical Ethics Handbook for Nurses: Emphasizing Context, Communication, and Collaboration (Springer, 2022).
 

Nurse Director & Ethicist, Massachusetts General Hospital

Brian Cyr, MSN, RN-BC, works at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) as Nurse Director of White 11, a 24-bed inpatient complex medical teaching unit.  Brian earned his BSN from Regis College in MA in 2009, and his MSN with a concentration in Nursing Leadership from Framingham State University, also in MA, in 2018.  His capstone project was an integrative review entitled Strategies and Interventions for Nurse Leaders to Address Moral Distress.  

Brian also holds a B.A. in History from Providence College, Rhode Island (2003). He has a long-time interest in ethics, specifically advanced care planning and advocacy for palliative care. Brian is an ethics leader at MGH. He partners with other MGH ethics leaders to integrate the work of multiple ethics committees and departments throughout the organization and demonstrates an organizational commitment to ethical clinical practice.  

Brian also serves as a member of the MGH Optimum Care (Ethics) Consult service and committee and is a member of the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics Leaders’ Group.  He also served as the former advisor to the MGH Patient Care Services Collaborative Governance Ethics in Clinical Practice Committee.  Brian has been a member of the National Nursing Ethics Conference (NNEC) planning committee since 2019 and was a presenter at the 2023 NNEC conference.  
 

Nurse Ethicist & Co-Leader, Optimum Care (Ethics) Committee/Consultation Service, Massachusetts General Hospital

Ellen M. Robinson, RN PhD, HEC-C, FAAN, is a graduate of the William F. Connell School of Nursing, Boston College, receiving her Master's in Cardiovascular Nursing as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in 1983 and her PhD in nursing with a focus on nursing ethics in 1997. In 1998, Dr. Robinson completed the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics medical ethics fellowship, after which she transitioned into the role of Nurse Ethicist at MGH.

As a nurse ethicist, Ellen provides ethics consultation to health professionals, patients, and families at Massachusetts General Hospital. She has served on the MGH Optimum Care Committee since 1993 and as co-chair of the committee since 2007. Dr. Robinson also serves on the MGH Hospital for Children Pediatric Bioethics Committee and the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics Ethics Leadership Council and holds a faculty appointment in the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics. 
In 2010, Ellen received a three-year Health Resources and Services Administration, Bureau of Nursing grant to develop and implement a Clinical Ethics Residency for Nurses, which educated and mentored clinical nurses and nurse leaders to serve on ethics committees, facilitate ethics discussions, and learn the ethics consultation process. Ellen has successfully co-directed a research program on ethics consultation that has contributed empirically to life-sustaining treatment policy and clinical ethics literature on processes, outcomes, and themes of ethics consultations. Dr. Robinson also served as chair of the Clinical Ethics Consultation Affairs Committee (2019-2020) of the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities.

She also serves on the MGH HICs group and actively participated in the development of Crisis Standards of Care during the COVID-19 pandemic as part of this work. The highlight of Ellen’s professional career has been continued active engagement and mentorship of clinical nurses and health professionals in direct care roles involved in ethically complex situations and in their career development.

Director of Patient Advocacy & Domestic Violence Programs, Boston Medical Center

Sheryl began her career as a Patient Advocate at Massachusetts General Hospital. In 2003, she was recruited to build a robust Patient Advocacy Department for Boston Medical Center. She also directs the BMC Domestic Violence Program which is responsible for improving and coordinating Boston Medical Center’s response to domestic violence as both a patient care and employer/workplace issue.  

In addition to her work with our patients, Sheryl is an active member of numerous hospital-wide committees. She is co-chair of the BMC Ethics Committee and a member of the BMC ethic consultation team. Sheryl is a former Fellow at the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School and she is a past nominee for the Kenneth B. Schwartz Center’s Compassionate Caregiver Award.