Rate My Professor Sara Goering

Sara Goering is Professor of Philosophy, Core Faculty for the Program on Ethics and the Disability Studies Program at the University of Washington, and adjunct faculty in the Department of Bioethics and Humanities. She earned her Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1998. Goering co-leads the University of Washington neuroethics research group, is affiliated with the Center for Neurotechnology, and serves as co-PI on an NIH R01 grant (R01MH130457) focused on neuroethics and caring for brain research pioneers. She teaches courses in bioethics, ethics, philosophy of disability, feminist philosophy, and philosophy of medicine. As Program Director for the UW Center for Philosophy for Children, she facilitates philosophy discussions with children in Seattle public schools. Her career emphasizes integrating ethics into neuroscience and addressing justice issues in emerging technologies.

Goering's research interests include bioethics, neuroethics, philosophy of disability, neural engineering, relational agency, post-trial responsibilities in neural device trials, embedded ethics in neuroscience, disability and neurodiversity, and justice in neurotechnologies for disabled people. She has edited key books such as Philosophy in Schools: An Introduction for Philosophers and Teachers (Routledge, 2013), Achieving Justice in Genomic Translation: Rethinking the Pathway to Benefit (Oxford University Press, 2011), and "It Just Ain't Fair!" The Ethics of Health Care for African Americans (Praeger, 1994). Notable publications feature "Four ethical priorities for neurotechnologies and AI" (Nature, 2017), "Rethinking disability: the social model of disability and chronic disease" (Current Reviews in Musculoskeletal Medicine, 2015), "Brain Pioneers and Moral Entanglement: An Argument for Post-Trial Responsibilities in Neural-Device Trials" (Hastings Center Report, 2024), and "Neurotechnology Ethics and Relational Agency" (Philosophy Compass, 2021). Her work has shaped ethical frameworks for neurotechnologies, influenced policy discussions on equity in genomics and brain-computer interfaces, and advanced transdisciplinary collaborations through grants and high-impact journals.