STLR Symposium 2009 -> Author Bios

Author Bios

Teneille Brown is a post-doctoral fellow at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics, a fellow at the Center for Law & the Biosciences, and a research fellow with the MacArthur Foundation Law and Neuroscience Project. Her academic work focuses on the intersection of behavior, biology and the law, with particular interest in evidentiary and regulatory issues surrounding genetics and neuroscience.

Prior to joining Stanford, Brown practiced law for two years at Latham & Watkins, LLP in Washington, D.C., where she represented early-stage pharmaceutical and device companies. Brown received her undergraduate degree in the History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania (BA 2000) with a concentration in bioethics. While at Penn, she wrote an honors thesis on the ethics of elective cosmetic surgery and conducted HIV clinical research. She also conducted research at the Penn Bioethics Center and drafted a bill on genetic testing informed consent. Brown graduated from the University of Michigan law school (JD 2004), focusing on bioethics and medicine and the law. She assisted in the creation of the Pediatric Advocacy Initiative, a legal clinic that offered free services to patients.

Nita Farahany is an Associate Professor of Law as well as an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. Farahany focuses on the intersection of criminal law, behavioral genetics, neuroscience and philosophy.

Farahany earned her undergraduate degree in genetics, cell and developmental biology from Dartmouth College and a master's degree in biology from Harvard University, where her thesis, “Prescribing Culpability,” explored the difficulties arising from the use of scientific criteria to define legal concepts. She earned her J.D., as well as an M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy of biology and philosophy of law, from Duke University. Her doctoral dissertation, “Rediscovering Criminal Responsibility through Behavioral Genetics,” evaluated the use of behavioral genetics in criminal law from a scientific and philosophical perspective. During 2004-05, she clerked for the Honorable Judith W. Rogers on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. In 2005-06, she served as a special editor of the Winter and Spring Symposium issue of the journal Law and Contemporary Problems, which addressed "The Impact of Behavioral Genetics on the Criminal Law."

Kent A. Kiehl, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at the University of New Mexico, Department of Psychology. His research focuses on the clinical neuroscience of major mental illnesses, with special focus on criminal psychopathy, substance abuse, and psychotic disorders (i.e. schizophrenia). In association with The MIND Institute, Prof. Kiehl uses non-invasive techniques for measuring brain function, including event-related potentials (ERPs) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The goal of these studies is to elucidate and characterize the abnormal functional architecture believed to underlie these clinical disorders and to understand how psychological and/or pharmacological treatment modulates these neural processes. Ultimately, the goal of this research is to understand, diagnose, and effectively treat these clinical conditions.

Michael Moore is the Charles R. Walgreen, Jr. Chair, the first university-wide chair for University of Illinois' three campuses. He is jointly appointed as Professor of Law in the College of Law and as Professor of Philosophy in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He also holds an appointment as a Professor with the Center for Advanced Studies, an honor bestowed on faculty on the basis of their outstanding scholarship and among the highest forms of campus recognition. Professor Moore is just the second UI law school faculty member to hold such an appointment.

Before going to Illinois, Professor Moore served as the Warren Distinguished Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Institute for Law and Philosophy at the University of San Diego. From 1989-2000, he was the Leon Meltzer Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, where he co-founded and directed the University of Pennsylvania Institute for Law and Philosophy.

Emily Murphy is a fellow in the Stanford Law School Center for Law and Biosciences and research fellow on the MacArthur Foundation Law and Neuroscience Project based at University of California, Santa Barbara.

Murphy’s current research focuses on issues surrounding the application of neuroscience and neuroimaging technology in criminal and civil law, the effect of neuroimaging evidence on individual concepts of agency, and designing hypothesis-driven neuroimaging work that can directly inform legal or policy-based challenges. Murphy graduated in 2003 from Harvard University and completed her doctoral work in 2007 in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Cambridge while on a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. Her doctoral research examined the neural and neurochemical basis of impulsivity and behavioral flexibility.

Michael Perlin is an Professor of Law at New York Law School. He is also Director of both the Mental Disability Law Program and the International Mental Disability Law Reform Project, Justice Action Center.

An internationally-recognized expert on mental disability law, Michael L. Perlin has devoted his career to championing legal rights for people with mental disabilities. A prolific author of fifteen books and well over 175 scholarly articles on all aspects of mental disability law, Professor Perlin says that his ninth book, The Hidden Prejudice: Mental Disability on Trial (2000), “represents my lifetime work.” The book is an attempt to educate society about how the fear of persons with mental illness creates a hidden bias against them that prevents equal justice, a form of discrimination he calls “sanism.” Professor Perlin is also the creator of the first Internet-based mental disability law courses to be offered by an American law school. International sections of Survey of Mental Disability Law, New York Law School's initial online course, have been offered in Japan, and Nicaragua. Sections of the International Human Rights and Mental Disability Law course have been offered in Finland and in Israel.

A teacher-lawyer-advocate who advises mental health professionals, hospitals, advocates, activists, lawyers, and governments, Professor Perlin has worked directly on mental disability cases as a deputy public defender and as director of the Division of Mental Health Advocacy in the New Jersey Department of the Public Advocate. He has witnessed the complexities and frustrations facing both judges and attorneys with such cases.