ÌÇÐÄVlog

Human Flourishing in Professional Practice

Date: Friday, May 8th 
Time: 8:00am- Noon
Location: Scottish Rite 2222 Welborn Street, Dallas, Texas 75219 

Conference Description: 

The conference will explore what it means for the professions to contribute to human flourishing in the communities they serve. By bringing together leaders from law, medicine, and religious life, the gathering creates space to reflect on how these professions shape the well-being of individuals and communities, and how they can learn from one another to continue supporting human flourishing in the years ahead.

Physicians: This activity is pending approval for Continuing Medical Education (CME).

Attorneys: This activity is pending approval for Ethics Hours of Continuing Legal Education credits (CLE).

Clergy: This activity is pending approval for Continuing Education Units (CEU).

 

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Jeffery Bishop, M.D., Ph.D.

Jeffery P. Bishop, MD, PhD, is the Tenet Endowed Chair in Bioethics and Professor of Philosophy and Theological Studies at Saint Louis University. Trained as a physician and philosopher, his work explores the philosophical, historical, and political foundations of contemporary scientific theories and practices, and contextualizes the truth claims of science, technology, medicine, and social science. He has published on wide-ranging topics such as medical humanities, science and religion, spirituality and medicine, as well as topics in the philosophy of technology from the use of AI in healthcare to the use of AI in automated weapon systems.

He previously served as Director of the Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics at Saint Louis University, where he worked closely with healthcare professionals navigating complex ethical decisions and helped develop ethics education within clinical settings. Earlier in his career, he held faculty and leadership roles at Vanderbilt University and UT Southwestern Medical Center, practicing medicine and contributing to clinical ethics consultation and medical education.

He is the author of over 75 scholarly articles and two award-winning books: The Anticipatory Corpse, Notre Dame, 2011 (named the most important book published in 2011 by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Religion and Ethics Page), and Bioethics after Neuroscience (co-authored with M. Therese Lysaught and Andrew A. Michel, Bloomsbury, 2022, winner of the Expanded Reason Award 2021).

Bishop serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy and Christian Bioethics. He is a Life Member at Clare Hall Cambridge and an Elected Fellow of the International Society for Science and Religion. In the Spring semester of 2027, Bishop will be Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University’s McDonald Centre for Ethics and Public Life at Christ Church College.

 

Featured Panelists

Dr. Mark Cassanova: 

Dr. Casanova has completed board certification in Internal Medicine and Palliative Medicine. He graduated from Internal Medicine residency training in 2003, at which time he became involved with the clinical ethics consultation service at Baylor University Medical Center (BUMC) and has provided numerous clinical ethics consultations since then. In 2004, he and a team established the BUMC Palliative Care Consultation Service. Now known as the Supportive Palliative Care Service, the team was recognized for excellence by the American Hospital Association with a Circle of Life Citation of Honor in 2007. In 2011 Dr. Casanova took over responsibility as the Chairman of the Supportive and Palliative Care and the Institutional Ethics Committee at BUMC. In 2011 the BUMC Supportive Palliative Care Service became the first palliative care program in Texas and one of the first 10 in the country to become Joint Commission certified. In 2022, the BUMC team established a Hospice and Palliative Medicine fellowship, under his leadership, in order to train future Hospice and Palliative Medicine physicians for the State and Nation. He continues to maintain a component of his general Internal Medicine practice. Dr. Casanova lectures on issues related to clinical ethics and palliative medicine, and has also lobbied the Texas state legislature on similar topics, on behalf of the field of medicine and patients.  Additionally, Dr. Casanova enjoys involvement with organized medicine, to include being the 2020 president of the Dallas County Medical Society, as well as serving on multiple councils and committees of the Texas Medical Association. In May 2025, he was elected as the Vice-Speaker of the TMA. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Casanova had served on a variety of advisory committees, including at the Dallas County level, up to the State level, serving on the TMA COVID-19 Taskforce. While these “extracurricular activities” certainly are fulfilling, the most important factors of his life, above all, are his family:  his wife, Claudia, his daughter, Taylor and father, Rodolfo.

 

About the Conference

The annual Conference of the Professions is sponsored by the , the , the , the , ,  and ÌÇÐÄVlog’s Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility. Each year an ethical issue of common interest is identified. A noted expert in the field presents a keynote address, and a distinguished panel of local professionals discusses a related case that poses practical issues for law, medicine, the clergy, and other professions.