“My parents are immigrants, and we didn't come from a wealthy family,” said the assistant professor in the School of Health Policy and Management, whose research focuses on bioethics, medical technology, and racial health disparities. , says Dr. Khadija Ferryman. “But my mother instilled in us that education is the path to success.”
Through a scholarship program, Ferryman and her sister attended an elite prep school in Manhattan, which provided her with a wide range of educational opportunities and sparked her interest in the social sciences. “We traveled nearly two hours each way between boroughs to get to school, and once there we had to overcome racial, class and cultural differences. Some of the experiences I had back and forth influenced my subsequent decision to study anthropology.”
Ferryman earned a bachelor's degree in anthropology from Yale University and a master's degree and doctoral degree in anthropology from the New School of Social Research. “I became a policy researcher at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., where my research on the effects of public housing transformation on education, health, and income helped me identify social impacts on health and inform policy decisions. There has been a real increase in interest in uncovering how policy can become an enabling tool: one that can be used to exacerbate social inequalities, or one that can redress past harms such as racism. We may intervene to do so.”
When the human genome was sequenced in the early 2000s, her focus on the social impact of health took a new direction. In the past, social scientists and natural scientists were at loggerheads over the causes of health disparities: whether they were due to differences in genetics or differences in living conditions and environments. The Human Genome Project has demonstrated that genetics alone cannot explain health disparities. Ferryman then became interested in new technology and its impact on health inequalities.
Over the years, Ferryman's research has focused on how disease prediction in clinical racial correction/normization, algorithmic risk scoring, genomics, digital health records, and artificial intelligence technologies impact racial health disparities. We have investigated specifically. She shares her insights in a class called “Race and Bioethics,” where her students consider the moral and ethical aspects of health and medicine. She examines how bioethics has, or has not, interacted with race. We then explore how contemporary bioethics can engage more substantively with race and its effects, particularly racism and health inequalities.
Beyond his impressive research background and expertise, Ferryman brings a unique ability to cross and bridge cultural divides within the classroom. “I definitely feel a connection to the students who come to this elite institution from underrepresented backgrounds,” she says. “I understand that they are nervous about continuing to do this work, but I feel like so many things are cultural and assumed that they hold back. I try to make sure that I identify some of these prerequisites so that students feel comfortable participating substantively in class discussions. , they each have unique backgrounds, experiences, and skills that can contribute to strengthening and expanding our research and practice.”
