INFORMATION FOR
Major: Philosophy
Current Title: Clinical Ethics Fellow, Montefiore Einstein Center for Bioethics; Clinical Instructor, Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Health System
Julia Kolak is clinical ethics fellow at the Montefiore Einstein Center for Bioethics, where she serves on the ethics consultation service for the Montefiore Health System. In this role, she mediates complex cases involving patients, families, and clinical teams, addressing ethical challenges in areas such as reproductive medicine, mental health, and end-of-life care. Julia is also a clinical instructor in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, teaching across undergraduate and graduate medical education as well as in the Master’s Program in Bioethics. In addition to her consulting work, she served as a 2023–24 Visiting Fellow at the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. As a researcher, Julia’s work spans a wide range of theoretical and practical domains, while fostering local and global interdisciplinary collaborations and contributing to landmark publications that influence both policy and practice. Julia earned a doctorate in philosophy from the CUNY Graduate Center, where she specialized in the philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and philosophy of medicine and psychiatry. As a graduate teaching fellow, she taught diverse courses across the CUNY system and served as interim curriculum director of bioethics at City College. She is the former senior clinical ethics fellow at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where she contributed to undergraduate medical education, and taught in the Master’s Program in Bioethics and the Master of Science Program in Clinical Research.
Proudest Professional Accomplishment: “I am most proud of my ability to meaningfully impact critical decision-making in the medical field, working directly with physicians, patients, and their families to build consensus and resolve intractable conflicts.”
WP Pride. “My unique and enduring connection with faculty allowed me to continually cultivate my appetite for knowledge and emboldened me to pursue an interdisciplinary career in academia.”
