Wexler Lab - People - WEXLER LAB

Anna Wexler

Principal Investigator

Anna Wexler is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the principal investigator of the Wexler Lab, where she studies the ethical, legal, and social issues surrounding emerging technology, with a particular focus on do-it-yourself medicine, direct-to-consumer health products, and neuroethics.

Dr. Wexler is the recipient of a 2018 NIH Director's Early Independence Award and a senior fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics. She received her Ph.D. from MIT in the HASTS (History, Anthropology, Science, Technology & Society) Program, where her dissertation centered on the DIY brain stimulation movement. Her essays have been published in outlets such as the The New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Slate, and STAT.

Prior to her Ph.D., Dr. Wexler spent several years working as documentary filmmaker and science/travel writer. She co-directed and co-produced the feature documentary Unorthodox (2013). She received a dual BS from MIT in Brain and Cognitive Science, and in Humanities and Science with a focus in Writing and Neuroscience.
More about Dr. Wexler: www.annawexler.com
Google Scholar page | UPenn website | Academic CV

Rebekah Choi

Project Manager

Rebekah Choi received her BA in Health and Societies from the University of Pennsylvania and completed her MPH at the Perelman School of Medicine in May 2017. During her time at Penn, she has worked in several clinical environments, such as the Center for Weight and Eating Disorders, and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Diabetes Research Center, where she investigated optimal therapeutics for children type I diabetes and obesity. In the future, she hopes to continue working with patients and their providers to prevent and manage chronic diseases, through evidence-based public health and health policy interventions.

Blake Hereth

Postdoctoral Fellow

Blake Hereth received their PhD in philosophy in 2019 from the University of Washington, Seattle. After graduating, they spent two years as a visiting professor at the University of Arkansas (2019-2021) and another two years as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Massachusetts Lowell (2021-2023). Their work in neuroethics and bioethics concerns the ethics of human neuroenhancement in military and civilian contexts and has appeared in journals like Neuroethics, Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, and the BMJ. In 2019, the American Philosophical Association awarded Dr. Hereth the prestigious Frank Chapman Sharp Memorial Prize for the best essay on the ethics of war and peace. Dr. Hereth also serves as chair of the aforementioned APA's Committee on LGBTQ People in the Profession. While at Penn, they will investigate ethical questions about privately produced and consumer-driven neurotechnologies

Lab alumni:

Susannah Colt (2023)
Nina Wei (research assistant, 2021-2023)
Ashwini Nagappan (research assistant & research scientist, 2019-2023)
Louiza Kalokairinou (post-doc, 2020-2022)
Deena Kopyto (research assistant, 2019-2021)
Andrew Beswerchij (research assistant, 2019)
Ashu Mishra (research assistant, 2019)
Marilyn Baffoe-Bonnie (research assistant, 2018)