Alicia Ouellette

Biography

Alicia Ouellette is a longtime believer in the transformational impact of law school on the lives of students and graduates. She also is a champion of law education as a driver of positive change in communities and in society.

Before joining Lewis & Clark Law School in January 2025 as the Jordan D. Schnitzer Dean, Ouellette was president and dean of Albany Law School for nine years. At Albany, she oversaw the execution of a transformative strategic plan, the fulfillment of an institutional affiliation with the University at Albany, the expansion into online graduate programs, and the completion of a record-setting fundraising campaign. Under her leadership, the school raised $33 million as part of a capital campaign, expanded its endowment by $21 million, and secured a $15 million gift from a single donor that endowed the law school’s Clinic and Justice Center.

Ouellette also previously served as associate dean for academic affairs and intellectual life and a professor of law at Albany. Ouellette practiced law as an assistant solicitor general in the New York State Attorney General’s Office and a law clerk to the Honorable Howard A. Levine at the New York Court of Appeals before joining Albany Law in 2001.

Ouellette’s scholarship focuses on health law, bioethics, disability rights, children’s rights, and human reproduction. Her book, Bioethics and Disability: Toward a Disability Conscious Bioethics, was published in 2011 by Cambridge University Press. She has authored numerous articles published in academic journals such as the American Journal of Law and Medicine, American Journal of Bioethics, Nevada Law Journal, Hastings Law Journal, Indiana Law Journal, and Oregon Law Review. She has presented to distinguished audiences around the globe, including the Yale School of Medicine and the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.

An alumna of Hamilton College, Ouellette graduated magna cum laude in 1994 from Albany Law School, where she was editor in chief of the Albany Law Review.

Specialty Areas and Course Descriptions

Courses taught

• Constitutional Law
• New York Practice I & II
• Bioethics Seminar
• Human Reproduction
• Introduction to Lawyering
• Law and the Disadvantaged
• Law and Justice Seminar
• COVID-19: Law in a Time of Pandemic
• Bioethics and Law

Academic Credentials

• AB, cum laude, Hamilton College
• JD, magna cum laude, Albany Law School

Bibliography

Book

• BIOETHICS AND DISABILITY: TOWARD A DISABILITY-CONSCIOUS BIOETHICS (Cambridge University Press, 2011) (translated into Japanese 2015).

Articles and essays in law reviews and peer reviewed journals

• Neurologic Diseases and Medical Aid in Dying: Aid-in-Dying Laws Create an Underclass of Patients Based on Disability, 23 American Journal of Bioethics 5 (2023) (with Shavelson, Pope, Battin and Kluger).
• Barriers to Physician Aid in Dying for People with Disabilities 6 Laws 23 (2017).
• Medical Schools’ Willingness to Accommodate Medical Students with Sensory and Physical Disabilities: Ethical Foundations of a Functional Challenge to “Organic” Technical Standards, MEDICAL EDUCATION (October 2016) (with McKee, Case, Fausone, Zazove, and Fetters).
• U.S. Medical Schools’ Compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, 10 Academic Medicine 1097 (Jan. 2016) (with Zazove, Case, Moreland, Plegue, Hoekstra, Sen, and Fetters).
• Selection against Disability: Abortion, ART, and Access, 43 J. L. MED. & ETHICS 211 (2015).
• Context Matters: Disability, the End of Life, and Why the Conversation is Still So Difficult, 58 N.Y.L. SCH. L. REV. 371 (2013–2014).
• Patients to Peers: Barriers and Opportunities for Doctors with Disabilities, 13 NEV. L.R. 645 (2013) (cited by Iowa Supreme Court in Palmer College of Chiropractic v. Davenport Civil Rights Commission, No. 12–0924, June 27, 2014).
• Health Reform and the Supreme Court: The ACA Survives the Battle of the Broccoli and Fortifies Itself Against Future Fatal Attack, 76 ALB. L. REV. 87 (2013).
• Body Modification and Adolescent Decision Making: Proceed with Caution, 15 J. HEALTH CARE L. & POL. 129 (2012).
• Organ Transplantation and Disability Discrimination, 19:2 LAHEY J. OF MED. ETHICS 4 (2012).
• Hearing the Deaf: Cochlear Implants, the Deaf Community, and Bioethical Analysis, 45 VALPARAISO U. L. REV. 1247 (2011).
• Shaping Parental Authority over Children’s Bodies, 85 IND. L. J. 955 (2010).
• Putting Law in the Room: A Response to Diekema and Fost, 10 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOETHICS 48 (2010).
• Insult to Injury: A Disability-Sensitive Response to Professor Smolensky’s Call for Parental Tort Liability for Preimplantation Genetic Interventions, 60 HAST. L. J. 397 (2008).
• Eyes Wide Open: Surgery to Westernize the Eyes of an Asian Child, 39 HASTINGS CENTER REPORT 15 (2009); reprinted in 1 ASIAN BIOETHICS REVIEW 31 (2008).
• Growth Attenuation, Parents’ Choices, and the Rights of Disabled Children, 8 HOU. J. HEALTH LAW & POL’Y 207 (2008).
• The Bioethics of Federalism: States and Moral Pluralism, 37 HASTINGS CENTER REPORT 24 (2007) (with Fossett, Magnus, Philpott, and McGee).
• Now and Always Our Chief: The Honorable Judith S. Kaye, 70 ALBANY L. REV. 815 (2007).
• Disability and the End of Life, 85 OREGON L. REV. 123 (2006).
• Practical, State, and Federal Limits on the Scope of Compelled Disclosure of Health Records, AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BIOETHICS (7:3, 2007) (peer commentary with Beverly Cohen and Jacob Reider).
• Lessons Across the Pond: Assisted Reproductive Technology in the United Kingdom and the United States, 31 AM. J. OF LAW AND MED. 420 (2005) (with Caplan, Carroll, Fossett, Bjarnodottir, Schickle, and McGee).
• When Vitalism is Dead Wrong, 79 INDIANA L. J. 1 (2004).
• Freestyle Lawyering: Taking an Expedited Appeal in the New York State Courts, 4 J. OF APPELLATE PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE 243 (2002).
• Comment: New Medical Technology: A Chance to Re-examine Court Ordered Medical Procedures During Pregnancy, 57 ALBANY L. REV. 927 (1994).

Other publications

• People with Disabilities in Human Subjects Research: A History of Exploitation, a Problem of Exclusion, RESEARCH ETHICS (Iltis and MacKay eds., Oxford 2021).
• Introduction: Human Rights and Disability – Interdisciplinary Perspectives, in HUMAN RIGHTS AND DISABILITY (Gordon, et al, eds., Routledge 2016).
• Disability and Bioethics, Reference Module in BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES (Elsevier 2014).
• A Conversation about End-of-Life Decisionmaking, NYSBA HEALTH L.J., 14:2, at 91 (2009) (with Timothy E. Quill, Robert N. Swidler, Thaddeus M. Pope, and Nancy Dubler).
• Moral Reasoning in Judicial Decisions on Same-Sex Marriage, in PHILOSOPHY AND SEX (4TH Edition, Prometheus, 2009).
• Lawrence v. Texas, in MILESTONE DOCUMENTS IN AMERICAN HISTORY (Finkelman, et al.,eds., 2008).
• Termination of Life-Support for a Never-Competent Patient: The Case of Sheila Pouliot, in ETHICAL ISSUES IN MODERN MEDICINE (7th ed., Steinbock, et al. eds., McGraw Hill 2007).
• Health Care Reform: A Guide to Current Events, BIOETHICS FORUM (February 22, 2007) (with David Pratt).
• The Berger Commission Proposes Big Changes for New York Hospitals, BIOETHICS FORUM (December 19, 2006) (with David Pratt).
• Discriminatory Treatment on Roadways, 4 GOVERNMENT LAW AND POLICY J. 41 (2002).