Valerie Satkoske, MSW, PhD has almost 20 years of experience working in the field of bioethics and have a PhD in Healthcare Ethics.   

Valerie Satkoske serves as Vice President for Ethics for UPMC Mercy Hospital, UPMC Presbyterian University/Shadyside Hospitals, and the UPMC health system. In 2020, Dr. Satkoske returned to the University of Pittsburgh, where she previously served as the ethicist for the Clinical and Translational Science Institute. Immediately prior to her return, she served as Director of Ethics at Wheeling Hospital in Wheeling, West Virginia, and Assistant Professor of Medical Education at West Virginia University, where she helped to direct the Center for Health Ethics & Law and designed a medical ethics curriculum for WVU medical students. She continues to serve as an ethics consultant for the West Virginia Rural Emergency Trauma Institute. Dr. Satkoske’s research interests include medical decision-making involving patients with cognitive difference, ethical issues in rural trauma care and in substance use disorder treatment, rural health disparities, ethical management of delirium, and end-of-life decision making. Drawing on her Master’s in Social Work from the University of Pittsburgh, she serves as Co-Chair of the Social Work Affinity Group of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities.