She conducts research in preventive ethics in the critical care setting and teaches ethics in the School of Nursing and in the Center for Bioemedical Ethics and Humanities. She directs the Moral Distress Consult Service at the University of Virginia Health System and is a member of the Ethics Consult Service and the Ethics Committee as well. Dr. Epstein graduated with a BS in biochemistry from the University of Rochester, received her MS in pharmacology, along with her BSN and PhD in nursing, from the University of Virginia.