Dr. Thomas Carroll: The Linacre Quarterly New Editor-in-Chief
February 16, 2026
By Nadia Smith
The Linacre Quarterly (LQ) is the longest running medical ethics journal in the country and it is now under the leadership of Dr. Thomas Carroll. He takes the reigns from longtime Editor-in-Chief Barbara Golder, M.D., J.D., who he credits for the outstanding journal.
“I want to publicly say thank you to Dr. Golder for her willingness to help me get settled into this role. She has spent countless hours responding to my emails and meeting with me to make sure that I’m staying on track,” he said. “I do not exaggerate when I say that whatever good comes of the next few issues of the LQ will be very much her doing and any mistakes will be most certainly my own!”
In the months of learning the process to execute the LQ, he has grown in his profound gratitude to Dr. Golder and her commitment over the years noting that she has “shouldered a very heavy load almost entirely on her own.”
“Dr. Golder’s work in selecting high-quality manuscripts for publication has been outstanding. Her ability to see potential in what sometimes starts as a very rough draft and see it though the editorial process to a polished finished product is something I hope to emulate.”
For his part, he is glad to have an “excellent Editorial Team, including a group of very smart and hardworking Associate Editors” that will be assisting him as the new editor.
Despite the level of commitment that will be required of Dr. Carroll in this new position, he accepted it gladly recalling how the LQ has been a staple reading of his for many years.
“I see the LQ as one important way that the Catholic Medical Association can foster a true sense of community among Catholic healthcare professionals,” he explained. “My hope is that the articles in the LQ, in addition to making valuable scholarly contributions, provide fodder for real world, person-to-person, conversations that make us all better Catholics, friends, citizens, and disciples of Christ.”
Dr. Carroll practices internal medicine and palliative care at the University of Rochester Medical Center and he is the president of the Finger Lakes Guild of the CMA. As the new editor-in-chief, Dr. Carroll hopes to expand the readership of the LQ and provide a platform for anyone in the Catholic medical community.
“We have been gifted with a superabundance of tradition,” Dr. Carroll said. “It is up to us to help solidify understanding of the foundations of Church teaching in the medical realm while also helping to sort through how that tradition informs our interactions with new, and often challenging advances in the modern medical world.”
