Ruth Faden

Founding Director and Wagley Professor of Biomedical Ethics, Johns Hopkins Berman Institute

Ruth R. Faden, PhD, MPH, is the Philip Franklin Wagley Professor of Biomedical Ethics and founding Director of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute.  Dr. Faden is the author and editor of many books and articles on biomedical ethics and health policy including Social Justice: The Moral Foundations of Public Health and Health Policy (with Madison Powers), A History and Theory of Informed Consent (with Tom L. Beauchamp), AIDS, Women and the Next Generation (Ruth Faden, Gail Geller and Madison Powers, eds.), and HIV, AIDS and Childbearing: Public Policy, Private Lives (Ruth Faden and Nancy Kass, eds.).

Dr. Faden is a member of the Institute of Medicine and a Fellow of the Hastings Center and the American Psychological Association.  She has served on numerous national advisory committees and commissions, including President Clinton’s Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments, which she chaired.  Dr. Faden is a co-founder of the Hinxton Group, a global community committed to advancing ethical and policy challenges in stem cell science, and the Second Wave project, an effort to ensure that the health interests of pregnant women are fairly represented in biomedical research and drug and device policies.

In 2011, Dr. Faden was the recipient of Lifetime Achievement Awards from the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH) and Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research (PRIMR).

Dr. Faden’s current research focuses on justice theory and on national and global challenges in learning health care systems, health systems design and priority setting, and access to the benefits of global investments in biomedical research.  Dr. Faden also works on ethical challenges in biomedical science and in women’s health.