In association with the Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Berman Institute conducts independent scholarship in key areas of public health and health policy, trains future bioethics scholars, policy makers, and public health professionals, and provides local, national, and international service to policy making bodies.

Education 

The Berman Institute leads several education and training programs in bioethics and public health including a PhD program in bioethics and health policy and global bioethics training for individuals from Africa.  The Berman Institute leads course work in public health ethics, genetics policy, ethics and health policy, global public health ethics, food ethics, and ethical issues in U.S. and international public health research.

Research/Scholarship

Berman Institute scholarship in the ethics of public health and health policy is wide and deep. Faculty have been involved with creating foundational frameworks for public health ethics and seminal work on social justice and public health; have worked on many empirical and conceptual projects on public health preparedness, on dozens of empirical and conceptual projects on ethics and infectious diseases including related to HIV, TB, malaria, influenza, HPV, and Ebola;  projects on ethics and health policies including appropriate Medicaid funding, incorporating social justice into economic evaluations of treatments, and ethical implications of health reform; and a considerable and growing program in global and domestic food ethics.

Service/Policy

Berman Institute faculty have served on and/or testified before multiple committees and commissions for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, the National Academies of Science and Medicine (formerly Institute of Medicine), Presidential commissions, and local and state health departments on topics of public health ethics including HIV prevention and screening, genetic screening, public health preparedness, and women’s health.

Faculty in Public Health Ethics

• Joseph Ali, JD
• Ruth Faden, PhD, MPH
• Jess Fanzo, PhD
• Gail Geller, ScD, MHS
• Adnan Hyder, MD, PhD, MPH
• Jeff Kahn PhD, MPH
• Nancy Kass, ScD
• Leslie Meltzer Henry, JD, MSc 
• Maria Merritt, PhD 
• Govind Persad, JD, PhD
• Len Rubenstein, JD
• Brendan Saloner, PhD
• Holly Taylor, PhD, MPH

Quick Links

• The Global Food Ethics Initiative
• The Bellagio Meeting on Social Justice and Influenza
• Community Values and the Allocation of Scarce Medical Resources in Disasters – A Public Engagement Project
• PHASES – Pregnancy and HIV/AIDS: Seeking Equitable Study
• Pregnancy Research Ethics for Vaccines, Epidemics, and New Technologies (PREVENT)
• Center for Bridging Genomics, Infectious Disease, and Society (BRIDGES)
• Ethics Issues in Outbreak Containment in Low and Middle Income Countries