We are writing to share some important news about leadership transitions at the Center for Bioethics. Dr. Robert D. Truog recently announced his decision to step down from his role in directing the Center at the end of June, and Dean Daley has just announced that he has appointed Dr. Rebecca Weintraub Brendel to succeed Robert as the next Director of the HMS Center for Bioethics, effective July 1, 2023.

Dr. Robert D. Truog joined the newly created Division of Medical Ethics at HMS in 1989, and helped to develop several of the programs that we still have today, including the fellowship program (now in its 33rd year), the monthly Harvard Ethics Consortium, and the Harvard Ethics Leadership Group. In 2014, the Division of Medical Ethics became the Center for Bioethics, with Robert as its first director. Under Robert's leadership, the Center has grown rapidly, most recently with the addition of a grant-funded research portfolio in neuroethics, led by three new faculty members: Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz, Francis Shen, and Theresa Williamson.

Dr. Rebecca Weintraub Brendel joined the Center as associate director to create and lead the Master of Science in Bioethics degree program, which she has now directed for eight years. With commencement this spring, the MBE will have a total of 275 graduates, making it the largest master's program at HMS and one of the largest and most successful programs in the country. Under Rebecca's leadership, the Center will continue its growth in advancing values-based approaches to clinical care, scientific research, and public policy by partnering with clinicians and scientists to embed ethics from the bedside to the lab bench at every stage of care and discovery. She looks forward to deepening the Center’s connection with HMS Quad scientists to consider questions not just of what to do when conflict arises, but how we make decisions at the outset about what research to pursue as an academic community and global science and health leader.

Sincerely,

Robert D. Truog, MD, MA
Director, Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics
Frances Glessner Lee Professor of Medical Ethics, Anaesthesia, and Pediatrics, Boston Children’s Hospital

Rebecca Weintraub Brendel, MD, JD
Associate Director, Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics
Director, Master of Science in Bioethics Program
Associate Professor of Psychiatry