Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby

Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby is the Cullen Professor of Medical Ethics and Associate Director of the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor College of Medicine, where her work bridges normative/conceptual bioethics, empirical research, and implementation science.

Her educational background includes:

• B.S. and M.A. from Bowling Green State University (first-generation college student)
• Ph.D. in Philosophy (specializing in bioethics and action theory) from Michigan State University (2008)

Her research examines ethical implications of human judgment frailties, including cognitive biases in medical decision-making, permissibility of behavioral nudges in healthcare, neuroethics of psychiatric/neurological interventions, and philosophical foundations of AI ethics. She integrates continental philosophy (existentialism, phenomenology) with bioethics to address autonomy, rationality, and manipulation in clinical contexts.

Her notable honors include:

• Elected Hastings Center Fellow (2023)
• Greenwall Faculty Scholars Program in Bioethics alumnus

She has secured major grants as Principal Investigator from PCORI, NIH BRAIN Initiative, AHRQ, and The Greenwall Foundation. She co-founded the ASBH Medical Decision Making Affinity Group and established the Philosophical Bioethics Consortium with Julian Savulescu (Oxford), Dan Sulmasy (Georgetown), and Matthew Liao (NYU), advancing collaborative research at the philosophy-bioethics interface.