Jennifer L. Gibson, PhD, MA, BA, BSc

Director, University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics
Sun Life Financial Chair in Bioethics

Position: Associate Professor
SGS Status: Full Member
Primary Graduate Appointment: Division of Clinical Public Health, Dalla Lana School of Public Health
Graduate Appointment(s): Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health
Program: Master of Health Science in Bioethics and Collaborative Specialization in Bioethics
Primary Teaching Responsibilities: HAD 5771H – Resource Allocation Ethics, PHL 382 – Ethics: Death and Dying, PHL 384 – Ethics, Genetics and Reproduction, RSM 5603 – The Business Environment: Ethics
Available to Supervise CSB Students: Yes
 

Research Interests

• ethics and artificial intelligence
• health policy ethics
• priority setting in health institutions and systems
• organizational ethics
• pandemic ethics

Current Research Projects

• Ethics and Artificial Intelligence for Health
• Medical Assistance in Dying in Ontario: A comparative analysis of the first two-years of data

Education & Training History

• PhD in Philosophy, University of Toronto
• MA in Philosophy, University of Western Ontario
• BA in Philosophy (with distinction), University of Calgary
• BSc in Cellular, Molecular and Microbial Biology, University of Calgary

Honours & Awards

• Appointed by Order-in-Council of the Ontario Government as Co-Chair of the Provincial-Territorial Expert Advisory Group on Physician-Assisted Dying
• Council of Canadian Academies Expert Panel of Medical Assistance in Dying

Other Affiliations

• Director, World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Bioethics, University of Toronto
• Member, College of Reviewers, Canadian Institutes of Health Research

About Dr. Gibson

Professor Jennifer Gibson is Sun Life Financial Chair in Bioethics and Director, Joint Centre for Bioethics and Associate Professor, Division of Clinical Public Health and Institute of Health Policy, Management, & Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. She is also Lead of the Centre for Resilience in the Institute for Pandemics, Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Jennifer has a PhD in Philosophy (bioethics and political theory). Her program of research and teaching focuses on health system and policy ethics. She is particularly interested in the role and interaction of values in decision-making at different levels in the health system.

Jennifer has advised government on policy issues such as public health emergencies, critical care triage, drug funding and supply, and medical assistance in dying. In 2015-2016, Jennifer was appointed as co-chair of the Provincial-Territorial Expert Advisory Group on Physician-Assisted Dying, which informed the development of Canada's legal framework for medical assistance in dying (MAID). In 2017-18, she co-chaired the Council of Canadian Academies Expert Panel on Medical Assistance in Dying and chaired the Working Group on Advance Requests for MAID, the reports of which were tabled with the Canadian federal government in December 2018. Currently, Jennifer is Bioethics Advisor to the Ontario COVID-19 Health Coordination Table, co-chair of the Ontario COVID-19 Bioethics Table, and a member of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table. In addition, she was a member the Joint Ministers’ Roundtable on the Ontario Health Data Platform in 2020 and is a member of the WHO Expert Group on Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence for Health for the World Health Organization.