BTHX 5520/8520 | Social Justice and Bioethics
Sept. 8 - Dec. 16
This course explores matters of social justice related to health. Class sessions will predominantly focus on specific practical issues such as health disparities, the politics of inclusion and exclusion in clinical research, and language equity in clinical settings. This course is appropriate for a wide audience including students from the health professions, philosophy, social science, and law.
These courses welcome learners from various disciplinary backgrounds and are open to graduate students, professional degree students, and upper-level undergraduate students from the University of Minnesota and other institutions. They are also open to learners who are not currently in degree programs but wish to take courses, so long as they meet course prerequisites.
Dr. Debra DeBruin primarily works on issues in public health ethics and the ethics of health policy, with a focus on concerns about social justice and health equity. Much of this work addresses issues of gender, race, and socioeconomic disadvantage. She also has done substantial work on public health emergency planning, with an emphasis on the importance of equity in this perilous context. In addition to teaching bioethics, Dr. DeBruin has served as a health policy fellow for Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) in the Democratic office of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee of the United States Senate. She has also worked as a consultant to the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine and the National Bioethics Advisory Commission on issues relating to the ethics of research.
Jennifer Needle-Suarez, MD, MPH, HEC-C, is an Associate Professor in the Center for Bioethics and Department of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota. She earned her MD from Howard University in Washington DC, and a Masters in Public Health in Epidemiology from Emory University Rollins School of Public Health. Dr. Jennifer Needle-Suarez completed her residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics and fellowship in Pediatric Critical Care at the University Hospitals of Cleveland/Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. She completed her fellowship in Biomedical Ethics at the Center for Ethics in Health Care at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon.