Debra DeBruin, PhD

Director, Director of Graduate Studies, and Associate Professor

Expertise: Public Health Ethics | Ethics of Health Policy | Health Equity | Public Health Preparedness and Crisis Response

Debra DeBruin, PhD.
[email protected]

United States

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. She co-directed the Minnesota Pandemic Ethics Project and led the project to develop ethics guidance for Crisis Standards of Care in Minnesota; both of these projects were conducted under contract with the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH). During the COVID-19 pandemic, she co-led the Minnesota COVID Ethics Collaborative, a statewide advisory group that provided input to MDH on ethical issues in pandemic response.

In addition to teaching philosophy and 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.

In addition to her scholarly work in bioethics, Dr. DeBruin has a strong record of administrative leadership for the Center for Bioethics. Over the years, she has served as Director of Graduate Studies, Director of Education, Associate Director, and Director/Interim Director. 

Dr. DeBruin received her BA from Carleton College magna cum laude with distinction in philosophy and her PhD in philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh. She completed a Greenwall Postdoctoral Fellowship in Bioethics and Health Policy at Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health and Georgetown University.

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Selected Publications

State and National Advisory Reports and Guidance Documents

Journal Articles and Book Chapters