Donald Brunnquell, PhD, LP

Adjunct/Assistant Professor, Center for Bioethics and Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota

Donald Brunnquell, PhD, MA, LP, is a Licensed Psychologist in Minnesota with a special interest in pediatric psychology and bioethics. He is an affiliate faculty member of the University of Minnesota Center for Bioethics, where he teaches Pediatric Bioethics. He is also an adjunct faculty member in the University of Minnesota Department of Psychology, where he teaches Ethics in Clinical and Counseling Psychology.

After a year as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Würzburg in Germany, he obtained a doctoral degree in child clinical psychology from the University of Minnesota in 1981. As the recipient of a Bush Foundation Leadership Fellows Grant in 1991 he completed a Masters Degree in philosophy, concentrating in ethics. Since that time his work has focused on pediatric medical and mental health ethics.

He worked for 36 years at Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, and for 23 of those years was the Director of the Office of Ethics. His work included consultation, education and policy regarding clinical, research, and organizational ethics in both biomedical and mental health care. He was a member of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Children's Hospitals & Clinics of MN, the committee overseeing protection of research subjects at the institution, and chaired that committee for 18 years.

His interests include end of life decision-making for children, definition of children’s and parents’ interests and rights, medical futility, moral hazard, and moral distress and secondary trauma.

Outside of this professional work he is active as a poet and member of the acoustic band Stealin’ Home