Jennifer L. Gibson

Dr. Jennifer L. Gibson is the Sun Life Financial Chair in Bioethics and the Director of the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics (JCB), an Associate Professor in the Division of Clinical Public Health and the Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, and Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Bioethics at the University of Toronto. Jennifer holds a PhD in Philosophy (bioethics and political theory) with a prior academic background in the biological sciences. 

Jennifer is a health policy ethics scholar whose research, teaching and policy work focuses on ethical issues in contemporary health institutions and systems, particularly the role and interaction of values in governance and management decision-making. Jennifer has advised governments and policymakers on diverse policy issues such as medical assistance in dying, public health emergencies, health technology assessment, drug funding and supply, and resource allocation.  In 2015 and 2018-19, Jennifer co-chaired 2 expert panels on medical assistance in dying commissioned by federal, provincial, and territorial governments. During the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-22), she co-chaired the Ontario COVID-19 Bioethics Table, was a member of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Table and served as bioethics advisor to several planning tables of the Ontario Ministry of Health and Ontario Health. In 2018, Jennifer founded the JCB’s Ethics and AI for Good Health Program, which focuses on and engages ethics and governance issues associated with AI in healthcare and public, and created the AMS-Fitzgerald Fellowship in AI and Human-Centred Leadership, a professional leadership program for early and mid-career health leaders. Jennifer has been a member of the WHO Expert Group on Ethics and Governance of AI for Health since 2020 and recently completed a three-year ministerial appointment as Vice-Chair of the Ontario Health Data Council. 

Jennifer’s research and policy interests are increasingly turning toward the ethics in and of wicked problems, including problems involving convergent existential risk (e.g., polycrises), and their implications for health and a sustainable future for all.

Professional Interests: health system and policy ethics, organizational ethics, priority setting/resource allocation, AI ethics and governance, ethics of wicked problems