Donna Chen
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA
Donna Chen is an Associate Professor in the Center for Biomedical Ethics, Department of Public Health Sciences, and Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.
She is the Founding Director of UVA’s Translational Research Ethics Consultation Service (T-RECS), provides leadership for the UVA Translational Research Institute of Virginia (THRIV) Faculty Scholars’ Program, and is launching a Mentoring Academy for THRIV.
Dr. Chen’s scholarly work addresses questions in clinical and research ethics, largely related to the clinical neurosciences; professional and organizational ethics; and ethics education.
An award-winning educator, she teaches ethics across the university setting to undergraduate and graduate students in medical, law, public health and nursing programs, and to research trainees and faculty at all levels. Her objective is to always instill an appreciation for asking good questions and seeking answers that are practical, relevant, and honor important ethical values. Her ethics research aims to advance knowledge through conceptual analyses and empirical research, which in turn helps guide developments in ethics practices, policies, and normative understandings.
Dr. Chen is a member of the Research Ethics Consultation Collaborative and has consulted to researchers and policy-makers at institutions in the USA and abroad, and has also served on committees related to clinical and research ethics, including for the National Institute of Mental Health; National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke; National Institute for Drug Abuse; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases; Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine; and the American Psychiatric Association.
As a physician-researcher whose work in ethics connects theoretical concepts and empirical research to improve policy and practice, Dr. Chen sees her scholarly contributions as a form of “translational research” in bioethics.