Patrick Smith, PhD
Director, Program in Bioethics
Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History of Medicine
Associate Research Professor of Theological Ethics and Bioethics
Duke University Divinity School
Associate Professor in Population Health Sciences
Duke University School of Medicine
Senior Fellow, Kenan Institute for Ethics, Duke University
psmith@div.duke.edu
Patrick T. Smith, PhD has served as a member of the board of directors, the executive committee, and Treasurer for the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities. His current research and writing are in the areas of moral philosophy, bioethics, religious social ethics and health inequities, and end-of-life care.
Before he came to Duke, Professor Smith was a lecturer at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine. He served as core faculty for the Master of Bioethics program offered through Harvard’s Center for Bioethics. He also was a principal faculty member for the Initiative on Health, Religion, and Spirituality, an interfaculty initiative across Harvard University.
Professor Smith also worked professionally for eight years as the ethics coordinator for Angela Hospice Care Center in Livonia, Mich. During some of that time he served on the Ethics Advisory Council for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and as a board member for the Hospice Palliative Care Association of Michigan. He has served on the board of directors of organizations working for more equitable social arrangements such as YW Boston, which aims to empower women and eliminate racism. He also contributed thought leadership by serving on the board of a community development corporation that supports local communities through building affordable housing and its direct connection to health.