Ruth Faden Receives 2025 Bernard Lo, MD, Award in Bioethics for Excellence in Bioethics

Ruth R. Faden, PhD, is the recipient of the Greenwall Foundation’s 2025 Bernard Lo, MD, Award in Bioethics. The award recognizes Prof. Faden for excellence in bioethics mentorship and conveys a cash prize of $25,000.

“Prof. Faden’s mentorship is exceptional for its breadth and reach across backgrounds and disciplines,” said Michelle Groman, JD, President & CEO of The Greenwall Foundation. “She has dedicated her career to lifting up the next generation of bioethics professionals, who continue to pay it forward as outstanding mentors themselves. It’s not surprising; they have certainly learned from one of the best.”

The Greenwall Foundation established the Lo Award to honor Dr. Lo’s service to The Greenwall Foundation as its President & CEO from 2012 to 2020 and founding Director of the Foundation’s flagship Faculty Scholars Program. The Lo Award is given annually and recognizes a different area of accomplishment in bioethics each year.

Faden is the founder of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics and its director from 1995 until 2016. She was the inaugural Andreas C. Dracopoulos Director (2014-2016) and has been since 1995 the inaugural Philip Franklin Wagley Professor of Biomedical Ethics.

“It is particularly appropriate that this year’s award honors Ruth for excellence in bioethics mentorship,” said Jeffrey P. Kahn, Director of the Berman Institute. “Generations of Berman Institute faculty, trainees and students have benefited from Ruth’s generosity as a mentor, as have countless colleagues across the field.”

In recognition of Faden’s leadership in preparing the next generation of bioethics scholars, Alex Levi, chair of the Berman Institute’s national advisory board, his wife Vicki, and other generous donors, established the Ruth R. Faden Fund for Education in Bioethics in 2018. The Faden Fund provides tuition support for students in the Master of Bioethics program, offers research and conference travel resources for PhD students, has helped create the newly established endowed Faden Professorship in bioethics and education, and supports leadership and training for a select group of highly qualified fellows and students through the Faden Scholars Program.

Read the Greenwall Foundation’s official announcement and watch an interview with Prof. Faden about the importance of mentorship in bioethics here.