- Core Faculty
Berman Institute of Bioethics - Professor
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Dr. Merritt is interested in questions of public health ethics in international public health research and practice. The two main lines of inquiry in her funded research portfolio have been: how to consider social justice in the economic evaluation of health policy options; and how to delineate researchers’ and sponsors’ ethical responsibilities regarding community members’ health needs in public health intervention research. A third, complementary line of inquiry is related to moral psychology — the study of feeling, thought, and action in morally significant contexts — and involves nurturing the capacity for wonder in educational settings for health professionals. Dr. Merritt’s current research agenda focuses on public health ethics in relation to the search for climate solutions.
Dr. Merritt served 2016-2020 as Associate Chair for Student Matters in the JHSPH Department of International Health, and 2015-2020 as Program Officer for the JHU Exploration of Practical Ethics. She was a Visiting Scholar at the NIH Department of Bioethics for academic year 2020-2021.
Research Interests
- Social justice in health-related policy decision making, with special attention to health care equity and climate justice in decarbonizing health systems
- How academic research institutions can best partner with communities to align the scientific agenda with community members’ own vision of a healthy life, specifically in the context of epidemiological research on infectious diseases sensitive to climate change
- Nurturing the capacity for wonder in educational settings for health professionals
Education
- B.S., Wake Forest University
- B.A., Oxford University
- Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
- Postdoctoral Fellow, Dept. of Clinical Bioethics, NIH
Recent Publications
- Taylor HA, Dowdy DW, Searle AR, Stennett AL, Dukhanin V, Zwerling AA, Merritt MW (senior author), “Disadvantage and the Experience of Treatment for Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB),” SSM – Qualitative Research in Health (2022): 2: 100042: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmqr.2022.100042
- Dowdy DW, Zwerling AA, Stennett A, Searle A, Dukhanin V, Taylor HA, Merritt MW (senior and corresponding author), “Measuring Stigma to Assess the Social Justice Implications of Health-Related Policy Decisions: Application to Novel Treatment Regimens for Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis,” Medical Decision Making Policy & Practice (2020): 5(1): https://doi.org/10.1177/2381468320915239
- Geller G, Steinman C, Caldwell M, Goldberg H, Hanlon C, Wonnell T, Merritt MW (senior author), “Development and Validation of a Capacity for Wonder (CfW) Scale for Use in Educational Settings,” Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment (2020): 38(8): 982-994: https://doi.org/10.1177/0734282920918727
- Merritt MW, Sutherland CS, Tediosi F, “Ethical Considerations for Global Health Decision-Making: Justice-Enhanced Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of New Technologies for Trypanosoma brucei gambiense,” Public Health Ethics (2018): phy013, https://doi.org/10.1093/phe/phy013
- Dukhanin VA, Searle A, Zwerling A, Dowdy DW, Taylor HA, Merritt MW (senior and corresponding author), “Integrating Social Justice Concerns into Economic Evaluation for Healthcare and Public Health: A Systematic Review,” Social Science & Medicine (2018): 198: 27-35