Nancy E. Kass, ScD
- Deputy Director for Public Health
Phoebe R. Berman Professor of Bioethics and Public Health
Berman Institute of Bioethics - Professor of Health Policy and Management
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Nancy Kass, ScD, is the Phoebe R. Berman Professor of Bioethics and Public Health at Johns Hopkins, Deputy Director for Public Health in the Berman Institute of Bioethics and Professor of Health Policy and Management in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Kass conducts empirical and conceptual work in bioethics and health policy. Her publications are primarily in the field of U.S. and global research ethics, public health ethics, infectious diseases and ethics policy, and ethics and the learning healthcare system. From 2017-2023 Dr. Kass served as Vice-Provost for Graduate Education for Johns Hopkins University. She served as Ethics Advisor, Office of the Commissioner, at the Food and Drug Administration through an Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) arrangement 2023-2024. In 2009-2010, Dr. Kass was based in Geneva, Switzerland, working with the World Health Organization (WHO) Ethics Review Committee Secretariat. Dr. Kass is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and an elected fellow of the Hastings Center.
Research Interests
- Public health ethics
- Research ethics
- Learning health system ethics
- Big data ethics
- Outbreaks and ethics
- Public health campaigns and ethics
Education
- Post-doctoral fellowship: Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University
- ScD, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
- BA, Stanford University
Recent Publications
- Karim SA, Faden R, Barnhill A, Brown VA, Kahn J, Kass N, Mastroianni A, Morain S, Ravitsky V, Tuckson R. Navigating “Wicked” Disagreement in Public Health. Am J Public Health. 2026 Apr;116(4):544-551. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2025.308350. Epub 2026 Feb 5. PMID: 41643148; PMCID: PMC12981165.
- Kass NE, Faden RR, Angus DC, Morain SR. Making the ethical oversight of all clinical trials fit for purpose. JAMA. 2024. doi:10.1001/jama.2024.0269
- Kass, N.E. and Faden, R.R. “Ethics and Learning Health Care: The Essential Roles of Engagement, Transparency, and Accountability”, Learning Health Systems, 2018; September 18. e10066. doi: 10.1002/lrh2.10066
- Kass, N. “A Journey in Public Health Ethics”, Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 2017; 60(1): 103-116. doi: 10.1353/pbm.2017.0022.
- Kass, N. (2014). Ebola, Ethics, and Public Health: What’s Next? Annals of internal medicine, 161(10), 744-745.
- Ali, J., Kass, N. E., Sewankambo, N. K., White, T. D., & Hyder, A. A. (2014). Evaluating International Research Ethics Capacity Development: An Empirical Approach. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, 9(2), 41-51.
- Kass, N., Hecht, K., Paul, A., & Birnbach, K. (2014). Ethics and Obesity Prevention: Ethical Considerations in Three Approaches to Reducing Consumption of Sugar Sweetened Beverages. American journal of public health, 104(5), 787-795.
- Kass, N. E., Faden, R. R., GooDMAN, S. N., PRoNoVoST, P. E. T. E. R., TuNiS, S. E. A. N., & BEAuCHAMP, T. L. (2013). The Research-Treatment Distinction: A Problematic Approach for Determining Which Activities Should Have Ethical Oversight. Hastings Center Report, 43(s1), S4-S15.
- Faden, R. R., Kass, N. E., Goodman, S. N., Pronovost, P., Tunis, S., & Beauchamp, T. L. (2013). An Ethics Framework for a Learning Health Care System: A Departure from Traditional Research Ethics and Clinical Ethics. Hastings Center Report, 43(s1), S16-S27.