Christine I. Mitchell (born December 8, 1951) is an American filmmaker and bioethicist and until her retirement in September 2022, the executive director of the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School (HMS).
Education
Mitchell studied nursing at Boston University, where she earned both bachelor's and master's degrees in the field. She then studied philosophical and religious ethics and the ethics of care at Harvard University and the Harvard Divinity School, where she earned a master's degree.
1969 – Narragansett Regional High School, Baldwinville, Massachusetts, diploma
1973 – Boston University, School of Nursing, Boston, Massachusetts, BSN
1979 – Boston University, School of Nursing, Boston, Massachusetts, MS, Nursing and Pediatrics 1982 – Harvard Divinity School/Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, MTS, Ethics 1982–1983 – Course Professor, Ethical issues in Health Care, Graduate Program, Boston University School of Nursing, Boston, Massachusetts 1991–1994 – Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, PhD (ABD), Ethics, Philosophy, Nursing (University Fellow)
Ethics Fellowships:
1979—1981 - Harvard Medical School, Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Fellow in Medical Ethics, Interfaculty Program of Harvard University but done at HMS 1993—1994 - Harvard University, Fellowship in Ethics and the Professions at Safra Center
Academic Appointments
1976–1979 - Assistant Professor of Nursing, University of Virginia School of Nursing, Charlottesville, Virginia Visiting Professor, DeMontfort University, Leicester, UK Co-PI, End-of-Life Care Project, University of Zurich, Department of Biomedical Ethics and University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland 1991–2014 - Hospital Ethicist and Director, Office of Ethics, Children's Hospital, Boston. 1993–2014 - Associate Director (Previously Lecturer, then Senior Lecturer), Harvard Medical School Division of Medical Ethics, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine 2014–present - Executive Director, Center for Bioethics, Harvard Medical School
Career
She is known for her role in shaping the field in clinical ethics consultations for morally difficult issues in hospital settings. She is a founding member of the American Society for Bioethics Consultation, on which she currently serves, and American Society for Bioethics and Humanities's Clinical Ethics Consultation Affairs standing committee, and most recently, the Ethics Advisory Board of the Human Brain Project's Ethics and Society Subproject, funded by the European Commission. She is a former president of the American Society for Law, Medicine, and Ethics, where she serves on the editorial board of its journal, and the Freedom from Cancer Challenge, where she is a project Advisor.
Mitchell developed an interest in nursing ethics during her years at Boston University, which led her to pursue a Master of Theological Studies degree emphasizing ethics at Harvard University and the Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge. Between those two programs, however, she practiced clinical nursing for several years in Boston and Charlottesville, Virginia, where she became Assistant Professor of Nursing at University of Virginia School of Nursing.
Prior to her role with Harvard's Center for Bioethics, formerly the Division of Medical Ethics (DME) (where she had been associate director before its reorganization), she taught ethics and professional courses for medical students and in the Master of Bioethics Degree Program while on the faculty of the HMS Department of Global Health and Social Medicine.
Her research focuses on clinical ethics consultation and public engagement in bioethics policies, including end-of-life issues, assisted reproductive technologies, and resource allocation related to major natural disasters or pandemics. Mitchell also leads the Ethics Leadership Group for Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals and health care facilities. She has contributed to the development of nursing ethics as a discipline.
Center for Bioethics
Mitchell has been involved in ethics work at Boston Children's Hospital, where she founded the hospital's ethics program, directed the hospital's ethics consultation service, and led its Ethics Advisory Committee for thirty years. She has provided ethics consultation at Massachusetts General Hospital, Baystate Medical Center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, North Shore Medical Center in Salem, Massachusetts, and Maine Medical Center.
