Nancy S. Jecker, PhD, (she/her)

Nancy S. Jecker, PhD is a Professor of Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Washington School of Medicine and Adjunct Professor at the University of Washington School of Law, Department of Global Health, and Department of Philosophy. Dr. Jecker was elected President of the International Association of Bioethics (2022-2024) and serves as a member of its Board of Directors (2019-present). She holds Visiting Professorships at the University of Johannesburg, African Centre for Epistemology and Philosophy of Science and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Centre for Bioethics.

Dr. Jecker is a Fulbright U.S. Scholar (selected 2021/22); three-time recipient of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science international fellowship (2025/26, 2020/21, and 2018/19); and three-time Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship awardee (selected 2020/21, 2018/19, and 1987/88). Dr. Jecker was a Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore (2018); Scholar-in-residence at the Brocher Foundation (2017); Visiting Professor at The University of Bucharest Research Institute (2017); and invited speaker at international and national events, most recently UNESCO (2024), the National Academy of Medicine (2024), and the International Women's Forum (2024).

Dr. Jecker’s research spans a range of topics, including global bioethics, especially sub-Saharan African and East Asian approaches; justice in health and healthcare; intergenerational ethics; personhood; and AI ethics, especially AI companions. Dr. Jecker has published over 200 articles and 5 books. Her 2025 book (co-authored with Caesar Atuire) What is a Person? Untapped Insights from Africa is part of Oxford University Press' series, "Philosophy Across Borders." Dr. Jecker's 2020 book, Ending Midlife Bias: New Values for Old Age (Oxford University Press), coins the term 'midlife bias' to refer to the privileging of midlife values across the lifespan. Dr. Jecker's other books include Wrong Medicine: Doctors, Patients and Futile Treatment, 2nd Edition, with Lawrence Schneiderman (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011, Japanese translation by Keiso Shobo Publishing Company 2021, Chinese translation by Ho-Chi Book Publishing Company 2015); Bioethics: An Introduction to the History, Methods, and Practice, 3rd edition, with Albert Jonsen and Robert Pearlman (Jones and Bartlett, 2012); and Aging and Ethics: Philosophical Problems in Gerontology (Humana Press, 1991, distributed internationally by J. Wiley and Sons and by Chapman and Hall, E-Book by Springer Publishers).