Barbara Russell, PhD, MBA
Bioethicist, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Health Policy, Management & Evaluation, University of Toronto

Telephone: (416) 535-8501 ext.3415
Email: barbara_russell@camh.net

 

Barbara serves as the bioethicist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) as its bioethicist. She is appointed as an Assistant Professor in the University of Toronto’s Department of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation (status-only) and an associate member of the School of Graduate Studies. Barbara also serves on CAMH’s Research Ethics Board, the editorial board of the Journal of Ethics in Mental Health, and the “lead” of the Canadian Bioethics Society’s Neuroethics affinity group.

 

In addition to her ongoing focus on the ethics-related nature, meaning, opportunities and challenges of diagnoses, treatment, and living with a mental illness and/or substance use problem, Barbara is interested in the conceptual and practical similarities and differences between ethics and mental health/drug regulations and laws as well as in organizational ethics (given her first career in the oil industry).

 

Prior to moving to Toronto, Barbara was the clinical ethicist at the University of Alberta Hospital, the Stollery Children’s Hospital, and the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta with a cross-appointment as an Assistant Clinical Professor at the U of A’s John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre. Barbara earned an MA and a PhD in philosophy, specializing in medical ethics, from the University of Tennessee and her doctoral dissertation topic focused on resource allocation in healthcare. Her first career was in business: she earned a Bachelor of Commerce and an MBA from the University of Calgary and worked in various positions in the oil industry in Alberta, BC, and Saskatchewan for twelve years.