Professor Patrick Smith
Judith Woolfe, Andrew Torrance, Patrick Smith and Eric Priest
Visit to St Leonards School
Patrick Smith with dinner guests
Lecture
James Gregory Lecture February 2019.
Question and answer session
James Gregory Lecture – February 2019 – Q and A.
Biography
Professor Patrick T. Smith is Associate Research Professor of Theological Ethics and Bioethics, and a Senior Fellow, Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. He is also associate faculty with the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities, and History of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine.
Prior to his appointment at Duke, Professor Smith held academic appointments as an associate professor of philosophical theology and ethics at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and lecturer at Harvard Medical School through the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine. He was core faculty for the Master of Bioethics degree program offered through Harvard’s Center for Bioethics. In addition to his work with the Center for Bioethics, he was a principal faculty member for the Initiative on Health, Religion, and Spirituality, an interfaculty initiative across Harvard University. He serves on the Board of Directors for the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities and is the recipient of the 2019 Paul Ramsey Award for Excellence in Bioethics.
Professor Smith has worked professionally as the ethics coordinator for Angela Hospice Care Center in Livonia, Michigan. He served on the Ethics Advisory Council for the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and on the board for the Hospice Palliative Care Association of Michigan. He also has been a member of the Boston Children’s Hospital’s ethics committee.
As a student and product of the black Baptist church tradition that flows from the African-American Christian experience and as a licensed and ordained clergy member of the National Baptist Convention, USA, he seeks to integrate black Baptist spiritual, theological, and ethical resources for a public theology that bears witness in the form of a robust social ethic. He has served on the board of directors of organizations working for the common good and more equitable social arrangements such as YW Boston, which aims to empower women and eliminate racism. He also contributed thought leadership by serving on the board of a community development corporation, which supports local communities through building affordable housing, engaging in advocacy work, and providing education on housing policies and practices.
Patrick has been involved in global education having taught courses and given talks to medical professionals, educators and community leaders, and clergy in Kitwe, Zambia; Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; and various regions in the West Indies.
(Biographical info taken from Duke’s faculty page.)
