Betty Levin

She taught at Brooklyn College for 30 years and helped develop its MPH program. She was actively involved in developing the CUNY doctoral program in public health and the school of public health. She taught courses on social and bioethical aspects of public health. She is a medical anthropologist best known for her research on ethical issues in the NICU, who has conducted ethnographic and survey research funded by CUNY, the March of Dimes, the United Hospital Fund and the New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM) and participated in interdisciplinary team research at Columbia University, NYAM, and the Hastings Center. She has conducted research concerning childbirth, pediatrics, HIV/AIDS, palliative care and “urban bioethics” (with attention to race, class and urbanicity). Her research contextualizes bioethical issues in their broader cultural context. Dr. Levin has been an active member of the Pediatrics Ethics Committee at New York Presbyterian Hospital since it was founded in 1984. She has served in a number of positions for the American Public Health Association including as the founding editor of “Public Health Matters” for the American Journal of Public Health, chair of the Ethics Forum and on the Executive Board of the NYC affiliate, PHANYC. She was also active in the American Anthropological Association and the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities. Throughout her career, she fostered collaboration among the disciplines of public health, medicine, anthropology, and bioethics.