Audrey R. Chapman

Professor, Public Health Sciences

Audrey Chapman began her professional career as a faculty member in the Political Science Department at Barnard College. She then spent several years teaching and conducting applied social science research on development issues at institutions in Ghana, Lebanon, and Kenya. When she returned to the U.S., she assumed a position directing peace, justice, and human rights programs for the United Church Board for World Ministries, the international agency of the United Church of Christ, attended seminary, and was ordained as a minister in the denomination. Prior to her appointment at the UConn Health Center, she spent 15 years on the staff of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) as the Director of the Science and Human Rights Program; the founding Director and then Senior Associate for Ethics of the AAAS Program of Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion; and for several years, the co-director of the AAAS initiative on Science and Intellectual Property in the Public Interest. She has been on the faculty of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine since July 2006 when she assumed her current appointment as a Professor of Community Medicine and Healthcare and the Healey Chair in Medical Humanities and Medical Ethics. Dr. Chapman is the author, co-author, or editor of 18 books and more than 70 articles and reports dealing with ethical, human rights, theological, and intellectual property issues related to health, stem cells, genetic developments, and pharmaceuticals. She also has published works on economic, social and cultural rights; stem cell developments; health care reform; transitional justice; reconciliation; and development issues. As a Professor in the Division of Public Health Law and Bioethics and the first Healey Endowed Chair, she is responsible for developing medical humanities and health ethics programs at UConn Health.

Dr. Chapman currently offers courses dealing with the ethical and regulatory dimensions of innovative health therapies, public health ethics, comparative health systems, reproductive health ethics, and health and human rights. She also has been involved in team taught courses on health and human development, the ethical dimensions of genetic developments, and research ethics in the Medical School and the MPH Program. While at the University of Connecticut she has also taught medical school courses on reproductive ethics, spirituality and health, and end of life care.