Stephanie Morain

Stephanie Morain, PhD, is a core faculty member at the Berman Institute of Bioethics, and an assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. She conducts both empirical and normative research into issues at the intersection of ethics, law, and health policy. Dr. Morain’s work examines political and ethical issues concerning the scope of government authority in public health and the role of stakeholder opinion in shaping decision-making in public health policy. Specific research interests include the ethics and politics of disease control and injury prevention; public health law; and ethical and policy challenges presented by the transition to learning health care systems. She was most recently an assistant professor in the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor College of Medicine.

A former Hecht-Levi Postdoctoral Fellow at the Berman Institute, Dr. Morain received her BA from Lafayette College with a dual major in Biology and History, Government, & Law, her MPH from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, and her PhD from Harvard University’s Interfaculty Initiative in Health Policy.

Sub-specialties: public opinion towards public health laws (e.g., soda taxes, anti-tobacco laws, menu labeling, nutrition policy), ethics of government strategies to influence healthy lifestyles (anti-tobacco laws, soda taxes, raising the minimum age of purchase for tobacco, etc), ethics & politics of injury prevention laws (youth sports concussions; speed cameras to prevent road-traffic injuries)