Ellen Wright Clayton, MD, JD

Ellen Wright Clayton is an internationally respected leader in the field of law and genetics who holds appointments in both the law and medical schools at Vanderbilt, where she also co-founded and directed the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society. She has published two books and more than 150 scholarly articles and chapters in medical journals, interdisciplinary journals and law journals on the intersection of law, medicine and public health. In addition, she has collaborated with faculty and students throughout Vanderbilt and in many institutions around the country and the world on interdisciplinary research projects, and helped to develop policy statements for numerous national and international organizations. She currently chairs the Paediatric Platform of the international Public Population Program in Genomics.  An active participant in policy debates, she has advised the National Institutes of Health as well as other federal and international bodies on an array of topics ranging from children's health to the ethical conduct of research involving human subjects. Professor Clayton has worked on a number of projects for the National Academy of Medicine, of which she is a member of the executive committee of its National Advisory Council, chair of the Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice, and was chair of its committee to define myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome. She is also a member of the National Academies’ Report Review Committee.  She is an elected Fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science.