JHU bioethics institute gets $15M for education, training

The Johns Hopkins University Berman Institute of Bioethics, one of the world’s largest bioethics centers, announced Thursday that it has received one of its biggest financial gifts, $15 million to be used to support education and training.

The donation came from Alex Levi and his wife, Vicki, and was made in honor of the institute’s founding director, Ruth R. Faden. Levi, a New York-based clinical psychologist, is a trustee emeritus of the Johns Hopkins University and chair of the Berman Institute’s national advisory board.

“The Levi family’s generosity will dramatically expand our capacity to prepare leaders who will take on the most pressing and morally challenging bioethics issues of the day, and who will work to effect change when and where it is most needed,” said Jeffrey Kahn, the institute’s director, in a statement.

The contribution will be used to establish the Ruth R. Faden Endowment for Education in Bioethics, which will fund the Hecht-Levi Fellowship Program, tuition support for students in the master of bioethics program, and research and conference travel for doctoral students in the health policy and ethics program. It also will be used to aid leadership and training for fellows and students in the Ruth Faden Scholars Program.

Faden said she was honored by the contribution in her name and said it “ensures that the Berman Institute will be able to continue to educate, in perpetuity, our field’s future leaders.”

Levi said in a statement, “I’ve been involved with the Berman Institute for a long time, and I feel like it’s given back more to me than I could ever give to it.

“Vicki and I wanted to find a way to honor Ruth’s lifetime of service, to creating the Berman Institute, to bioethics at Hopkins, and to the field. This gift will create new leaders who will change the world in ways we can’t yet foresee.”