Linda Emanuel, MD, PhD

Linda Emanuel, MD, PhD, is the Buehler Professor of Geriatric Medicine and Director of the Buehler Center on Aging, Health & Society at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine. She is the founder and Principal of the national Education in Palliative and End-of-life Care (EPEC) Project. She is also the Director of the Ford Center on Global Citizenship's Health Section at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. 

Prior to joining Northwestern University, Dr. Emanuel was Vice President of Ethics Standards and Head of the Institute for Ethics at the American Medical Association. Dr. Emanuel moved to Chicago to create the Institute for Ethics at the AMA and to expand Ethics Standards. In the first three years of her tenure, these paired entities grew rapidly and were highly productive in the design and implementation of both the EPEC Project and the E-Force Program. The latter is a rigorous and innovative, multiple stakeholder group that identifies and validates measures for ethical parameters for all parties involved in health care. During this period of time, Dr. Emanuel fostered and supported the deliberations of the Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs and the continuing evolution of this Council's 150 year old Code of Ethics.

Until 1996, Dr. Emanuel was the Assistant Director, Division of Medical Ethics, and until 1998 the Glessner Lee Associate Professor of Medical Ethics at Harvard Medical School. She has published and lectured extensively on clinical ethics including end-of-life care, the patient-physician relationship, academic integrity, accountability, organizational ethics and professionalism. 

Dr. Emanuel was trained at Cambridge University, University College London, Oxford University, Harvard Medical School and Harvard University. She is a board-certified general internist with fellowship training in public health research methodology and fellowship training in professional ethics. Until 1996, she cared for patients at the Massachusetts General Hospital. She takes part in the Palliative Care Service and Geriatrics Evaluation Services at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Prior to her clinical career, Dr. Emanuel was a research neurophysiologist, in which field she earned her PhD.