Bernheim, Ruth Gaare, J.D., M.P.H

Ruth Gaare Bernheim, J.D., M.P.H. is a Professor of Public Health Sciences at the University of Virginia, where she teaches courses on public health law, policy and ethics.  She served as Chair of the Department of Public Health Sciences from 2010 to 2024 and was the founding director of both the Master of Public Health Program and the Global Public Health undergraduate program.

Ms. Bernheim’s numerous leadership positions have included serving as chair of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Ethics Subcommittee; member of the CDC Board of Scientific Counselors, Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR); member of the National Board of Public Health Examiners; and president of the Virginia Public Health Association.  Ms. Bernheim also served two terms on the 10-member Board of Councilors of the Council of Education for Public Health (CEPH), the official independent agency recognized by the US Department of Education to accredit schools and programs of public health.  At the University of Virginia, she was Associate Director and then Director of the Institute for Practical Ethics and Public Life from 1999-2023 and a member of the 2018 President’s Strategic Planning Committee for the University.

Ms. Bernheim has contributed to many community health projects at the local, state, and national level, including state advisory committees on the flu and on COVID-19.  She also has worked with public health leaders in practice across the country on public health policy education, including developing educational modules for the CDC’s Public Health Law Program and seminars on leadership and ethics for the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO). In addition, she chaired a national Expert Panel on Population Health Across Professions for the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH). Her research experience includes being a co-investigator on a Virginia Department of Health-led project titled, Excellence in State Public Health Law, funded by the Aspen Institute and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; and a Co-Principal Investigator on a project titled “Public Health Research Ethics,” funded by the Office of Research Integrity (HHS), under a cooperative agreement with the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).

Ms. Bernheim has taught innumerable courses in the medical, law, and data science schools on policy and ethics, as well as created a long-standing fourth-year medical school course on health policy. She was founding director of the Certificate Program in Public Health Sciences for graduate medical education students and led a university-wide faculty group to establish the undergraduate Global Public Health Minor and Global Public Health undergraduate programs.

Her publications include two books:  Bonnie RJ and Bernheim R Gaare. Public Health Law, Ethics, and Policy: Cases and Materials, Foundation Press, West Academic Publishing (2015 and 2021, 2nd edition with Dayna Matthew) and Bernheim RG, Childress JF, Bonnie RJ and Melnick AL. Essentials of Public Health Ethics, Jones & Bartlett Learning LLC, Burlington MA (2015).

Ms. Bernheim’s education includes a law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, MPH degree from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, certificates in negotiation/mediation from Boston University and the Harvard School of Public Health, and graduate education as a Scholar in Ethics at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics.