Maria W. Merritt is Core Faculty at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics and Professor in the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH). A major objective of her current research, in collaboration with colleagues, is to develop a novel methodology to support the consideration of social justice in health-related policy decisions.
Dr. Merritt has held a 2015-16 Greenwall Foundation Making a Difference Award and a 2015-2019 NIH R01 Award (R01AI114458). Serving as Principal Investigator of both awards, Dr. Merritt as a philosopher has brought together Co-Investigators in health economics, social science, and infectious diseases to develop an innovative prototype methodology for assessing social justice impacts in the economic evaluation of new public health interventions. Under the NIH award she has focused on the scale-up of novel treatment regimens for multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis as a paradigm case for social justice assessment, while focusing under the Greenwall Foundation award on social justice assessment of new technologies to diagnose and treat the neglected tropical disease Gambiense Human African Trypanosomiasis. Dr. Merritt is a Co-Investigator on a 2017-2020 award from the Wellcome Trust on integrating ethics and equity into priority setting for Universal Health Coverage.
In 2016 Dr. Merritt was named the inaugural Associate Chair for Student Matters in the Department of International Health, and she chaired the 2016-17 Task Force on PhD Tuition at JHSPH. She was honored with the 2017 JHSPH Student Assembly Special Recognition Award for Outstanding Commitment to Student Success.
For more information, visit: https://www.jhsph.edu/faculty/directory/profile/1815/maria-merritt