C. Ben Mitchell, PhD, holds the Graves Chair of Moral Philosophy at Union University in Tennessee, where he also previously served as Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs. Dr. Mitchell also serves as the editor of Ethics & Medicine: An International Journal of Bioethics and as senior editor of Renewing Minds: A Journal of Faith, Learning, and Culture.
Prior to joining the Union faculty, he taught bioethics and contemporary culture for a decade at Trinity Graduate School and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He received his doctorate in philosophy with a concentration in medical ethics (with honors) from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. His program included a year-long clinical residency at the University of Tennessee Medical Center at Knoxville, Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville, and a summer-long residency at the East Tennessee Mental Health Institute.
He has served as a consultant with the Center for Genetics & Public Policy at John Hopkins University; co-director for Biotechnology Policy and Fellow of the Council for Biotechnology Policy in Washington, D.C.; a fellow of the Institute for Biotechnology and a Human Future at Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago-Kent School of Law; a fellow of the Center for Policy on Emerging Technologies, Washington DC; and as a senior fellow of the Kairos Journal.
He was a member of the Templeton Oxford Summer Symposium on Religion and Science (2003-2005). In addition to his academic work, Dr. Mitchell also consults on matters of public policy and has given testimonies before policymaking groups including the U.S. House of Representatives, the Institutes of Medicine, and the Illinois Senate. He has published in major news media, including The Washington Post and is interviewed regularly on radio and television.
His most recent volume is Biotechnology and the Human Good(Georgetown University Press, 2007), co-authored with Edmund Pellegrino, Jean Bethke Elshtain, John Kilner, and Scott Rae.
Dr. Mitchell is a former Senior Fellow in the Academy of Fellows of The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity (2011-2021) and previously served as its Executive Director.
Updated June 2018
