Melissa M. Bottrell, MPH, PHD

A health care ethicist and evaluator who leads complex projects to improve quality across public and private health care systems. Her research interests lie at the intersection of health care ethics and public policy, particularly in the areas of the ethics of quality improvement, organizational ethics, and improving health care ethics programs.  As a core developer and national implementer of the IntegratedEthics© initiative at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, she has deep experience supporting organizations large and small to systematically change the ethics culture and ethics practices of their organization. She has conducted quality improvement initiatives in health care ethics including development, evaluation, and improvement of health care ethics committees, developed and deployed patient-centered health care decision making tools, and evaluated ethics related corporate and academic training and education programs. She has lead research and evaluation projects to improve the quality of hospital geriatric nursing care, breast cancer screening coordination, and health care data management maturity, enhance end-of-life care in nursing homes, and examine hospital informed consent policies. She has also investigated how regulatory processes governing nursing homes can inhibit quality end-of-life care and consulted on policy to improve nursing home quality. Dr. Bottrell has numerous publications, including three edited books and articles on the ethics of quality improvement, informed consent, geriatrics, and end-of-life care. She has a BA in Bioethics from Pomona College, a MA in Public Health from Boston University and a PhD in Public Administration from New York University.