Jennifer K. Walter, MD, PhD, MS is the Steven D. Handler Endowed Chair in Medical Ethics, Director of the Department of Medical Ethics, and an attending physician in Pediatric Palliative Care at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). She is also Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Medical Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Since her training in both medicine and philosophy, Dr. Walter has worked at the intersection of clinical practice and bioethics with an emphasis on the physician-patient relationship and family-centered care. Her current research focuses on facilitating and improving communication between the health care team and families of children with serious illness. She is developing interventions to better train interprofessional teams in collaboration and communication to improve outcomes for patients and families. She has received grant funding from the National Palliative Care Research Center and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the NIH and is a Cambia Foundation Sojourns’ Scholar.
Dr. Walter attended the Georgetown University School of Medicine, where she earned her MD and PhD in Philosophy with a concentration in Ethics in 2007. She also was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar and has a Masters in Health and Health Care Research.