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Dianne Bartels is the Center for Bioethics Associate Director and Assistant Professor of Medicine and Bioethics. She is an Adjunct Faculty Member in the School of Nursing and the department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development as well as a member of core faculty of the Law School concentration on Health Law and Bioethics at the University of Minnesota. She serves as a consultant to the Ethics Committee of the National Society for Genetic Counselors.
She is a graduate of St. Mary's School of Nursing, Minneapolis, MN and Marycrest College in Davenport, Iowa. She received an MA in Psychosocial Nursing from the University of Washington and a PhD in Family Social Science from the University of Minnesota. She teaches courses, Clinical Bioethics and Ethical and Legal Issues in Genetic Counseling.
Dr. Bartels was one of the founders of the Minnesota Network of Ethics Committees in the 1980's and has continued to participate in ethics committees and ethics consultations since that time. Her current research focuses on ethical questions related to genetic counseling and end of life care. Her work on end of life care has addressed a range of ethical issues from the use of life-sustaining technologies to medical futility. She served as a member of the Minnesota Commission on End of Life Care in 2000-2001. Current collaborative research projects address end of life care for people who are homeless and describing a model of practice for genetic counselors.