Rebecca Brendel

Rebecca Brendel is the immediate past president of the American Psychiatric Association and director of the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School, where she is associate professor of psychiatry and global health and social medicine. Brendel practices clinical and forensic psychiatry and is also director of law and ethics at the Center for Law, Brain, and Behavior at Massachusetts General Hospital. Previously, she was medical director of the One Fund Center for Boston Marathon bombing survivors and clinical director of the Red Sox Foundation and MGH Home Base Program for returning veterans and their families. A lawyer as well, Brendel works at the intersection of psychiatry, medicine, law, and ethics. She is past president of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry and has served on ethics committees of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, American Psychiatric Association, and others. (American Psychiatric Association Foundation is a 2024 Festival Underwriter)