Patrick T. Smith, in addition to being director of Bioethics Programs for the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History of Medicine and associate professor in population health sciences at Duke University School of Medicine, also holds an additional title at Duke that one may perceive outside the realm of medicine. He’s an associate research professor of Theological Ethics and Bioethics in the university’s Divinity School.
“A lot of my work stems from my background and my childhood in some ways,” Smith said in a 2019 interview for Duke Divinity School’s blog. “The values that were cultivated within my family were formed by the generation before me. Education was huge, music is something that was huge. A number of folks were also involved in Christian ministry as their life vocations and engaged in civil rights with various movements, campaigns, and organizations.”
Smith will be giving the Week Seven installment of the African American Heritage House’s Chautauqua Speaker Series, speaking at 3:30 p.m. today in the Hall of Philosophy.
Before Duke, Smith taught philosophical theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and medical ethics at Harvard Medical School. Early in his career, he worked as director of the ethics department of Angela Hospice Care Center in Livonia, Michigan. He told Duke Divinity School that this experience was a turning point, as it brought together in a concrete way his work in ethics, moral philosophy and theology.
In May, Smith preached at Duke Divinity School’s 98th Baccalaureate Service. Drawing on Philippians 4:4–7, he urged graduates to let “gentleness, patience, forbearance and kindness be shown to all.”
“Jesus exercised gentle forbearance with us before we were rightly related with him. It is because of God’s work in Christ on our behalf that we can do the same for others,” he told the graduates. “As you leave from this space and write the next chapter of your story, it is God’s peace that can guard your hearts that I pray is yours. Let us never get so sophisticated in our understanding of Christian ministry that we lose sight of joy as our fundamental driving force.
Smith’s research and writing are in the areas of moral philosophy, religious bioethics, and the intersection of the arts and the promotion of health justice and equitable health care — exploring the links between bioethics, public health, community engagement and social justice. Currently on the board of Elevate Theatre Company out of New York City and a Research Advisory Group member with One Nation/One Project, National Arts in Public Health Initiative, Smith is also a senior fellow with the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke, and recently elected president-elect for the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities.
