The Dartmouth Institute is proud and honored to celebrate a much adored and revered colleague, Dr. William A. Nelson, PhD, MDiv, as he transitions to his retirement from a storied career as a national leader in ethics of healthcare.
Bill’s education, training, and sc
holarly work follow a continuous pathway, consistent with the focus of his life – exemplifying the desire to bring a focus of ethics to the academic, administrative, and research work of healthcare on a national level with a nod to the special challenges of rural areas.
Bill earned his BA degree with an emphasis on history and religion, in 1968 from Elmhurst University, where he has since held academic appointments as visiting professor in 2004, 2005, and 2007, teaching Philosophy of Ethical Issues in the Health Care Professions. He continues to serve his alma mater on the board of trustees, since 2012. He earned his MDiv with an emphasis on religious studies at Andover Newton Theological School and PhD in applied ethics and psychology of illness from the Union Institute and University in Cincinnati, Ohio. He subsequently completed the W.K. Kellogg National Leadership Fellowship in National and International Health Policy and a National Rural Health Association Leadership Fellowship at the National Rural Health Association. This auspicious academic foundation prepared him for the work ahead – to influence healthcare from multiple aspects with a focus on the challenges faced in rural areas.
To know Bill is to know his intense interest in people and how they relate to the world around them. He brings together all his academic background with a laser focus on how to integrate individual needs with societal structure, weaving ethics throughout to bring us forward in making a better world.
He has held innumerable academic appointments, with an impact on so many individuals and institutions. His appointment as professor at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice is augmented by secondary appointments in the Departments of Community and Family Medicine and Medical Education at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. He held an Adjunct Professorship of Health Administration at the Robert Wagner School of Public Service in New York and was a Visiting Professor in Healthcare and Business Ethics at Colby-Sawyer College in New London, NH, as well as the Graduate School at the University of North Carolina. He has held the Elizabeth DeCamp McInerny Professorship for Ethics since 2021.
With his education and background as a chaplain and pastor, Bill has a penchant for appreciating the need for ethics influence in different areas of healthcare, filling that need and inspiring others to carry the torch. He co-taught the first ethics courses at Geisel School of Medicine in the 1970s, founded and chaired the Ethics Committee at the VA Medical Center in 1984 in White River Junction, VT, one of the first committees in the nation, and in the same year collaborated with Dr. Culver and Professor Bernie Gert to establish the ethics committee and program at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. In 1991, he co-founded and co-directed the Department of Veterans’ Affairs’ National Center for Health Care Ethics. In 2004, he founded and chaired the National Rural Ethics Research Collaboration Group within Geisel’s Department of Community and Family Medicine, and in 2011 implemented the integration of healthcare ethics and medical humanities into the Geisel curriculum with Dr. Tim Lahey.
Bill has an intense desire to help students embrace and incorporate ethics into their future profession, from medicine to business to education. He has mentored dozens of undergraduate, graduate, and medical students since 2011, many who have gone on to further education and program development in ethics in their own careers. He has served as director of the Geisel Ethics and Human Values Program and of the Olive and Joseph Swigart Ethics Fellowship Program, as well as co-chair of the Longitudinal Curriculum Subcommittee of the Medical Education Committee.
Through Dr. Nelson’s leadership, Geisel’s Ethics and Human Values Program takes a comprehensive approach, embedding topics from healthcare ethics, professionalism, and medical humanities within the medical school’s four-year curriculum. Additionally, he serves as the director of multiple courses at Dartmouth’s masters’ programs focusing on healthcare ethics. Dr. Nelson’s extensive teaching, publications, and research is directed toward increasing the understanding that ethics is foundational to the delivery of healthcare and health. Previously, he served as the chief of ethics education for the Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Center of Health Care Ethics, which he co-founded.
Bill’s foundation is rooted in his theological education and training, which manifested in his work as chaplain and pastor, culminating in becoming chief of the chaplain service at the VA Medical Center for 12 years. Those who know Bill, understand that this underpinning of his career allowed him to approach all things from the basis of investigating all perspectives. He is a compassionate listener, and master of unification.
His expertise has always been sought after, including as ethics advisor and consultant for the American College of Healthcare Executives, and section editor of Organizational Ethics for the Cambridge Quarterly for Healthcare Ethics. His contributions include committee work for the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, as well as the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities.
Bill is an avid researcher in the field of ethics, with grants from the Greenwall Foundation, VA Health Services, Charles E. Culpepper Foundation, and the National Rural Health Association among others. He has given hundreds of invited presentations and workshops on healthcare ethics, and has 55 peer reviewed publications as well as 8 books under his authorship.
He has received many awards including the United States Congressional Excalibur Award for Public Service for his efforts concerning the ethical care of the terminally ill. From 1986-1989, he was a W.K. Kellogg National Leadership Fellow studying US and international healthcare policy. And from 2008-2009, he was a National Rural Health Association Leadership Fellow. In 2004 he received the Department of Veterans Affairs Under Secretary for Health’s highest honor, the Exemplary Service Award. Also, in 2004, the Department of Veterans Affairs established the annual competitive “William A. Nelson Award for Excellence in Health Care Ethics.” In 2006 Dr. Nelson was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Elmhurst University for his work in promoting ethical healthcare practices. In 2013, was awarded an Honorary Fellow (HFACHE) from the American College of Healthcare Executives. In 2013, he received the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice’s student teaching award and in 2018 was elected to the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth’s Academy of Master Educators.
Effective June 30, 2025, Bill will transition to active emeritus professor of health policy and clinical practice, community and family medicine, and medical education. Please join us in thanking Bill for his contributions to our field and congratulating him on his (semi) retirement!