Nuala Kenny, O.C., M.D., FRCPC  was born in New York and entered the Sisters of Charity of Halifax in 1962. She received her BA, Magna Cum Laude, from Mount Saint Vincent University in l967 and an MD from Dalhousie in 1972. She did postgraduate training in pediatrics at Dalhousie University and Tufts-New England Medical Centre, during which she held a Killam Scholarship. In l975, she became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physician and Surgeons of Canada and in 1976 was certified by the American Board of Pediatrics. She has received Honorary Doctorates from Mount Saint Vincent (1992), the Atlantic School of Theology (2000), Regis College, Toronto School of Theology (2000) and St. Francis Xavier University (2000). In 1999 was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada.

After an extensive career in pediatrics and medical education, Dr. Kenny founded the Department of Bioethics at Dalhousie in 1996. She now devotes herself to bioethics full-time. Her areas of research interest in ethics include: physician ethics, ethics education for physicians with particular attention to role-modeling, ethics and health policy at all levels, pediatric ethics and end of life care. At present, she is a mentor in the CIHR Training Grant in the Ethics of Research and Policy, the PI of  “Pandemic Planning and Foundational Questions of Justice, the Common Good and the Public Interest” (CIHR), Co-PI (with Mita Giacomini of CHEPA, McMaster) of “Ethical Frameworks for Health Policy: Apprisal, Appraisal and Application” (CIHR), Co-Investigator of “Building a Public Dialogue for Defining the Medicare Basket” (CHSRF) and “Health Policy Ethics: Enhancing Equity” (CIHR)

Dr. Kenny is internationally recognized as a medical educator and lecturer on fundamental ethics questions in health care and policy. In 2002, she completed her first book, "What Good is Health Care? Reflections on the Canadian Experience". In 2006, her edited text, "Lost Virtue: Professional Character Development in Medical Education" was released.  In addition to her academic work, Dr. Kenny is regularly involved in policy deliberations, particularly in relation to values and Canadian medicare.

She is a public member of the Health Council of Canada an on the Board of Canadian Doctors for Medicare and  has served on the Committees on Biomedical Ethics of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and the Canadian Pediatric Society. She was a founding member of the National Council for Bioethics in Human Research and has served on the Tri-Council Working Group on Revision of Guidelines for Research with Human Subjects and the National Science Advisory Board. She was Chair of the Values Committee of the Prime Minister's National Forum on Health and is past President of both the Canadian Pediatric Society and the Canadian Bioethics Society. She was a founding member of the Governing Council of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and also chaired the Working Group on Ethics in the new CIHR.