Dr Jillian Gardner is a Senior lecturer at the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, where she holds the position of academic head of the PhD and Masters by Dissertation programmes in Bioethics and Health Law, as well as unit head for the Masters level unit "Advanced Research Ethics" and the honours level unit "Ethics in Research". Prior to her current position, she served as the academic head for various undergraduate and postgraduate courses that formed parts of different qualifications. Dr Gardner holds a PhD in Philosophy from Stellenbosch University and an MScMed in Bioethics and Health Law from the University of the Witwatersrand, as well as certificates in Assessment and Moderation, Commercial Mediation, Project Management, Managing & Leading People, Child Law, and Medical Law. Her research interests lie in the area of Applied Ethics, particularly in bioethics, clinical ethics and medical professionalism, public health ethics, reproductive ethics, the ethics of new and emerging technologies, and medical law.
Dr Gardner has served two terms (2016-2023) as a council member of the National Health Research Ethics Council (NHREC), where she chaired the Quality Promotion and Education Committee and the Complaints and Advisory Committee, and served on the Norms and Standards Committee and the Animals in Research Committee. She was also an executive committee member of the Research Ethics Association of Southern Africa (REASA) and a board member of the Hospice Palliative Care Association (HPCA) of South Africa's Ethics and Research Ethics Committees. Dr Gardner also serves as a member of the Wits Animal Research Ethics Committee, Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience's Biobank Scientific Advisory Committee, International Forum of Teachers of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Chair in Bioethics, Africa Bioethics Network, and Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association (SARIMA)'s Community of Practice Mentorship Program