Pitt Distinguished Nordenberg Lecture Speaker to Discuss "The Insanity Defense in the 21st Century" on Oct. 17

October 8, 2002

PITTSBURGH—Jennifer S. Bard, assistant professor and research director in the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas, will present the University of Pittsburgh School of Law's Distinguished Nordenberg Lecture at noon Oct. 17 in the law school's Teplitz Moot Court Room, 3900 Forbes Ave., in Oakland. The free lecture is open to the public.

Bard's lecture is titled "The Insanity Defense in the 21st Century: What Does the Future Hold?" Bard teaches a course in law and bioethics at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston (UTMB) and serves as research director of its Program on Legal and Ethical Issues in Correctional Health. In addition, she is an adjunct professor at the University of Houston Law Center.

In her research capacity, Bard is developing a number of research projects on issues of women's health in prison, including the subjects of preventive care for older women prisoners and the psychological effect of giving birth in prison. "I am particularly looking forward to doing research on women's health issues, as very little work has been done regarding women's health care needs in a prison setting," Bard said.

Prior to joining UTMB, Bard was an assistant attorney general in the Connecticut attorney general's office in the health care fraud/whistle-blower division from 1997 to 2001. She also worked as a policy analyst for the AIDS Action Counsel in Washington, D.C., in 1995. As a trial lawyer at Shearman and Sterling in New York City, Bard represented a Florida death row inmate.

She is a member of the Academy of Correctional Health Professionals, the health law and litigation sections of the American Bar Association, the American Correctional Association, American Society of Bioethics and Humanities, Kennedy Institute of Ethics, National Commission on Correctional Health Care, the American Corrections Association, and the Hastings Center.

Bard earned the Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Wellesley College in 1983, the J.D. degree from Yale Law School in 1987, and the Master of Public Health degree from the University of Connecticut in 1997. She also studied law and philosophy in 1984 in the Honors School of Jurisprudence at St. Hilda's College at Oxford University.

The lecture, named after Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg, former dean of the law school, is approved by the Pennsylvania Continuing Legal Education Board for one hour of substantive CLE credit. For more information, e-mail joshi@law.pitt.edu or visit www.law.pitt.edu/alumni/cle/index.html.

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10/8/02/tmw