Hastings Center News
Hastings Center Unveils Strategic Plan: 2025-2029
The Hastings Center for Bioethics launched its five-year strategic plan at a public event in New York on April 24.
Hundreds attended in person at Rockefeller University and via livestream for the Daniel Callahan Annual Lecture marking the plan’s public release. Entitled “The Hastings Center Vision: A Path Forward for Bioethics,” the event featured Hastings Center President Vardit Ravitsky; Joshua Boger, founder and CEO (former) of Vertex Pharmaceuticals; and Gina Kolata, a New York Times health and science reporter. They discussed the strategic plan and its relevance to challenges today, with Boger offering the perspective of the pharmaceutical industry and innovation and Kolata offering insights from journalism. Watch the video of event.
The strategic plan underscores the importance of three core areas of The Hastings Center’s work: research, publications, and engagement. It also articulates the Center’s vision and mission and its commitment to six values: independence, justice and equity, inclusiveness and diversity, rigor and excellence, relevance and impact, and integrity and moral courage.
To fulfill the Center’s mission, the strategic plan outlines goals for its research, publications, engagement, and financial sustainability.
“In the current context of transformative changes and innovations, rapidly emerging technologies, persistent health inequities, and an increasingly polarized world, it is timely for The Hastings Center to consider its path forward as a leader in a field that is more relevant and needed than ever,” write Ravitsky and Board Chair Joseph J. Fins in the strategic plan’s introduction.
The strategic plan includes the decision to rename the organization The Hastings Center for Bioethics. “Originally named ‘The Institute for the Study of Ethics and the Life Sciences,’ and renamed ‘The Hastings Center’ in 1985, our brand is widely known within bioethics and biomedical circles,” states the strategic plan. “Going forward, we will add ‘for bioethics’ to our name, to clarify our mission for broader audiences. The term bioethics holds many meanings. We welcome its ambiguity, as it leaves the scope of our inquiry broad.”
The strategic plan was the culmination of a yearlong process that involved a broad national and international consultation and was guided by a Task Force composed of Hastings Center staff members, board members, fellows, and external colleagues.
