NIH bio - Chief, Bioethics & Head, Section on Human Subjects Research

Dr. Grady is a nurse-bioethicist and a senior investigator who currently serves as the Chief of the Department of Bioethics.

Dr. Grady has authored more than 175 papers in the biomedical and bioethics literature and authored or edited several books, including The Oxford Textbook of Clinical Research Ethics.

She served from 2010-2017 as a Commissioner on the President’s Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. Her work is known internationally, and she has lectured widely on ethical issues in clinical research and clinical care, HIV disease, and nursing. She is an elected fellow of the Hastings Center and of the American Academy of Nursing, a senior research fellow at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics and an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.

She holds a BS in nursing and biology from Georgetown University, a MSN. in community health nursing from Boston College, and a PhD in philosophy from Georgetown University.

She has participated in numerous intergovernmental task forces and is the recipient of several awards, including the NIH CEO Award in 2017 , and the NIH Director's Award in 2015 and 2017. ¹⁾

Children- Megan Fauci, Jennifer Fauci, Alison Fauci Parents- John H. Grady Jr., Barbara Grady Born- February 7, 1952 (age 70 years), Livingston, NJ Spouse - Anthony Fauci (m. 1985)

Both Dr. Anthony Fauci (medical doctor) and Dr. Christine Grady (Ph.D., not a medical doctor) work for the NIH (part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), along with about 20,260 others in 27 institutes and centers of different biomedical disciplines, such as the National Cancer Institute, National Eye Institute, National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Drug Abuse and more.

Anthony Fauci directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases), one of the 27 major institutes, and is chief medical adviser to the president.

Meanwhile, Christine Grady is a nurse-bioethicist and chief of the Department of Bioethics of the Clinical Center of the NIH, the nation’s largest hospital devoted to clinical research. Note, this is a separate division from that of her husband, which reports directly to the National Institutes of Health.

Grady specifically works in ethics of clinical research, like study design, informed consent, recruitment, vulnerability, as well as ethical issues faced by nurses and other health care providers. ²⁾

NIAID “conducts and supports basic and applied research to better understand, treat, and ultimately prevent infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases.” Indeed, among the 27 comprising institutes and centers of the NIH, NIAID has the “unique mandate” to “respond to emerging public health threats.”

In its research and operation, the NIAID is guided by the ethics of the NIH. This means essentially that Grady’s decisions on ethics are intimately linked to, and inform her husband’s decisions on vaccine research and development. The NIAID participated in the development of COVID-19 vaccines (namely the Moderna jab), and the trialing of the vaccines.

One of the most controversial projects in which NIH has been involved has been the creation of “humanized mice,” transplanting into mice tissue from aborted babies.

And now, as Elle gushingly reported, Grady is “spearheading research into the ethics of America’s COVID-19 response.” ³⁾

However, despite the NIH developing and giving the ethical green light to coronavirus injections – particularly Moderna’s, which was made with help by NIAID scientists – the number of deaths and adverse reactions continue to grow each week following administration of the injection. ⁴⁾

In late January, Dr. Christine Grady's husband, Dr. Anthony Fauci, was tapped to join the White House COVID-19 task force. It didn't take long for the American public to lionize the soft-spoken infectious disease expert. His bespectacled face was meme-ified and printed on coffee mugs, masks, and prayer candles. He inspired love songs and appeared on late-night talk shows. The New Yorker dubbed him “America’s Doctor,” and Brad Pitt played him on SNL. In a moment when everything seemed to be spinning out of control, Fauci's televised plain talk united people desperate for the facts and for a trustworthy figurehead. But Grady—who has three grown daughters with Fauci—describes his sudden rise to fame as a “mixed bag” for their family.

“I mean, I think it’s great that he’s able to communicate with people in ways that make things clearer and that make people feel supported and calmer,“ she tells ELLE.com via phone. “He’s working an unbelievable amount of hours and not taking many breaks for himself. I do think it’s resulted in what I would call unwanted attention on me and my children. That’s the unfortunate side.”

Grady began her career at the NIH Clinical Center as a clinical nurse specialist in the immunology and infections disease area, before serving as a deputy director for the bioethics department. She was made chief in 2012, leading investigations into recruitments for scientific studies, incentives, vulnerability, and consents. She's well known for her work with HIV and AIDS patients in the 1980s, which led to the publication of her book, ” Ethical Issues in the Development and Testing of a Preventive HIV Vaccine.”

Now she's spearheading research into the ethics of America's COVID-19 response. As of publication date, the virus has reportedly infected more than 7.1 million people worldwide, with at least 408,000 deaths. In an email to ELLE.com, NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins describes Grady's analysis of the pandemic as “invaluable” to the institution, which is the largest biomedical research agency in the world.

From a laptop, Grady virtually oversees a team of 30 NIH bioethicists and research fellows, all with diverse backgrounds in law, philosophy, and sociology. The rest of her day is spent consulting with scientists from around the country studying COVID-19 and conducting her own research on the virus.

“We also looked at what it's like taking care of a patient when there are no visitors allowed,” Grady says. “Nurses often step in to be a surrogate family member or must think of creative ways to bring in family members using technology [when someone is being quarantined].”

In May when the Food and Drug Administration authorized emergency use of remdesivir —an experimental drug shown to work in COVID-19 patients— Grady consulted with scientists about how it was being allocated. Gilead Sciences, the company making remdesivir, donated 940,000 vials of the drug (enough for about 120,512 patients), according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. But now that supply is running low, there are concerns Gilead will charge a high price for the medication, according to CNN.

Like so many of us adapting to this new housebound normal, Grady misses dinner parties and meeting up with friends. But mostly, she's nostalgic for normalcy—before 26,000 people signed a petition to make her husband People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive and before he became a best-selling bobblehead. ⁵⁾