About Sister/Doctor Nuala

Nuala Patricia Kenny was born in New York and entered the Sisters of Charity of Halifax in 1962.  She received her B.A., Magna Cum Laude, from Mount Saint Vincent University in 1967, an M.D. from Dalhousie in 1972.  In 1975, she became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physician and Surgeons of Canada in Pediatrics and in 1976 was certified by the American Board of Pediatrics. She had a distinguished career in pediatrics at Dalhousie, the Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto and  Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. 

In 1993, she held a Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Fellowship at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University under the mentorship of Dr. Edmund Pellegrino.  In 1995, she founded Department of Bioethics at Dalhousie University.  

From February to November 1999, Dr. Kenny was seconded as Deputy Minister of Health for the Province of Nova Scotia. From 2009-2014 she served as Ethics and Health Policy Advisor to the Catholic Health Alliance of Canada. Among other awards, she has received seven Honorary Doctorates for her work and was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada for her contributions to child health and medical education. Author of over one hundred and eighty papers and five books, Dr. Kenny is nationally recognized as an educator and physician ethicist.