Jennifer K. Wagner

Jennifer K. Wagner is Assistant Professor of Law, Policy, and Engineering and Anthropology and holds additional faculty affiliations with Penn State Law, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Institute for Computational and Data Sciences, Rock Ethics Institute, and Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. She has been a licensed attorney practicing in Pennsylvania part-time since 2007. 

Dr. Wagner is a multidisciplinary expert whose research has been focused on the international human right to science, including human-centered design and matters of nondiscrimination, privacy, and equity with genetic/omic and mobile/digital health technologies. She’s published over 60 journal articles, her work has been cited by the Supreme Court of the United States, and her research has been funded by awards from the National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, NIH Office of the Director, National Cancer Institute, and National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering.

Prior to joining Penn State, Dr. Wagner conducted ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) research at Duke University’s Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy, the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for the Integration of Genetic Healthcare Technologies, and Geisinger’s Center for Translational Bioethics & Health Care Policy. As a AAAS Science & Engineering Congressional Fellow, she assisted with judiciary, science, and privacy policy issues in a US Senator’s office. 

Dr. Wagner is an active member of several professional organizations and has held several leadership positions, including as chair of the ASHG Social Issues Committee, co-chair of the Ethics Committee for the American Association of Biological Anthropologists, member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Cybersecurity & Data Privacy Committee, member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility, and Associate Editor for Human Genetics and Genomics Advances.

Dr. Wagner teaches a variety of courses at the intersection of law, science, and technology:

- Datafied Cultures & Privacy Law
- Genetics Law
- Biomedical Engineering, Law, & Policy
- Engineers & Scientists Shaping Policy
- Law & Precision Medicine