Sydney Axson, MPH, PhD

Sydney A. Axson, MPH, PhD (VA Scholar) received her undergraduate degree in Political Science from Syracuse University. She then earned her MPH and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. As a doctoral student, she was a Hillman Scholar in Nursing Innovation and a LEAH fellow at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Axson’s research is generally at the intersection of public health and bioethics. At Penn, Dr. Axson conducted research examining the evolution of the informed consent document over time and the role of nurses in the informed consent process. She also collaborated with peers across campus in developing educational tools for recognizing and intervening in response to an opioid overdose using virtual reality. Her dissertation focused on opioid prescribing to adolescents at time of discharge. Upon completing her doctoral training, she spent one year as a post-doctoral associate working on the ethics of clinical trial transparency.

Research interests: Substance use disorder, pain management, harm reduction, bioethics, research methodology.