Dr. Brunger has had a long-standing interest in and commitment to advancing research ethics in the province and nationally. She has contributed to various national and provincial working groups and policy statements on research ethics, including CIHR’s Privacy Best Practices, CIHR’s Guidelines for Health Research Involving Aboriginal Peoples, the Canadian standards for Ethical Review and Oversight of Human Research [CAN/HRSO-200.01-2021] (2021) and Development of a Human Research Protection Program (HRPP) [CAN/HRSO-100-01-2020 (2020). She has served as a member of CIHR’s Standing Committee on Ethics and was a member of the board of the National Council for the Ethics of Health Research (NCEHR) from 2003 to 2009. Provincially, she was a member of the Health Research Ethics Authority Transition Team that established the innovative centralized provincial Health Research Ethics Board. She has served as ethicist and Chair on one or more of its subcommittees for most of its operation, and represents the REB chairs as ex-officio member of the Health Research Ethics Authority Board of Directors.

Dr. Brunger has been recognized for her contribution to research ethics provincially with Memorial University’s Marilyn Harvey Award for Research Ethics (2015) and nationally with a Peer Recognition Award (2021) from the Canadian Association of Research Ethics Boards (CAREB).