The John and Marsha Ryan Bioethicist in Residence was established in 2006 to fund an annual residence and lecture by a law and/or medicine ethics scholar at the School of Law and School of Medicine at Southern Illinois University.

Each year a leading bioethics scholar will visit classes at the law school and provide a seminar for medical students in Carbondale and Springfield; organize interdisciplinary educational activities for students, residents, and faculty from both institutions; be available to mentor law and medicine students; offer a public lecture on his or her scholarship as it relates to law and medicine; and be invited to submit a written version of this lecture for publication in the Journal of Legal Medicine.