Annual Director�s Letter, 2008-2009

Greetings,

This was the year of the new for the Union Graduate College-Mount Sinai Bioethics Program:

�       A New President for Union Graduate College, Dr. Laura Schweitzer, http://timesunion.com/ASPStories/story.asp?StoryID=734335

�       A New home planned for the Graduate College and the Bioethics Center:

�       http://www.uniongraduatecollege.edu/pages/aboutus/show_newsDetails.asp?news_id=645

�       A Renewed grant from the NIH Fogarty Center to continue our partnership with Vilnius University to train research ethicists http://researchethicseurope.com/

�       A New NIH Fogarty grant for Mt. Sinai and U. Belgrade for research ethics training.

�       A New contract with the NY State Stem Cell Initiative to plan ethics and legal education in partnership with Albany Law School and the Rockefeller Institute

�       A renewed relationship with U. Pennsylvania Bioethics Program to provide clinical ethics training for students in their Masters of Arts program.

�       New honors for faculty, students and alums: Professor Robert Veatch won the ASBH�s lifetime achievement award (http://www.asbh.org/about/awards.html ), alumnus Susannah Rose was awarded two prestigious Harvard Fellowships (http://www.bioethics.union.edu/news-411-Susannah_Rose__MSW__MSB_2006_is_awarded_fellowships.htm) and current student Danielle Hahn was selected for the prized AMA Ethics Institute internship.

http://www.bioethics.union.edu/news-407-Accolades_for_Danielle_Hahn_18009_and_Charis_Torok_18007.htm

�       10 New faculty — Sally Bliss, Amy Campbell, Devra Cohen-Tigor, James Fossett, Lisa Fuller, Robert Macauley, Sean Philpott, Margaret Smirnoff, Abraham Schwab, and Robert Swidler— most working in teams to refine, pilot or plan curriculum in clinical ethics, or in research ethics, or in ethics and health policy.

�       New conferences: we hosted ASBH�s National Undergraduate Bioethics Conference

http://www.bioethics.union.edu/news-367-April_4__5_National_Undergrad_Bioethics_Conference.htm

& a HEC Swap Shop at Mt. Sinai—

http://www.bioethics.union.edu/news-408-The_HEC_Swap_Shop_Mount_Sinai_School_of_Medicine_October_3rd__2008.htm

(Future HEC Swap Shops are being planned

Burlington, Vermont, May 1, 2009 & Rochester, Spring �10)

�       New Tracks in research ethics and health policy ethics to run along side our original track in Clinical Ethics—in keeping with our commitment to professional skills training in bioethics.

Sincerely,

Robert Baker, PhD

Director & Professor of Bioethics