This January, PRIM&R welcomed three new members to our Board of Directors. Each of them exemplify service to the field of research ethics and promise to be strong stewards of PRIM&R’s mission in the years to come. These new members are:

Allyson J. Bennett, PhD, is a developmental biopsychologist and professor in the Psychology Department at UW-Madison, the Director of the Harlow Center for Biological Psychology, and the Faculty Director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Animal Program that spans the university’s five colleges. Professor Bennett’s research expertise is in comparative studies of behavioral and neural development, with the overarching objective of advancing scientific insight into factors that result in individual differences in lifespan health. Comparative studies by Professor Bennett and her colleagues have contributed new insights into how interplay between genes and environments affects neurobehavioral development. She has served as Principal Investigator on grants from the National Institutes of Health, and has broad experience that includes a range of species–rats, prosimian primates, monkeys, and chimpanzees—as well as behavioral, physiological, and neuroimaging techniques employed widely in animal research.

David Augustin Hodge Sr., DMin, PhD, currently serves as Associate Director of Education for the National Center for Bioethics in Research and Healthcare at Tuskegee University. In this role, which he began in October 2017, he coordinates the Center’s Bioethics Honors program and bioethics minor, its annual Public Health Ethics Intensive Course, and various outreach programs designed to engage the Center’s target audiences, as well as teaches bioethics and public health ethics courses. In addition to his academic and administrative duties, Dr. Hodge is a researcher, author, and editor. This includes serving as senior associate editor for the Center’s Journal of Healthcare, Sciences, and Humanities. This double-blind, peer-reviewed journal—a partnership with the Smithsonian Institution’s Office of Sponsored Programs—was first published in 2009 by the former Navy Medical Institute for the Healthcare Humanities and Research Leadership, and then transferred to the center in 2012 for continued publication.

David Litwack, PhD, is currently Senior Director of Scientific Strategy and Communications at Prevail Therapeutics, a biotech company focused on developing gene therapies for neurodegenerative diseases. In this role, he focuses on the development of new and innovative technologies. Dr. Litwack spent many years as an academic scientist, and from 2002 to 2010 was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology and a member of the Program in Neuroscience at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. During that time, he established and directed an NIH-funded lab that studied the role of transcription factors in neurogenesis in the mammalian brain and in human embryonic stem cells. He was also a founding member of the School’s Center for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, where he supported University leadership in establishing some of its initial programs and communications. Finally, he taught extensively in both graduate and medical school classes in subjects including anatomy, neuroscience, developmental biology, and research ethics.

PRIM&R is also excited to welcome its newest members to the Membership Committee:

Susan Metosky, MPH, has worked at Arizona State University (ASU) since July 2005 in the Office of Research Integrity and Assurance and is currently the Compliance Officer. Her main area of focus is the Institutional Review Board. She received her MPH from the University of Michigan and her BS from Cornell University. Her passion is for mentoring faculty and staff through the compliance application processes. Each situation and study is different, and Metosky draws on past experiences to help researchers navigate internal review processes. One of her favorite parts of the job is providing educational outreach to the university community about topics such as human subjects research and work with Tribal populations. She has been a member of PRIM&R for over 15 years.

Denice O’Connell, DVM, DACLAM, is an ACLAM-boarded veterinarian who has worked in the field of laboratory animal medicine for the past 20 years. Currently, Denice enjoys her role of Director of Global Animal Welfare at AbbVie, where she works with AbbVie’s Comparative Medicine teams, scientists, and leadership to help assure that all AbbVie programs and external contractors and collaborators meet the company’s global expectations for animal welfare. She is active in the laboratory animal community, and is a member of PRIM&R as well as the AVMA, AALAS, NEBAALAS, ASLAP, APV, and IQ Consortium. Denice also holds an adjunct faculty appointment at Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and serves on the Board of Directors for MSMR and the IO Consortium.