A public health researcher and ethicist by training, Dr. Sean Philpott holds advanced degrees in microbiology, medical anthropology, and bioethics. He is currently the Director of the Center for BIoethics and Clinical Leadership at Union Graduate College (UGC), where he oversees the Bioethics Program -- a joint program between UGC and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai that provides graduate level education in clinical ethics, research ethics and bioethics policy. He is also the Project Director for Union Graduate College’s Fogarty-funded Advanced Certificate Program in Research Ethics for Central and Eastern Europe. In addition, he is the former Chair of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Human Studies Review Board, an advisory panel that reviews the scientific and ethical aspects of research involving human participants submitted to the EPA for regulatory purposes, and the former Chair of the American Public Health Association's Ethics Group.
Before joining Union Graduate College he was Science and Ethics Officer for the Global Campaign for Microbicides (GCM), an advocacy project at an international non-profit organization called PATH, where his work focused on building the capacity of developing country researchers and stakeholders to design, conduct and monitor clinical trials of new user-controlled tools to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. He also was previously Associate Professor of Medicine at Albany Medical College and Adjunct Professor at the University at Albany School of Public Health, Deputy Director of the Alden March Bioethics Institute (AMBI), Executive Editor of the American Journal of Bioethics and a long-term member of the New York State Department of Health Institutional Review Board.
Experience
–present
Director, Bioethics Program, Union Graduate College
Education
2006
Union Graduate College, MSBioethics
1996
University of California at Berkeley, PhD
Publications
2013
An analysis of online courses in research ethics in the Fogarty-sponsored bioethics training programs, Journal of Empirical Research in Human Research Ethics
2013
Building research ethics capacity in post-Communist countries: Experience of two Fogarty training programs, Journal of Empirical Research in Human Research Ethics
2013
Ethical arguments for and against sperm sorting for non-medical sex selection: A review, Reproductive Biomedicine
2013
Social justice, public health ethics, and the use of pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention, American Journal of Preventative Medicine
2012
America’s drug problem: Ongoing shortages of critical medicines, Hastings Center Report
2012
De minimis risk: A new category of research risk, American Journal of Bioethics
2011
Protection of human participants enrolled in critical care research trials, Journal of Intensive Care Medicine
2011
The review, approval, and marketing of biosimilars in the United States. Part 2: Ethical issues, Bioprocess International
2011
(Un)Risky business: Adolescents and HIV prevention trials, American Journal of Bioethics
2011
Establishing clear standards of prevention in HIV prevention trials, Journal of Medical Ethics
2011
AIDS: The time for changes in law and policy is now, International Journal of Law in Context