The Center for Professional and Applied Ethics collaborates with individuals and organizations to provide expertise along a broad spectrum of occupational ethics issues, at regional, national, and international levels. Our discussions are inclusive, intellectual, and evidence-based. The Center’s programming focuses on four key areas:
- Healthcare: The center is fortunate to benefit from long-standing relationships with the regional medical community, including many prominent healthcare professionals. The Ethics Center also has an ongoing partnership with N.C. Biotech to bring programming about timely issues in Biotechnology, particularly as they affect North Carolina. The Center typically features an annual speaker series on a select topic; previous topics have included biohacking, precision medicine, and neuroethics. The Center also cosponsors conferences of interest to the public and healthcare professionals. Click here for examples of past healthcare programming events.
- Technology: Emerging technologies are central to many ethical issues, and the Center explores ethical issues related to technology, especially the rise of “big data” and data science through visiting speakers and conferences/workshops, like SEPOT. Click here for examples of past technology programming events.
- Business: The cornerstone of our business programming is the annual Barnhardt Seminar, made possible through a generous endowment from the Barnhardt family, in honor of William H. Barnhardt, a humanitarian and leading textile executive of the Southeast. In addition to the Barnhardt Seminar, the Center also co-sponsors career-advancing conferences and workshops. Click here for examples of past business programming events.
- Diversity: The Center cultivates constructive, inclusive dialogue on ethical issues that emerge among and across varied individuals and communities. In addition to symposia and conference sponsorships, the Center typically sponsors a speaker series each year. Past topics have included intellectual property and cultural diversity and problems in big data. In the future we hope to explore topics suchj as rural health disparities.