Bioethics Forum

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Sixth Annual International Bioethics Forum
From Therapy to Enhancement
Presenter Biographies  

Scott D. Anderson, M.Div., M.A. became the Executive Director for the Wisconsin Council of Churches in March, 2003.  A former Presbyterian minister, Scott served for six years as the California Council of Churches' Associate Director before being elected Executive Director in September, 1996.  In 2000, Scott received the distinguished "Menches in the Trenches" award from the American Jewish Congress for his social justice advocacy work, and was honored by the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors for his two years of service as Chair of the Human Services Coordinating Council, which oversees human services planning and coordination at the county level.

Scott served as pastor of St. Stephen's Presbyterian Church in North Highlands, California from
1983–1987, and then as Pastor and Head of Staff at Bethany Presbyterian Church in Sacramento, before entering graduate school to study public policy and administration in the fall of 1990. He has broad-based ecumenical experience, including six years of service on the governing board and executive committee of the National Council of Churches and as President of the Sacramento Interfaith Service Bureau.

Scott is a graduate of the University of California-Davis where he received his B.A. in Political Science. He received his Masters of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary, and an M.A. in Public Policy from California State University, Sacramento.

Michele Arduengo, Ph.D., ELS is a scientific communications specialist at Promega Corporation in Madison, WI and editor of Promega’s Cell Notes magazine. Before coming to Promega, she served as Assistant Professor of Biology at Morningside College in Sioux City, IA. She earned her Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Cell and Developmental Biology at Emory University (Atlanta, GA), her B.A. from Wesleyan College (Macon, GA) and is certified as an Editor in the Life Sciences by the Board of Editors in the Life Sciences. Michele’s graduate work was supported by a National Institutes of Health Molecular Biology Training Grant, and in 1996 she received the Young Alumna Award from Wesleyan College for her work on nematode presenilins. She is also a member of the Project Kaleidoscope Faculty 21 network and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Undergraduate Research.

Michele is a contributing author to several Salem Press scientific reference works, including the award-winning Encyclopedia of Genetics, Basics and Applications. While at Morningside College, she team taught a Science and Religion course that received a Center for the Theology and the Natural Sciences Course Award from the Templeton Foundation. Her interest in the relationship between science and religion has led her to participate as an instructor in a pilot ethics course at Grady High School in Atlanta, GA, and to complete the lay chaplaincy program at Emory University Hospital. Currently she is working with the Biotechnology Institute in Arlington, VA, as writer/editor for a high school biotechnology ethics curriculum.

Rabbi Jonathan Biatch, M.A. attended the California State University at Northridge for his undergraduate degree. He then participated in the World Union of Jewish Students' Institute based in Arad, Israel, where he acquired a fluency in Hebrew language. Following his return to the United States, he studied at Brandeis University where he earned a Master of Arts degree in Jewish Communal Service. After serving as directors of community relations and planning and budgeting for the Jewish Federation movement, he pursued his rabbinical studies at the Jerusalem and Cincinnati campuses of the Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, where he received rabbinic ordination in 1992.

During his rabbinic school career, Rabbi Biatch served student pulpits in Texarkana, Texas; Pueblo, Colorado; and Petoskey, Michigan; and he composed his rabbinic thesis on the history and the application of the Haftarah in modern synagogue life. Following ordination, he served a small circuit of two synagogues in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia (Beth El Congregation in Harrisonburg, VA, and Temple House of Israel in Staunton, VA), as well as two major pulpits, in Alexandria, VA (Beth El Hebrew Congregation) and Glendale, CA (Temple Sinai of Glendale).

Rabbi Biatch has served on the boards of the southern California region of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, and "Allies," a human rights advocacy organization supporting the gay and lesbian communities of the Shenandoah Valley. He was active in the interfaith ministerial organizations in Glendale and Alexandria, and served as president of the interfaith council of Harrisonburg.

Rabbi Biatch is married to Rabbi Bonnie Margulis, Director of Clergy Programming and Assistant Director for Affiliates of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, based in Washington, DC. They have two children, Samantha and Joshua, and reside in Madison.

Karin Borgh, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of the BioPharmaceutical Technology Center Institute (BTCI). She received a B.A. in Japanese from Stanford University and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Child and Family Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, also recently completing the Bioethics Certificate program at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Before leaving academia to help establish BTCI, Dr. Borgh taught, focusing on teacher training, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and later became an Assistant Professor in the College of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. 

For the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Borgh serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor for the Masters Program in Biotechnology and as Volunteer Faculty for the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Clinical Laboratory Science Program.  She is Chair of the Education Committee for the Wisconsin Biotechnology and Medical Device Association and a member of the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium Advisory Committee.  Dr. Borgh serves as a discussion leader for “Medical Ethics and Palliative Medicine,” a required course for medical students at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW).
 

Susan M. Carlson, M.B.A. is Director of Operations for WiCell, with responsibility for day-to-day management of research, support, service, education, outreach and other efforts of the organization. She works closely with the Executive Director and Board of Trustees to implement the organization’s vision and strategic plan.

Her experience includes more than thirteen years of research administration and general management at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, including a year working as administrator of the committee to review the biological sciences at UW-Madison, more than 10 years at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, and two years at the Women’s Health Study at the UW Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Ms. Carlson holds a master’s of international business and marketing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She earned her bachelor’s of science degree in management information systems from the University of Tampa in Florida.
 

Gabriela Gebrin Cezar, D.V.M., Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Animal Sciences and a member of the Comprehensive Cancer Center, Molecular and Environmental Toxicology Center and Wisconsin Stem Cell Research Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research focuses on human embryonic stem cells as a means to understand and hopefully prevent acquired birth defects. Her laboratory also studies epigenetic determinants of cancer. Previously, she served as Principal Scientist at Pfizer Global Research and Development and Pharmacia Inc., where she developed stem cell based platforms applicable to drug discovery and development. Her research focused more specifically on stem cell based in vitro models for obesity, neurodegeneration and cardiotoxicity. Dr. Cezar was also responsible for generation of in vivo models for drug discovery using genetically modified mice.

Dr. Cezar obtained her Ph.D. at UW-Madison in Endocrinology and Reproductive Physiology, advised by Dr. Neal First and supported by Infigen, Inc. She has done extensive research in nuclear transfer in cattle. Her work led to publications on epigenetic reprogramming of cloned animals and placental abnormalities in nuclear transfer pregnancies. She was also a graduate student and trained at Roslin Institute, UK, where “Dolly the Sheep” was generated.
 

R. Alta Charo, J.D. is the Warren P. Knowles Professor of Law and Bioethics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where she is on the faculty of the Law School and the Medical School's Department of Medical History and Bioethics. She also serves on the faculty of the UW Masters in Biotechnology program and lectures in the MPH program of the Dept of Population Health Sciences.

She teaches and writes on public health law, bioethics and biotechnology law, food & drug law, medical ethics, reproductive rights, torts, and legislative drafting. In addition, she has served on the UW Hospital clinical ethics committee, the University's Institutional Review Board for the protection of human subjects in medical research, and the University's Bioethics Advisory Committee. 

Professor Charo is an elected member of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, and of the National Academies' Institute of Medicine.  At the National Academies, she serves on the NRC Board on Life Sciences and the IOM Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice.  In addition, she has served on IOM committees writing reports on biotechnology based bioterrorism; the national smallpox vaccine program; and the future of drug safety.  In 2005 she served on the NRC/IOM committee to draft the national Guidelines for Embryonic Stem Cell Research, and in 2006 she was appointed to co-chair the National Academies' Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Advisory Committee.
 

Venerable George Churinoff, B.Sc. (Gelong Thubten Tsultrim) was born in Chicago and graduated from MIT in '67 with a BSc in Physics. After attending graduate school in Physics, he taught at Choate School in Connecticut and American Community School in Beruit. He took ordination as a Tibetan Buddhist monk in Nepal in 1975 with Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche.

Venerable George helped initiate the Seven Year Study Program at Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa in Italy. He has been a much sought-after teacher for many years and is renowned as a translator of Sanskrit and Tibetan. He has received extensive teachings in both the Sutra and Tantra traditions from the most qualified Tibetan masters, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Venerable George has done many meditation retreats and taught in America, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. His hobbies are hatha yoga and computers.
 

Elizabeth Felton, M.S. is a MD/PhD student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  She received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University and a M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from UW-Madison.  Elizabeth is currently nearing the completion of her PhD in Biomedical Engineering.  The long-term goal of her research is to enable individuals with severe motor disabilities to direct a computer cursor, wheelchair, prosthetic limb, or an artificially-stimulated paralyzed limb with direct brain control.  The short term goal of her research is to address some of the outstanding questions and challenges in brain-computer interface (BCI) research by taking a practical, patient-centered approach.  She is investigating the mental effort required and human information processing capacity that can be achieved using BCI systems controlled by scalp-based electroencephalogram (EEG) and intracranial electrocorticogram (ECoG) signals.  Elizabeth’s career goal is to become a physician-scientist, combining clinical practice as a neurologist with cutting edge neural engineering research at a major academic medical center.
 

The Reverend Shirley R. Funk, M.Div. is serving as Pastor at Lake Edge Lutheran Church in Madison, WI.   Educated at Westminster (Pennsylvania) College and Princeton Theological Seminary, Reverend Funk was ordained by the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) in 1969.  Her calls in ministry include Presbyterian congregations in New York, Illinois and Wisconsin, as well as serving as an interim pastor in several Wisconsin United Church of Christ congregations and as Chaplain for Methodist Retirement Center/Health Center and Attic Angel Retirement/Nursing Home in Madison.   She is currently serving on the Board of Samaritan Counseling Center and is a Board member, President and member of the Wisconsin Chamber Choir.
 

Carl Gulbrandsen, Ph.D., J.D. is the Managing Director of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF).  WARF was founded in 1925 to facilitate transfer of technologies and intellectual property developed by scientists at the University of Wisconsin to private companies for development. As Managing Director of WARF, Dr. Gulbrandsen has been involved in the national debate on stem cell research.

He is a member of the patent bar, Vice President of Public Policy for the Association of University Technology Managers, and a member of the Patent Public Advisory Committee for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  Previously he served as the Director of Patents and Licensing at WARF and as the General Counsel at Lunar Corporation and Bone Care International, Inc.

Dr. Gulbrandsen received his B.A. from St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN. He later earned a Ph.D. in physiology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a law degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School.
 

Dennis C. Helwig, M.S., L.A.T.
Dennis Helwig, a Columbus, Wisconsin native, graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1974. He began his athletic training career with the Philadelphia Eagles of the NFL before returning to his alma mater as an assistant athletic trainer in the fall of 1975. He became head athletic trainer in 1985, serving as head football athletic trainer for numerous bowl games including 3 Rose Bowls.

Dennis served as a medical staff volunteer for the United States Olympic Committee in 1983, as the US Hockey Team Athletic Trainer for the 1984 Winter Games in Serajevo, Yugoslavia, and as a member of the medical staff for the 1987 Summer University Games in Zagreb, Yugoslavia. With numerous sports medicine related publications and presentations to his credit, Dennis also served as President of the WATA from 1996-2000, a crucial period for the organization as the profession obtained state licensure during his term in office. He was awarded the WATA's Distinguished Service Award in 1988, and was inducted into the Wisconsin Hockey Hall of Fame in 1997. 

Andrew J. Imparato, J.D. is the first full-time President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), a national non-profit, non-partisan membership organization of people with disabilities, their family members and supporters that was founded in 1995.  Prior to joining AAPD, he was general counsel and director of policy for the National Council on Disability (NCD), an independent federal agency advising the President and the Congress on public policy issues affecting people with disabilities. Imparato has also worked as a special assistant to Commissioner Paul Steven Miller at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; as Counsel to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Disability Policy, chaired by Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa; and as a Skadden fellow/staff attorney at the Disability Law Center in Boston, Massachusetts.

Mr. Imparato, whose perspective is informed by his own experience with bipolar disorder, is frequently called upon to write, speak or provide testimony about disability issues. He has testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Housing and Transportation, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, and the Institute of Medicine. His analysis of the U.S. Supreme Court's rulings relating to disability rights appears in The Rehnquist Court: Judicial Activism on the Right (H. Schwartz, ed., Hill and Wang, 2002). He is also the co-author, with civil rights attorney Claudia Center, of an article in the Spring 2003 issue of the Stanford Law and Policy Review entitled "Redefining 'Disability' Discrimination: A Proposal for Restoring Civil Rights for All Workers."
 

William A. Linton is the founder, President and Chairman of Promega Corporation. Mr. Linton has served as director or advisor for numerous industry, government, and community organizations. He currently serves as Director for Bruker Biosciences, High Throughput Genomics, and the Wisconsin Technology Council. He is Chairman of the Analytical and Life Science Systems Association.  He also serves on the Dean’s Advisory Board for the Department of International Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Through his vision, Promega established the BioPharmaceutical Technology Center Institute (BTCI) in 1993 and Woods Hollow Children’s Center in 1991. The BTCI is a not-for-profit educational institute offering programming in the sciences, arts and culture to local and global communities. Woods Hollow is a corporate-sponsored childcare facility, providing infant through school-age care for families employed at nearby businesses and at Promega Corporation, as well as families living in the surrounding area.
 

Samantha Malusky, M.S. is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Illinois, Department of Animal Science, expected graduation August 2007.  She is also a JD Candidate at Loyola University School of Law Chicago, expected graduation 2008. Samantha’s PhD Thesis topic is Molecular Characterization of In Vitro Derived Porcine Adipose and Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Analysis Following Whole Cell Injection In Vivo. 

Her current law-related activities include volunteering at Cabrini Green Legal Aid Clinic Chicago, IL, and the Office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Chicago, IL. Samantha is also working with the Comparative Law India Collaborative Research Project, with manuscript preparation in process. Her thesis: While medical tourism improves the access and affordability of healthcare for Americans, the growing industry presents challenges for India as it upsets traditional notions of social justice by undermining equitable access and affordability for indigent Indians patients.  She will be a Summer Associate at Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox P.L.L.C. Washington, D.C., Patent Law-Biotechnology/Chemical Biology Division.
 

Maxwell Mehlman, J.D. is Arthur E. Petersilge Professor of Law and Director of the Law-Medicine Center, Case School of Law, and Professor of Biomedical Ethics, Case School of Medicine.  He received his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1975, and holds two bachelors degrees, one from Reed College and one from Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar.  Prior to joining the Case faculty in 1984, Professor Mehlman practiced law with Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C., where he specialized in federal regulation of health care and medical technology. 

He is the co-author of Access to the Genome: The Challenge to Equality; co-editor, with Tom Murray, of the Encyclopedia of Ethical, Legal and Policy Issues in Biotechnology; co-author of Genetics: Ethics, Law and Policy, the first casebook on genetics and law, now in its second edition; and author of Wondergenes: Genetic Enhancement and the Future of Society, published in 2003 by the Indiana University Press. He presently is working on a book entitled “The Social Control of Biomedical Enhancement” under a contract with the Johns Hopkins University Press. He is the principal investigator on a grant from the National Institutes of Health entitled “Protecting Human Subjects in Genetic Enhancement Research,” and a co-investigator on two additional NIH-funded grants.
 

Reverend Andrew L. Nelson, Ph.D. was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1957. He earned a License in Sacred Theology at the Gregorian University in Rome in 1958.Following 5 years of parish ministry, served as chaplain at Winnebago State Hospital, 1963-70, including a year of pastoral-clinical study at St. Elizabeth Federal Mental Hospital and Catholic University in Washington, DC., earning status of chaplain supervisor.  Following 8 years as a parish pastor, he finished a PhD in Religious Studies at Marquette University in 1981. He has taught Moral Theology at Saint Francis Seminary since 1978, with stints as Academic Dean, vice-rector and Rector. Upon retiring in 2001and until 2006, he served as adjunct professor there while fulfilling a part-time parish assignment.  He continues to write and lecture on moral and ethical issues, as well as engage in parish work at the Cathedral and surrounding parishes.
 

Jon S. Odorico, Ph.D. ia an Associate Professor, Division of Transplantation, Department of Surgery, UW-Madison.  Dr. Odorico is certified by the American Board of Surgery. He specializes in pancreatic, islet cell, and multi-organ transplants.  His research focuses on stem cell biology and differentiation, developing novel stem cell-based strategies for treating diabetes, pancreas transplantation, and islet cell transplantation.

Dr. Odorico received his MD from New York University, School of Medicine, New York, NY in 1987.  His medical training includes: Residency, General Surgery, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 1988-1994; Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Harrison Department of Surgical Research, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 1990-1992; Fellow, Transplant Surgery, University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, Madison, WI, 1994-1996.
 

Joe Palca, Ph.D. is a science correspondent for NPR. Since joining NPR in 1992, Palca has covered a range of science topics -- everything from biomedical research to astronomy. In addition to his science reporting, Palca is backup host for Talk of the Nation Science Friday. He began his journalism career in television in 1982, working as a health producer for the CBS affiliate in Washington, DC. In 1986, he left television for a seven-year stint as a print journalist, first as the Washington news editor for Nature, and then as a senior correspondent for Science Magazine. He comes to journalism from a science background, having received a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California at Santa Cruz where he worked on human sleep physiology.

Palca has won numerous awards, including the National Academies Communications Award, the Science-in-Society Award of the National Association of Science Writers, the American Chemical Society James T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public, the American Association for the Advancement of Science Journalism Prize, and the Ohio State Award.  He was president of the National Association of Science Writers from 1999-2000. He lives in Washington, D.C, with his wife and two sons.

Erik Parens, Ph.D.  is an Associate for Philosophical Studies at The Hastings Center.  He is currently principal investigator on "Crafting Tools for Public Conversation about Behavioral Genetics," a project funded by the Ethical, Social, and Legal Implications program of the National Human Genome Institute, and on "Surgically Shaping Children, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is also co-investigator on "Reprogenetics: A Blueprint for Meaningful Moral Debate and Responsible Public Policy" supported by the Greenwall Foundation.

From 1995 to 1997 Mr. Parens was principal investigator on the NEH-funded project "On the Prospect of Technologies Aimed at the Enhancement of Human Capacities" and from 1996-98 was principal investigator on the NIH - ELSI funded project "Prenatal Testing for Genetic Disability". Mr. Parens has served as consultant to governmental and nongovernmental bodies, from the National Bioethics Advisory Commission to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has published widely on a variety of topics, from pluralism and the delivery of health care services to embryonic stem cell research and the prospect of creating inheritable genetic modifications. He is editor of Enhancing Human Traits (Georgetown University Press, 1998) and coeditor of Prenatal Testing and Genetic Disability (Georgetown University Press, 2000).

Mr. Parens is also an adjunct associate professor in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. Before coming to the Center, Mr. Parens was visiting assistant professor of philosophy at Wabash College in Chicago (1991-92); a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Critical Inquiry at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro (1989-91); visiting assistant professor in the Honors Program at the University of Delaware (1988-89); and adjunct professor of philosophy at Villanova University (1986-87). He was educated at The University of Chicago, where he received a PhD (1988) and MA (1983) from the Committee on Social Thought, and his BA (1979) from The College.
 

Kyle S. Ripple is a third year undergraduate student at UW-Madison majoring in genetics and journalism.  He currently works as a lab assistant in the genetics lab of Patrick Masson on campus.  The lab focuses on several characteristics of Arabidopsis.   Kyle is also a new reporter for a student-run undergraduate research journal.  His plan after graduation next year is to gain some experience with a biotech company, then go to law school for intellectual property.

 
Don Walker, M.S.
Don Walker is the sports business writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He has 31 years of journalism experience, both as an editor and reporter.  A native of Detroit, Walker received his bachelor’s degree in journalism from Marquette University and a master’s of science degree in urban affairs from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Before joining the Milwaukee Journal, Walker was a reporter with newspapers in Cedarburg and Eau Claire.

 Walker joined the Journal in 1978 as a reporter and copy editor. He served in a variety of editing positions, including assistant metropolitan editor, national and foreign editor, assignment editor and metropolitan editor.  In 1995, the Journal and the Milwaukee Sentinel merged, and Walker became the paper’s national and foreign editor. Two years later, he became the newspaper’s special projects editor. In 1999, he returned to reporting, concentrating on the business of sports.

Walker covered the Summer Olympics in 2004 in Athens for the newspaper, and wrote a number of stories on performance enhancing substances.