September 09, 2015

Media Advisory – Interdisciplinary Ethics Day

More than 250 Southern Illinois University Carbondale professional and graduate students will confront and discuss critical and ethical issues together later this week at the SIU School of Law. 

Students who will participate are from the SIU School of Law, the SIU School of Medicine medical degree program and physician assistants program, and the School of Social Work master’s degree program. Students will break into small interdisciplinary groups and discuss recent news-making and cutting edge scenarios, followed by a panel of experts in those fields who will explain how they would have addressed the situation. 

The event is from 9 a.m. to noon, Saturday, Sept. 12, at the Hiram H. Lesar Law Building at the SIU School of Law. Reporters, photographers and news crews are welcome to cover the panel and large group discussion beginning at 10:30 a.m.

The panelists include:

  • Moderator, Sandra Shea,  associate professor, Family and Community Medicine, and director, first-year curriculum, SIU School of Medicine.
  • Jennifer Brobst, assistant professor, SIU School of Law and director, Center for Health Law and Policy.
  • Dhrubodhi Mukherjee, associate professor, School of Social Work.
  • Carolyn Pointer, assistant professor, Medical Humanities, School of Medicine-Springfield.
  • Dr. Sid Smith, professor, physician assistant program, SIU School of Medicine.
  • Dr. Christine Todd, chair, Department of Medical Humanities, SIU School of Medicine-Springfield.

​The purpose of the event is “to make future professionals more respectful of their clients and more open-minded about their needs,” Brobst said.

The annual event, formerly known as Professional Responsibility Day, is in its 20th year, and introduces students to issues they will likely encounter during their professional careers.

Students and faculty will be available for interviews at noon. For more information, contact Alicia Ruiz, the law school’s director of communication and outreach, at 618/453-8700.