People | Faculty
Lisa S. Parker, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Human Genetics
Graduate School of Public Health
University of Pittsburgh
Director, Master of Arts Program in Bioethics
Contact:
412-647-5780
Address:
Center for Bioethics and Health Law
3708 Fifth Avenue
Medical Arts Bldg., Suite 300
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Related Sites:
Lisa Parker, a philosopher, is Associate Professor of Human Genetics and Behavioral and Community Health Sciences in the Graduate School of Public Health. She is also a member of the Steering Committee of the Women’s Studies Program and a fellow of the Center for Philosophy of Science. She serves as Director of Graduate Education for the Center for Bioethics and Health Law, where she is Director of the interdisciplinary Master of Arts in Bioethics program in The Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, and co-director of the Area of Concentration in Medical Humanities in the School of Medicine. Dr. Parker has published extensively on ethical concerns related to the design and conduct of research, particularly genetic research and mental health research, as well as on aesthetic surgery, confidentiality, and informed consent. With a national working group of the Association of Schools of Public Health, Dr. Parker edited Ethics andPublic Health: Model Curriculum (Association of Schools of Public Health, 2003). She is co-author of the second edition of Informed Consent: Legal Theory and Clinical Practice (Oxford, 2001) and is co-editor of Mutating Concepts, Evolving Disciplines: Genetics, Medicine, and Society in the Philosophy and Medicine Series published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2002.
Dr. Parker’s recent research has focused on the ethical management of incidental findings and return of research results, privacy protection, pharmacogenomic research and genetic enhancement. She has sustained interest in employing feminist approaches to bioethical issues and in the critical analysis of bioethics as a social practice and field of inquiry. She has provided research ethics training in Kolkata and New Delhi, India through two training programs of the Fogarty International Center of the NIH. In 2012, she was appointed to the Genomics and Society Working Group of the National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research for the NHGRI, where she has served on the study section of the ELSI Program (the Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications Program) and on two national working groups examining the management of incidental findings and research results, as well as on the Expert Scientific Panel of the Electronic Medical Records and Genomics (eMERGE) Network.
Dr. Parker collaborates with investigators across the University and the country on both empirical studies and theoretical analyses. With colleagues in the Department of Psychiatry, Dr. Parker was involved in a community-based project to develop research infrastructure to investigate the care of elderly living with depression and other severe mood disorders. With Carnegie Mellon colleagues, she offered guidance regarding discovery and management of incidental findings in the use of DNA to identify human remains following natural disasters and armed conflict. She serves as a co-investigator and ethics consultant on studies employing whole exome and whole genome sequencing in different patient populations. With local and national colleagues, she is analyzing changes in young women’s sense of self and social identity following receipt of positive breast cancer genetic test results, exploring the clinical and cultural meaning of ‘reproductive significance’, and assessing the long-term challenges of developments in regenerative medicine and in fertility preservation. With colleagues in India, she is investigating differing conceptions of privacy and analyzing the appropriateness of privacy protection requirements utilized in the US and by the NIH when applied in Indian research and patient care contexts.
Education
BA – Philosophy, Hillsdale College (1984)
MA – Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh (1986)
PhD – Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh (1990)
Awards, Honors, and Fellowships
Nellie Westerman Prize in Ethics, American Federation for Clinical Research (1990)
Andrew Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities, Woodrow Wilson Foundation (1984-1990)
Research and Professional Interests
Research ethics, particularly genetic and psychiatric research
Informed consent, privacy, and confidentiality
Feminist approaches in bioethics
Bioethics as a social practice
Teaching Activities
Bioethics
Gender, Ethics, and the Body
Ethical Issues in Clinical Genetics (with Robin Grubs)
Ethical and Philosophical Issues in Genetics
Ethical and Legal Issues in Human Genetics (with Alan Meisel)
Seminar in Thesis Research
Session instructor, Ethical Issues in Clinical Practice, MS-4 elective
Selected Publications
Parker LS, Satkoske V. Ethical dimensions of disparities in depression research and treatment in the pharmacogenomic era. Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2012; 40(4): 886–903.
Parker LS. Returning individual research results: what role should people’s preferences play? Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology 2012; 13(2): 449-484. http://mjlst.umn.edu/prod/groups/ahc/@pub/@ahc/@mjlst/documents/content/ahc_
content_396769.pdf
Wolf SM, et al. Managing incidental findings and research results in genomic research involving biobanks and archived data sets. Genetics in Medicine 2012; 14(4): 361-384. http://www.nature.com/gim/journal/v14/n4/pdf/gim201223a.pdf
Parker LS. In sport and social justice, is genetic enhancement a game changer? Health Care Analysis 2012; 20(4): 328-46 DOI: 10.1007/s10728-012-0226-z http://www.springerlink.com/content/k077u2723h34m1k0/fulltext.pdf
Parker LS, London AJ, Aronson JD. Incidental findings in the use of DNA to identify human remains: an ethical assessment. Forensic Science International: Genetics 2012, Oct 29. pii: S1872-4973(12)00226-8. doi: 10.1016/j.fsigen.2012.10.002. [Epub ahead of print]
Mishra NN, Parker LS, Nimgaonkar VL, Deshpande SN. India’s Disability Certificate: a challenge to health privacy. Indian Journal of Medical Ethics 2012; 9(1):.43-45. http://ijme.in/pdfs/201co45.html.pdf
Parker LS, Brody H. Comparative effectiveness research: a threat to patient autonomy? Health Progress 2011; 92(5): 64-71.
Parker LS. The future of incidental findings: should they be viewed as benefits? Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 2008; 36(2): 341-351. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1748-720X.2008.00278.x/pdf
Shirts BH, Parker LS. Changing interpretations, stable genes: responsibilities of patients, professionals, and policymakers in the clinical interpretation of complex genetic information. Genetics in Medicine 2008; 10(11): 778–783.
Wolf SM, et al. Managing incidental findings in human subjects research: analysis and recommendations. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 2008; 36(2): 219-248. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1748-720X.2008.00266.x/pdf
Parker LS. Information(al) matters: bioethics’ agenda and the boundaries of the public and the private. Social Philosophy and Public Policy 2002; 19(2): 83-112.
Parker LS, Arnold RM. Confidentiality: revealing trends in bioethics. Bioethics Forum 1999; 14(3/4): 32-42.
Parker LS. Beauty and breast implantation: how candidate selection affects autonomy and informed consent. Hypatia 1995; 10: 183-201.
Parker LS: Breast cancer genetic screening and bioethics’ critical gaze. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 1995; 20: 313-337.
Parker LS. Social justice, federal paternalism, and feminism: breast implantation in the cultural context of female beauty. Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 1993; 3: 57-76.
Selected Presentations
Navigating the High C’s of Community Research, American College of Epidemiology. Chicago, IL, September 9, 2012.
Genetics of Sports Performance: Frameworks for Considering Clinical and Societal Ethics, American College of Medical Genetics. Charlotte, NC, March 27-31, 2012.
Ethics of Psychiatric Genetic Research. International Symposium on Ethics, Culture and Population Genetics, Indian Society of Human Genetics. New Delhi, India: March 18, 2009.
Reconceptualizing and Managing Incidental Findings of Research. Bioethics Grand Rounds. Cleveland Clinic. Cleveland, OH: January 6, 2009; Translating ELSI: Ethical, Legal and Social Implications of Genomics, Case Western Reserve University and NHGRI. Cleveland, OH: May 1-3, 2008.
Ethics and Genetic Testing of Children: Indications, Interests, and Implications. Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Ohio State University. Columbus, OH: May 8, 2008.
Conducting Ethical Research across Cultures, Communities, and Contexts. Cultural Competency in Genetics Research, South Texas Psychiatric Genetics Center at the University of Texas Health Science Center. San Antonio, TX: September 27, 2007.
Informed Consent, Commercialization, and Conflict of Interest (ICCI). American College of Dentists Annual Meeting. Las Vegas, NV: October 16, 2006.
Bioethics’ Evolution: Confidentiality, Privacy, and Why Information Matters. Nancy K. Rhoden Memorial Lecture Series, Oberlin College. Oberlin, OH: March 11, 1999.
