TUSKEGEE, Ala (April 9, 2009) - Dr. Stephen O. Sodeke, interim director of the National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care at Tuskegee University, was recently appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to membership in the Secretary's Advisory Committee on Human Research Protections (SACHRP). This committee is charged with providing the Secretary and the Assistant Secretary for Health expert advice and recommendations regarding the protection of human research subjects. Further, SACHRP selects and evaluates topics as well as recommendations from five subcommittees. This committee is housed in the Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP).

"To receive this appointment is honoring and pleasing to me," Sodeke said. "I am humbled by the opportunity to serve with highly qualified individuals on a committee with such seriousness of purpose, including the commitment to give voice to the issues of concern about medical research that are no less compelling for the often silent minorities.  I plan to be a faithful representative at the table."

Sodeke brings to SACHRP relevant professional experiences, along with his education and training.  He serves as program leader for the Bioethics Shared Resource core of the Morehouse School of Medicine/Tuskegee University/University of Alabama Birmingham Cancer Partnership, and as co-chair of the Ethics and Regulatory Committee of the Research Centers for Minority Institutions Translational Research Network.  In addition, he serves as chair of Tuskegee University's Institutional Review Board; he has amassed 14 years of experience in protecting human research participants.

Sodeke earned a doctoral degree in Curriculum and Instruction in Allied Health Education, Supervision, and Administration at the University of Florida; master's degree in Clinical Laboratory Science Education and Guidance at Texas Christian University; master's degree in Bioethics and Health Policy at Loyola University of Chicago. Sodeke has also earned certifications in Bioethics and Health Care Ethics from the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University and from the University of Washington in Seattle.