TUSKEGEE UNIVERSITY, Ala. - (July 6, 2006) - The Tuskegee University National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care and Project EXPORT will present a workshop on racial disparities in health and health care on July 30-Aug. 1 at the Kellogg Hotel Conference Center on the University campus.

The workshop, "Bioethics Addresses Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities," specifically targets faculty from historically Black colleges and universities and from high schools in South Central Alabama, the Black Belt counties and surrounding areas. Faculty from other universities will also be in attendance.

Dr. Charles H. Woernle, assistant state health officer for Disease Control and Prevention for the Alabama Department of Public Health, will serve as the workshop's featured speaker while other keynote speakers from across the state and nation, presentations of case studies and introductory seminars on bioethics and community-based public health issues will fill out the rest of the workshop agenda.

Additionally, there will be an Ethics Bowl, where groups of three to five people compete with each other in presenting case studies in ethics. Since 1999, the Bioethics Center has sent teams of students to and consistently had a strong showing annually at the national Ethics Bowl held during the spring conference of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics.

 "We may set up an HBCU Ethics Bowl, and possibly a regional high school event as well," says workshop director Dr. Isaac Mwase. "Ethics Bowls are effective teaching tools. We hope the workshop participants will involve faculty and students back in their schools, both for the educational value and for future competition by African Americans in the national Bowl."

To date, Tuskegee University is the only HBCU contending in the Bowl.

"The Bioethics Center will increase with this workshop the number of educators knowledgeable about bioethics, health disparities and the Ethics Bowl," says Dr. Vanessa Northington Gamble, director of the University's National Bioethics Center. "Bioethics education and training is a vital part of the work of our Center as we continue to transform the legacy of the U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study."

A few workshop slots are still open. To apply call Marilyn DeNeal at (334) 725-2347 or email her at denealm@gmail.com  to request information.