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Elizabeth Heitman, Ph.D.

Elizabeth Heitman, Ph.D.

Professor

School
Medical School
Department
Psychiatry | Applied Clinical Research | Public Health
  • Biography

    Elizabeth Heitman, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Psychiatry’s Division of Ethics and the Program in Ethics in Science and Medicine, with secondary appointments in the Department of Applied Clinical Research and the O'Donnell School of Public Health. Her work focuses on cultural aspects of ethics in clinical medicine, biomedical science, and public health, particularly international standards of research ethics and education in the responsible conduct of research (RCR). Dr. Heitman teaches research ethics and RCR in the Center for Translational Medicine and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and is an ethics facilitator for medical students. She leads ethics and RCR education for two training grants on cardiovascular health disparities research through the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and she is director / multiple principal investigator (MPI) of two international research ethics education grants from the Fogarty International Center. 

    Dr. Heitman is a National Associate of the US National Research Council and has been chair or member of eight US National Academy of Sciences programs in research integrity education in the Middle East, North Africa, Indonesia, and Malaysia. In 2015-16, Dr. Heitman co-chaired the National Academies’ Committee on Gene Drive Research with Non-Human Organisms, and she is currently a member of the National Academy of Medicine’s Committee on the Use of Race and Ethnicity in Biomedical Research.

    Dr. Heitman came to UT Southwestern from Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society, where she was a member of the Academy for Excellence in Teaching and served as a clinical ethics consultant and chair of the Ethics Committee for Vanderbilt University Hospital. She was previously on the faculty the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston, Texas, and was clinical ethicist at Hermann Hospital and Lyndon Baines Johnson General Hospital.

    Dr. Heitman received her Ph.D. in Religious Studies in 1988 from Rice University’s joint program in biomedical ethics with the University of Texas Houston Health Science Center. In 1990, she was a Visiting Research Fellow in the Centre of Medical Law and Ethics at King's College, London.

  • Education
    Undergraduate
    Rice University (1979), Romance Languages
    Graduate School
    Rice University (1988), Religious Studies
  • Publications

    Star Featured Publications

    Featured Featured Featured Featured Featured Featured Featured Featured
    Public trust in regulatory agencies and support for policies on agricultural gene drive
    Buchman LW, Goldsmith CL, Heitman E, Kang KE, Liu X Review of Policy Research 2024
    A model program for RCR instruction for early-career faculty investigators with NIH K Awards
    Ravnik S, Heitman E Teaching Ethics 2024 24 1
  • Books

    Featured 

    The Ethical Dimensions of the Biological Sciences

    Bulger RE, Heitman E, Reiser SJ (Ed.) (1993). New York, Cambridge University Press

  • Honors & Awards
    • Fellow
      American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, DC (2023)
    • L. C. Dorsey Research Honor Society
      Jackson Heart Study Graduate Training and Education Center, University of Mississippi Medical Center (2020)
    • National Research Council, Washington, DC, National Associate
      Lifetime Appointment (2020)
    • Thorpe Mentor Award
      University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS (2020)
    • Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University, Institute for Science, Technology, and Public Policy Fellow
      (2018)
    • Sigma Xi Scientific Honor Society
      Vanderbilt University (2015)
  • Professional Associations/Affiliations
    • American Association for the Advancement of Science (2010)
    • American Public Health Association (1996)
    • American Society for Bioethics and the Humanities (1994)
    • Association for Clinical and Translational Science (2010)
    • Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (1998)
    • Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science (2019)