Events

Douglas A. Hicks is dean of Oxford College of Emory University and the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Religion.  As dean, Hicks serves as the chief officer of Oxford College, one of the nine academic units of Emory University.  He also holds an appointment as an affiliate professor in the Candler School of Theology at Emory.

Hicks joined Oxford College from Colgate University, where he served as provost and dean of the faculty. From 1998 to 2012 he was professor of leadership studies and religion at the University of Richmond’s Jepson School of Leadership Studies and the founding director of the university’s Bonner Center for Civic Engagement.  He is the author of four books and editor of five additional volumes on religion, ethics, and leadership.  He received an Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education of Virginia (SCHEV), the commonwealth’s highest recognition for professors.

He received an AB degree magna cum laude with honors in economics from Davidson College, an MDiv summa cum laude from Duke University, and MA and PhD degrees in religion from Harvard University.

Hicks serves on the Board of Directors of the Arts Association in Newton County and the Board of Directors of the Covington/Newton County Chamber of Commerce.  He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Agnes Scott College.​

Paul Root Wolpe, Ph.D. is the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Bioethics, Raymond Schinazi Distinguished Research Professor of Jewish Bioethics, Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Neuroscience and Biological Behavior, and Sociology, and the Director of the Center for Ethics at Emory University.  Dr. Wolpe also serves as the first Senior Bioethicist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), where he helps formulate policy on bioethical issues and safeguarding research subjects. He is Senior Advisor to the American Journal of Bioethics (AJOB), the premier scholarly journal in bioethics, is Editor-in-Chief of AJOB-Neuroscience, the leading journal in neuroethics, and he sits on the editorial boards of over a dozen professional journals in medicine and ethics. Dr. Wolpe is a past President of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, a Fellow of the Hastings Center, and a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the country’s oldest medical society. 

Dr. Wolpe publishes widely in sociology, medicine, and bioethics, and has contributed to a variety of encyclopedias on bioethical issues.  Trained as a social scientist – a rare background for a ethicist -- Dr. Wolpe’s work focuses on the social, religious, ethical, and ideological impact of medicine and technology on the human condition, focusing particularly on genetics and neuroscience.  Dr Wolpe is considered one of the founders of the field of neuroethics, which examines the ethical implications of neuroscience.  He is also the founder of BEINGS, “Biotechnology and the Ethical Imagination: A Global Summit,” which brought together thought leaders from the top biotechnology producing countries of the world, representing a wide array of disciplines and approaches, to try and produce a set of internationally accepted ethical principles and policy standards for human cellular biotechnologies, such as CRISPR.  The Consensus Document is due to be completed by January, 2016.

Dr. Wolpe also writes about other emerging technologies, and his general bioethics scholarship includes areas such as death and dying, clinical medicine, alternative medicine, and bioethics in extreme environments such as space.  He is a sought after consultant on business ethics and the ethics of philanthropy (Dr. Wolpe was named one of Trust Across America’s Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior).  He is the author of the textbook Sexuality and Gender in Society, and edited and is a key author of the end-of-life guide Behoref Hayamim: In the Winter of Life.

Dr. Wolpe sits on national and international non-profit organizational boards and working groups, and is a consultant to academic institutions and the biomedical industry.  He has twice testified to President Obama’s Commission on the Study of Bioethical Issues in Washington, DC, on ethical issues in synthetic biology and in neuroscience. A dynamic and popular speaker internationally, Dr. Wolpe has been chosen by the website Faculty Row as a “SuperProfessor” and by The Teaching Company as a "Superstar Teacher of America," and his courses are distributed internationally on audio and videotape.  He won the 2011 World Technology Network Award in Ethics, has recorded a TED Talk, and was profiled in the November, 2011 Atlantic Magazine as a “Brave Thinker of 2011.” Dr. Wolpe is a frequent contributor and commentator in both the broadcast and print media, having been featured on 60 Minutes and with a personal profile in the Science Times of the New York Times.

Bill Torpy is the metro columnist for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution writing about just about anything to do with life in Atlanta, so long as it's interesting. He joined the newspaper in 1990 and has covered politics, government and countless stories about police, courts and the justice system. The Chicago native graduated from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Ill., and previously worked for the Daily Southtown in Chicago.