Childress Named Second Recipient of Jefferson Scholars Faculty Prize

April 23, 2007 -- James F. Childress, the Hollingsworth Professor of Ethics, Professor of Medical Education, and Director of the Institute for Practical Ethics, received the Jefferson Scholars Faculty Prize at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington on Monday, April 16.

The award recognizes and celebrates the commitment of outstanding University of Virginia faculty members to leadership, scholarship, and citizenship, the qualities used as criteria in the selection of Jefferson Scholars.  Mr. Childress was selected by the Jefferson Scholars Alumni Advisory Committee from among nominees proposed by Jefferson Scholars past and present.  The award includes $5,000 to support future research and inquiry, and the opportunity to address the general University community on the ideals of leadership and citizenship as related to the recipient’s field of scholarship.

Childress's lecture, delivered to an audience of current and former Jefferson Scholars and University alumni, focused on ethics and public policy.  In his remarks, he noted that “the relation of ethics and public policy concerns all of us, not just policymakers…All of us participate in ethical discourse about public policy.”

The Jefferson Scholars Foundation awards the Faculty Prize in order to foster a vital and ongoing dialogue about Jeffersonian ideals that transcends the specific confines of the classroom.

Over nearly 40 years of service to the University of Virginia, Mr. Childress has served as chair of the Department of Religious Studies, principal of Monroe Hill College, and as co-director of the Virginia Health Policy Center.

He is the author of numerous articles and several books, including Principles of Biomedical Ethics (with Tom L. Beauchamp), Priorities in Biomedical Ethics, Who Should Decide? Paternalism in Health Care, Practical Reasoning in Bioethics, Civil Disobedience and Political Obligation, and Moral Reasoning in Conflicts.  Mr. Childress served as vice chair of the national Task Force on Organ Transplantation, on the presidentially-appointed National Bioethics Advisory Commission, and on the board of directors of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the UNOS Ethics Committee, the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee, the Human Gene Therapy Subcommittee, the Biomedical Ethics Advisory Committee, and several data and safety monitoring boards for NIH clinical trials.

Childress received his B.A. from Guilford College, his B.D. from Yale Divinity School, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University.

He is the second recipient of the Jefferson Scholars Faculty Award.  R. Jahan Ramazani, the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of English, received the award in 2005.

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