Decoding the Ethics Code

Celia B. Fisher, Ph.D., the Marie Ward Doty University Chair is a Professor of Psychology and Director of the Fordham University Center for Ethics Education. Dr. Fisher chaired the American Psychological Association's (APA) Ethics Code Task Force responsible for developing the current APA Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct and served as Chair of the New York State Board for Psychology, Vice-Chair of the APA Insurance Trust and was a member of the APA Ethics Committee. She has provided national leadership in developing guidelines for graduate education in Applied Developmental Psychology ethical standards and federal guidelines for human subjects research through her service as Chair of National Conference on Graduate Education in Applied Developmental Science, the Environmental Protection Agency's Human Studies Review Board and the DHHS Secretary's Advisory Committee on Human Research Protections (SACHRP) and as member of the Ethics Working Group of the National Children's Study, the NIMH Data Safety Monitoring Board and the Institute of Medicine Committee on Clinical Research Involving Children. Dr. Fisher is the founding co-editor of the journal Applied Developmental Science. She has over 100 publications and 9 books covering topics on the developmental correlates of racial/ethnic discrimination; child and parental attitudes toward privacy and research ethics; the ability of children, adults with mental retardation and other vulnerable populations to consent to treatment and research, community perspectives on HIV and drug use prevention research ethics and guidelines for mental health research involving ethnic minority children and youth. Dr. Fisher's research and the graduate and post-graduate ethics training programs she administers through the Fordham University Center for Ethics Education have received support from the National Science Foundation, the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute for Mental Health, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the Department of Education, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the National Center for Research Resources, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse.