2024 CBBRe Research Symposium

Henry T. (Hank) Greely is the Deane F. and Kate Edelman Johnson Professor of Law; Professor, by courtesy, of Genetics; and Director of the Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford University.  He specializes in ethical, legal, and social issues arising from the biosciences, particularly genetics, neuroscience, stem cell research, and assisted reproduction.  He is a founder and a past president of the International Neuroethics Society and chairs the California Advisory Committee on Human Stem Cell Research. For six years, until August 2022, he served on the NIH BRAIN Initiative’s Multi-Council Working Group while co-chairing the Initiative’s Neuroethics Work Group and for three years, until March 2024, he chaired the ELSI Committee of the Earth BioGenome Project. He is the author of The End of Sex and the Future of Human Reproduction (Harv. Univ. Press 2016) and CRISPR People: The Science and Ethics of Editing Humans (MIT Press 2021).

Greely graduated from Stanford in 1974 and Yale Law School in 1977.  He clerked for Judge John Minor Wisdom of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and Justice Potter Stewart, then served in the Departments of Defense and Energy in the Carter Administration. He litigated at the Los Angeles firm of Tuttle & Taylor before joining the Stanford faculty in 1985. 

Dr. MacDuffie is an investigator in the Treuman Katz Center at Seattle Children's Research Institute and Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington School of Medicine. She holds a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Duke University and Masters in Bioethics from the University of Washington. Her work focuses on understanding the ethical and social impacts of advances in neuroscience on children and families affected by neurodevelopmental, neurological, and psychiatric disorders. She uses a combination of qualitative, quantitative, and conceptual methods with the overarching goal of embedding the perspectives of research participants into the practice and process of neuroscience research.

Dr. Cabrera is the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Neuroethics. She is an Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics, and Philosophy at Penn State University. She is a Research Associate at the Rock Ethics Institute, and affiliated with the Center for Neural Engineering. She received a BEng in Electrical and Communication Engineering from the Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) in Mexico City, an MA in Applied Ethics from Linköping University in Sweden, and a PhD in Applied Ethics from Charles Sturt University in Australia.  Dr. Cabrera's interests focus on the ethical and societal implications of neurotechnologies used for treatment as well as for enhancement purposes. She has been working on projects at the interface of normative, conceptual and empirical approaches, exploring attitudes and ethical concerns of professionals, patients and members of the public toward brain interventions. Her work has also focused on the ethical and social implications of environmental changes for brain and mental health. She is an honorific member of the Asociación Mexicana de Neuroética, chair of the IEEE Brain Neuroethics Subcommittee, chair of the IEEE Standards Association P7700 working Group on implementing socio-technical standard for neurotechnology, and member of the International Neuroethics Society (INS) Board of Directors. In February 2023 she was elevated to IEEE Senior Member.

Veljko Dubljević, Ph.D., D.Phil., University Faculty Scholar and Professor at NC State University, leads the NeuroComputational Ethics Research Group. He is the Editor in Chief of American Journal of Bioethics – Neuroscience, series co-editor for “Advances in Neuroethics,” and serves on the Board of Directors of the International Neuroethics Society. He is a prolific author in Neuroethics and Ethics of AI, having published over 90 peer-reviewed articles, and four books.

A graduate of the Parker College of Business, Billy returns to Georgia Southern University having recently served on the faculties of Ramapo College and the University of South Dakota. His research focuses on neuromarketing applications in sales, branding, and measurement theory. Methodologically, Billy has significant expertise in applying event-related potentials (ERP) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to understand information processing models within his field. Recent publications have appeared in European Journal of Marketing, Psychology & Marketing, Journal of Consumer Behaviour, Biological Psychology, and other outlets.

2024 Alumni Speaker

Dr. Shawn Vuong is a distinguished neurosurgeon renowned for his expertise in pediatrics and functional neurosurgery. With over 5 years of experience in academic and clinical settings, Dr.Vuong has consistently delivered exceptional care and advanced surgical solutions to patients facing complex neurological conditions.

Currently serving as both the head of Neurosurgery and the Chief of Surgery at Sanford Health in Sioux Falls, Dr. Vuong leads a dynamic team proving comprehensive neurosurgical care for all of the South Dakota and the surrounding communities. Driven by a passion for innovation and patient-centric care, Dr. Vuong has pioneered frameless stereotactic deep brain stimulation and has brought other surgical techniques not previously available to South Dakotans.

Prior to being hired with Sanford, Dr. Vuong completed medical school at the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine in 2012 before completing residency at University of Cincinnati with the Mayfield Clinic, where he earned his certification in 2018. He subsequently completed fellowship at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center receiving his certification in Pediatric Neurosurgery while also contributing significantly to advancements in Congenital Hydrocephalus.

Dr. Vuong's dedication extends beyond clinical practice, actively participating in research initiatives focused on Parkinson’s and Deep Brain Stimulation. He has authored numerous publications in esteemed journals and presented his findings at national and international conferences.

Outside of his professional commitments, Dr. Vuong enjoys time with his wife and three boys ages 10, 8, and 5.  

Marc received his JD from the George Washington University Law School in 2006.  He was in private practice in Nashville, Tennessee for three years, then worked for the Tennessee Department of Health for 12 years on matters relating to healthcare law and healthcare licensee regulation.  Marc joined the USD Office of Research and Sponsored Programs in January 2022 as the director of the USD Office of Human Subjects Protection, which houses the USD IRB.  In this role, Marc spends much of his time analyzing IRB submissions and working with researchers to make sure their human subjects research studies are in compliance with USD and federal requirements.

Daniel received his Counselor Education and Supervision Ph.D. from the University of Northern Colorado. Daniel joined the USD division of Counseling Psychology Related Programs faculty in the fall of 2016.  He enjoys being outdoors.

I am currently an Associate Professor in the Human Development and Educational Psychology program. I am an active member of the Science of Learning Research Group and the Center for Brain and Behavior Research. My primary research interest is in young children’s learning from media. My focus is on determining how and when young children struggle to learn from different types of media (e.g., books, videos, apps) and identifying methods for supporting children’s learning from media. I am also interested in how children transfer information from the context in which it is learned for use in new contexts. I have expertise in early childhood research, cognitive development, and media psychology as well as strong training in statistical and research methods.

Jessy is a clinical psychology PhD student from Circleville, Ohio. She received her B.S. in Neuroscience with a minor in Clinical Psychology and Individual Differences from The Ohio State University. She also received a master’s degree in clinical research from The Ohio State University in 2021. Her research interests broadly encompass child trauma, its effects on development and psychopathology, trauma assessment, and the dynamics between parent and child perspectives. She is particularly interested in how integrating various perspectives can enhance assessment tools and interventions, aiming to better support children affected by trauma. Her research seeks to improve outcomes for these children by leveraging diverse perspectives to develop more effective and comprehensive strategies.

I am an alumnus of Morningside University and the University of South Dakota, having earned my Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Business Management, and my Master's degree in Computer Science. As a graduate student, I had the honor to be a National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Trainee under the supervision of Dr. KC Santosh at the USD Applied Artificial Intelligence Research Lab (2AI). During that time, my research focused on Multimodal representations and learning for security and counterfeiting that addresses the national concern in understanding and disrupting the illicit economy using artificial intelligence (AI). This research focused on the ethical and responsible use of artificial intelligence specifically when it comes to sensitive data that is considered to have high security risk. After the completion of my Masters, I began working as a research engineer in France at the Laboratoire Informatique, Image et Interaction (L3i laboratory) in La Rochelle with Tekia. This research focused on demographic studies using historical handwritten census tables using state-of-the-art handwritten text recognition and information extraction techniques. Currently, I am enrolled in the Data Science PhD program at the University of South Dakota, where I plan to further my studies on the topic of explainable AI for sensitive data applications in the biometrics and biomedical fields.