Description

This lecture focuses on identification and mitigation of actual or perceived conflicts in research, clinical care, education and university business practices as they impact the university's mission. Lynn Zentner, JD, distinguishes individual conflicts of interest in research from institutional conflicts of interest in research; explains why institutional conflicts of interest matter and how they can, if unaddressed, negatively impact the university's integrity in research, in education and in clinical care; and discusses how an institutional conflicts-of-interest program focusing on research can and must expand its scope in order to comprehensively address all aspects of business practices that impact the university mission. Lunch will be served at 11:30 a.m. The lecture will begin at noon.

The event is free and open to all, but please register. Parking is available for a fee in the 8th Street parking deck. If special accommodations are needed, please contact the VCU Libraries Events Office at (804) 828-0593.

Sponsors

VCU Libraries and the VCU Office of Research and Innovation present this Sanger Series lecture.

About the Speaker

Lynn Zentner, JD, has been the director of the Office of Institutional Compliance at the University of Minnesota since April 2008. She is also the director of the university's Conflict of Interest Program. Prior to joining the university, she was an attorney in the Corporate Legal Department at Medtronic where she provided legal advice and counsel to the several Medtronic businesses and to Medtronic's Office of Ethics and Compliance. She spent 18 years of her legal career as an assistant United States attorney, representing the interests of the United States in both civil and criminal matters and serving as chief of the Civil Division. She also spent one year on assignment as legal counsel to the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. She was in private practice for five years—first at Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi in Minneapolis, Mn., and later at Oskie, Reuter, Hamilton, Sofio & Zentner in St. Paul, Mn. Before becoming an attorney, she spent several years working in programs for special-needs children, primarily in public school systems. She received her bachelor of science degree from the University of Minnesota–Minneapolis, her master's in education degree from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pa., and her JD from William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Mn.

Image: Sanger Series: Institutional Conflicts of Interest, by Jeff Bland