UC San Diego Integrity Awards Recognizes Pillars of the Campus Community

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Outstanding members of the UC San Diego community were recently recognized at the 9th Annual Integrity Awards for their contributions to academic, research and professional integrity. These individuals were nominated based on their significant contributions to integrity through conducting research, promoting integrity and ethics, mentoring others, volunteering and more.

A review committee comprised of faculty, staff and student representatives evaluated nominations and recommended award recipients. This ceremony was coordinated and planned by the Academic Integrity Office, which promotes and supports a culture of academic integrity in order to reinforce quality and teaching at UC San Diego.

“I am delighted to announce the 2019 UC San Diego Integrity Award Recipients,” said UC San Diego Executive Vice Chancellor Elizabeth Simmons. “The awards program recognizes individuals, departments, organizational units and students who have made outstanding contributions in support of UC San Diego’s commitment to integrity.”

Following are the winners of this year’s integrity awards, along with background provided by their nominators:

Elizabeth Bell (former Research Coordinator, Biomedical Informatics)

“Elizabeth, along with another former employee, had the courage to bring forward a potential integrity violation. She gently pushed for immediate attention to the issue and was strong and determined to do the right thing on behalf of UC San Diego and the involved parties. Elizabeth’s courage in bringing the matter forward had numerous positive impacts to the division and involved research participants.”

Sara Gianella Weibel, M.D. (Assistant Professor, School of Medicine)

“Sara has been a beacon of integrity and a tireless champion of increased integrity in the practice of research, treatment of patients and research subjects, and in her teaching. She chairs an IRB committee and strives to improve the ethical practice of every proposal that comes to her. She also champions her patients, advocates for their fair treatment, and spreads this message of integrity to the wider research community. She shares this same fervor for the ethical practice of research with medical students in her case-based learning seminars. She models the sort of dedication to integrity in research and life that we should all strive for.”

Atul Malhotra, M.D. (Professor, School of Medicine)

“Dr. Malhotra promotes academic integrity, professional ethics, research ethics and responsible conduct of research. Dr. Malhotra not only ensures that his own work is beyond reproach, but he teaches faculty, trainees and volunteers about the importance and necessity of integrity in all arenas—research, hiring, education, etc. Because he also serves on national and international committees and societies, he has been able to promote integrity and ethics in spheres beyond UCSD. In summary, Dr. Malhotra inspires mentees to strive to be the most up-standing, highly-principled people they possibly can be.”

Emily Trask, Ph.D. (Executive Director, Center for Student Involvement)

“Emily exemplifies UC San Diego integrity core principles through her devotion to promoting integrity and ethics in student programming, mentoring and role modeling professional integrity, volunteering time to the UC San Diego community and exhibiting courage in defending integrity. Emily’s devotion to instilling integrity has a deep ‘ripple’ effect within the entire UC San Diego community through her own actions, her leadership through her staff, training and development of student leaders. The student leaders pass their devotion to upholding principles of integrity to their student organizations and in their interactions with their peers.”

Kristen Tregar (Ph.D. Candidate, Theatre and Dance)

“Kristen is a model of integrity. In the classroom, she leads by example and consistently promotes integrity and ethics. And in her directing work, she challenges actors to think and practice through critical ethical frameworks and she presents work that stimulates audiences to think about their own decisions, their roles in their communities, and the changes they can make to create more positive communities.”