Speaker biographies
Jon Entine is a visiting fellow at AEI, a columnist for the U.K.-based magazine Ethical Corporation, and a writer on business ethics, science, and public policy. His newest book, Abraham’s Children (Grand Central Publishing, 2007), focuses—on the nexus of race, disease, and identity in Western culture. He previously wrote and edited the AEI Press books Let Them Eat Precaution: How Politics Is Undermining the Genetic Revolution in Agriculture (2006) and Pension Fund Politics: The Dangers of Socially Responsible Investing (2005). Before launching his writing career, Mr. Entine was a network television news writer and producer from 1975¬¬–94, winning more than twenty awards, including two Emmys for specials on the reform movements in China and the former Soviet Union. At NBC News, he produced and cowrote Black Athletes: Fact and Fiction, which won the award for best feature film at the Forty-Fifth Annual International Sport Film Festival in 1990, and which inspired his book Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We’re Afraid to Talk about It (PublicAffairs, 2000).
Theodore Friedman is the Whitehill Professor of Biomedical Ethics and a professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. He researches human gene therapy and he has served as a member of many national and international organizations dealing with the scientific, ethical, and public policy issues related to human genetic modification for therapeutic or enhancement purposes. Mr. Friedman has served as a member of the U.S. Congressional Biomedical Ethics Advisory Committee, the chairman of the National Institutes of Health Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee, the president of the American Society for Gene Therapy, a member of the Health, Medicine and Research Committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency, and a member of the Hastings Center. His many awards and honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Cross of Honor for Science and the Arts from the Republic of Austria, an elected fellowship in the American Society for the Advancement of Science, the H.C. Jacobaeus Prize, and the Newton Abraham Professorship at the University of Oxford.
Paul Haagen is a professor of law and the codirector of the center for sports law and policy at the Duke University School of Law. From 1991–93 he was a senior associate dean for academic affairs at Duke Law, and from 2005 to 2007, he was the chair of the faculty representative academic council of the university. Mr. Haagen has represented collegiate, amateur, and professional athletes; has acted as a special university counsel for NCAA enforcement matters at Duke; has appeared as a expert witness in proceedings before the Court of Arbitration for Sport; has written and lectured on sports; and has acted as a consultant to companies, teams, and leagues on matters related to the regulation of Olympic, collegiate, and professional sports. He is the coauthor of the forthcoming book Sports and the Law (Oxford University Press), with J. Gordon Hylton and Cari Stern.
Dionne Koller is an assistant professor of law at the University of Baltimore School of Law. She teaches civil procedure, torts, and sports and the law. She currently serves on the executive board of the Association of American Law Schools section on law and sports. Previously, Ms. Koller was an attorney with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, LLP, specializing in complex commercial litigation. She has published several scholarly articles and is a frequent commentator on sports and health law issues.
Randy Mayes is a free lance author and journalist. Mr. Mayes is on the board of advisers for The Triple Helix, a collegiate science and technology journal based at Cornell University. He specializes in science writing, media guides, and personality profiles. Previously, he has been a science writer with the University of North Carolina information and communications office, where he wrote press releases and stories about university research. Mr. Mayes has written two books and numerous newspaper, magazine, and website articles in the areas of physiology, genomics, epigenetics, and nanotechnology. His first book is The Cybernetics of Kenyan Running (Carolina Academic Press, 2005). He is currently completing his third book, Understanding Genomics in Historical Context: From Aristotle to Nanotechnology, which explains genomics and discusses biotechnology public policy issues. In addition, he authored the Richmond Marathon Guide and Reebok International’s media guide for the 1999 National Outdoor Championships and the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Andy Miah is a reader in new media and bioethics in the School of Media, Language and Music at the University of the West of Scotland. He is also a fellow at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies in Connecticut and a fellow at the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT) in Liverpool. Mr. Miah’s research discusses the intersections of art, ethics, technology, and culture and he has published broadly in areas of emerging technologies, particularly related to human enhancement. He is the author of Genetically Modified Athletes (Routledge, 2004), the coauthor with Emma Rich of The Medicalization of Cyberspace (Routledge, 2008) and the editor of Human Futures: Art in and Age of Uncertainty (Liverpool University Press and FACT, 2008).
Edwin Moses is the chairman of the Laureus World Sports Academy, an association of sporting legends, which uses the positive influence of sport as a tool for social change around the globe. He won Olympic gold medals in 1976 and 1984, three World Cup titles, two World Championships, and broke the world record four times as a 400 meter hurdler. In one of the most dominant reigns in world sport—nine years, nine months, and nine days over 122 consecutive races—he remained undefeated. He pioneered the development of policies against the use of performance-enhancing drugs while serving as the chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee’s substance abuse, research, and education committee.
Thomas Murray is president and CEO of the Hastings Center. He also serves as the chair of the ethical issues review panel for the World Anti-Doping Agency and as an international expert adviser to Singapore’s Bioethics Advisory Committee. Previously, he was the director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics in the School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University, where he was also the Susan E. Watson Professor of Bioethics. Mr. Murray serves on numerous editorial boards and he has served as the president of the Society for Health and Human Values and of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities. He is the author of more than two hundred publications including, The Worth of a Child, The Cultures of Caregiving: Conflict and Common Ground among Families, Health Professionals and Policy Makers (University of California Press, 1996) edited with Carol Levine and Genetic Ties and the Family: The Impact of Paternity Testing on Parents and Children (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005) edited with Mark A. Rothstein, Gregory E. Kaebnick, and Mary Anderlik Majumder. He is also editor, with Maxwell J. Mehlman, of the Encyclopedia of Ethical, Legal and Policy Issues in Biotechnology (Wiley-Interscience, 2000). In January 2004 he received an honorary Doctor of Medicine degree from Uppsala University.
Henry Olsen is vice president and director of the National Research Initiative (NRI). He disseminates and publicizes the Institute’s work to the academic community, works with AEI’s visiting, adjunct, and NRI research fellows, commissions and supervises NRI projects, and oversees the production of NRI publications. Mr. Olsen previously served as vice president for programs at the Manhattan Institute and as a judicial clerk to the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Danny J. Boggs.
John Ruger has served as the U.S. Olympic Committee athlete ombudsman since his appointment in 1999. In this capacity he provides independent advice to athletes on all issues relating to their rights to compete, facilitates communications and assists in mediation of disputes between athletes and Olympic family organizations, and assists in the development and implementation of policies to secure and support the rights of elite athletes. Previously, Mr. Ruger worked for the U.S. Olympic Committee as the manager of the Southeastern operations for the “Hometown ’96” program, a grant program designed to maximize the U.S. team’s home-field advantage a the 1996 Olympic Games. He also served as president of his own sports marketing and management company and as vice president of operations for the Colorado Sports Council.
Travis Tygart is the CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). He works to strengthen the United States’ position as a leader in the fight against doping in international sports competitions. Mr. Tygart joined USADA in 2002 as the director of legal affairs and in 2004 he was named the senior managing director and general counsel. He was involved in drafting the USADA Protocol for Olympic Movement Testing and directed the USADA’s efforts in its BALCO investigation. Prior to joining the USADA, Mr. Tygart was an attorney in the sports law practice group at Holme Roberts & Owen, LLP in Colorado Springs.
Kicker Vencill is an accomplished elite swimmer who qualified for the Olympics in 2000, 2004, and 2008. He served as an at-large athlete representative on the Athletic Executive Committee in 2008 and as an athlete representative to the USA Swimming advisory board in 2002 and 2005. Mr. Vencill won a silver medal in the World University Games in 2001 and was the 2000 male athlete of the year at Western Kentucky University.
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