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Edith Paal

Position: Institutional Review Board Director
Featured Alumni
Graduation Year
1987
Edith Paal

"Political science is the study of institutional decision-making and of figuring out how to bring people with sometimes competing interests together to find solutions. My current career relies on those same principles -- we have to make decisions that accommodate interests of our human research subjects, the institution, and our researchers, all while staying on the right side of federal regulatory requirements. Also, it's interesting to note my current career didn't exist when I was an undergraduate. Poli Sci provides a good foundation for a lot of different things, some of which have yet to be created."

"I oversee biomedical and behavioral research involving human research subjects at a medical school. Our office works to protect the rights, safety and welfare of human research subjects, while simultaneously ensuring the many regulations and policies applicable to research are followed. We do all of this while still getting research projects approved as efficiently as possible."