At SPS Marilyn...
- Took a detour from medicine and dentistry
- Applied her love of bioethics, morality and philosophy
- Found an internship at a top psychiatric institute
- Did her thesis on the ethics of addiction research
- Turned what she learned into a rewarding job
You come from a family of medical practitioners. How did you end up in Bioethics?
I grew up in Nigeria where my mother was a dentist. My family expected that I’d pursue a career in medicine, but I didn’t want to become a medical practitioner. I got my undergrad degree in Biomedical Science at the University of Sheffield in England. As many of my cohort started to think about med school, I discovered clinical trials for drug development. I was interested in the ethics that regulate how research is done on human subjects. Once I discovered the Bioethics Program at Columbia, I knew it was for me.
Why did you Choose Columbia SPS?
The U.S. has a very strong Bioethics presence, especially academically. In the U.K., Bioethics is only offered to medical professionals. Plus at SPS, I had the option to do an internship for graduate school credit. I signed up for that and got paired with an institutional review board (IRB) at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. I formed a strong network with my IRB colleagues. My director used to work at Mount Sinai and recommended me for a job there upon completing my Masters.
Tell us about your thesis.
I wrote my thesis on addiction research. I focused on the ethics of exposing addicts to the substances that drive their addiction. The key question is, can we find another way to do this research without exposing addicts to their drug of choice. It’s rarely talked about.
What is your role at Mount Sinai?
I work for the Program for the Protection of Human Subjects, and I am an IRB analyst. My role is to review any protocols submitted to us and to measure them against relevant regulations, making sure that the protocols are consistent. Our mission is to ensure that people aren’t being taken advantage of for the sake of science.
