Nancy Moody will join the University of Nevada, Reno as director of the Office of Human Research Protection on May 23. She is currently director of the Human Research Protection Program at Geisinger Health System in Danville, Penn., where she also serves as a member of the Geisinger Bioethics Committee.

Prior to joining Geisinger Health System in 2008, Moody served as regulatory affairs manager for the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute in San Francisco from 2006 to 2008. She was associate director of the Office for Institutional Review Board at the University of Alabama from 2005 to 2006. In addition to her master’s in bioethics and health policy from Loyola University in Chicago, Moody holds a law degree from the Antioch School of Law in Washington, D.C. Moody has taught courses in health care law and ethics at various institutions as a visiting and adjunct professor.

“We are pleased to welcome Nancy to our University and to benefit from her strong base of prior experience,” said Marsha Read, vice president research and dean of the graduate school. “With her degrees in bioethics, health policy and law, Nancy is particularly well suited to guide our human research protection program from both the ethical and regulatory perspectives, and to support our faculty in their research endeavors.”

The University’s Office of Human Research Protection works with faculty researchers to protect the rights, safety, confidentiality, welfare and ethical treatment of individuals participating in biomedical and social behavioral research completed through the University. The University’s Institutional Review Boards, which review all research proposals involving human subjects, are central to the office’s regulatory compliance work. These faculty committees, currently chaired by Drs. Janet Usinger and Bryon McGregor, will work in close collaboration with Moody.

In 2010, the University joined an exclusive number of institutions when it earned accreditation by the Association for Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs. The accreditation means the University meets nationally set standards, which exceed federal regulations, for human research protection programs.

For more on the University’s Office of Human Research and Protection, visit www.unr.edu/ohrp.