Social, Behavioral and Educational Institutional Review Board (IRB) (Mandated Committees)

Mandated Committees

Social, Behavioral and Educational Institutional Review Board (IRB)
2011-2012

Name	Department	Title	Term	Role	Note
O'Leary, David	Religion	University Chaplain	08-12	Chair
Shin, Lisa	Psychology	Professor	09-12	Vice Chair
Aker, Jenny	Fletcher School	Assistant Professor	11-12
Brizuela, Barbara	Education	Assistant Professor	09-12
Coates, Jennifer	Friedman School	Assistant Professor	09-12
Dohan, Josh	Prisoner Advocate	Attorney	11-12
Geronimo-Terkla, Dawn	Institutional Research	Associate Provost	08-12
Gute, David	Civil and Environmental Engineering	Assistant Professor	09-12
Holcomb, Phil	Psychology	Professor	09-12
Kimball, Linda	Community Member	Registered Nurse	09-12
McWhinney, Linda	Community Member	Attorney	11-12
Shaw, Rosalind	Anthropology	Assistant Professor	10-12
Sommers, Sam	Psychology	Assistant Professor	10-12
Sprague-Martinez, Linda	Community Health	Lecturer	09-12
Taylor, Holly	Psychology	Professor	09-12
Uvin, Peter	Fletcher School	Academic Dean	11-12
Wolf, Maryanne	Eliot Pearson	Professor	10-12

Committee Description & Work Load:

The committee on Human Subjects exists so that Tufts remains in compliance with the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) regulations regarding the use of human subjects in research projects. All Tufts investigators proposing to study human subjects must have their protocols approved by this committee (which is referred to by DHHS as the Institutional Review Board or IRB). The IRB is a panel of Tufts faculty and staff, as well as individuals from the community that reviews all human research proposals to determine if they are assuring adequate protection of human participants. Proposals that are deemed by the panel to be likely to provide inadequate protection are returned to the investigator; usually with suggestions for modification. Approval will be processed once these issues have been addressed. Administration of the IRB is provided by the Office of the Vice Provost, with Yvonne Wakeford as the IRB Administrator.

Proposals that must be reviewed by the IRB include: (1) all government sponsored grant proposals (e.g., NIH and NSF) using human subjects, (2) proposals to private and state funding agencies using human subjects, and (3) non-funded human research not covered by another IRB. The IRB does not review projects proposed by researchers from outside the Tufts (Medford) community. The committee meets on a monthly basis for 11 months of the year with the exception being August.