Dr. Anita Cava, Associate Professor of Business Law, is Co-Director of UM Ethics Programs, a university-wide entity that promotes research, teaching and service across the disciplines in areas of ethical interest and concern, and Director of Business Ethics Programs.  She received her B.A. with Distinction from Swarthmore College and her J.D. from New York University, where she was a Hays Fellow.  Before joining the faculty, Dr. Cava practiced law in Washington, D.C. and Miami, primarily in the areas of employment, consumer and commercial litigation. 

Dr. Cava's current research interests are the legal and ethical aspects of health administration as well as corporate/community engagement and business ethics.  As part of the Legal, Ethical and Social Implications (ELSI) Workgroup at UM, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Project Health Design., she is analyzing the conundrums being generated by electronic health information.  Her recent article, Health Privacy in a Networked World: A Cyber-Patient’s Bill of Rights (with Patricia Abril), appears in the Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property (2008).   Recent publications resulting from research with colleagues in the medical school include Bioethics, Business Ethics and the Future of Healthcare (with K.W. Goodman), Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics (2008), and Disclosure of HIV Status to an Infected Child:  Medical, psychological, ethical and legal perspectives on “super-vertical” transmission (with C.D. Mitchell, F.D. Armstrong, & K.W. Goodman),  The Journal of Clinical Ethics (2008).

Scholarly work examining legal and ethical obligations of corporations includes Integrative Social Contract Theory and Urban Prosperity Initiatives (with D. Mayer), Journal of Business Ethics (2007) and Are Anti-Corruption Efforts Paying Off?  International and National Measures In the Asia-Pacific Region and their Impact on India and Multinational Corporations (with B. Earle) , University of Hawaii Law Review (forthcoming).  Previous publications appear in the Berkeley Journal of Employment Law, the University of Maryland Law Review, the Santa Clara Law Review, and the Arkansas Law Review, in addition to many other legal and business journals.

Over the past five years, Dr. Cava has helped to launch the undergraduate UM Ethics Debate at the School of Business, the MBA Consultants to Non-Profits Project, and a campus-wide Ethics in Film series, which is free and open to the public.  She co-directs the Arsht Initiatives of UM Ethics Programs, which include a speaker series, funding for faculty/student research in “Ethics and Community” and a student Ethics Debate series on issues in sport. In 2006, she taught a module on Corporate Social Responsibility at the American University in Paris.

Recently, the University of Miami Faculty Senate voted to give Cava the 2009 Outstanding Teaching Award, established in 2002 to recognize “a distinguished record in teaching.”  Cava is also the recipient of several School of Business Administration Excellence in Teaching Awards and a University-wide Excellence in Teaching Award.   A frequent speaker on the topic of Business Ethics and Corporate Compliance, Professor Cava’s audiences recently have included the American  Council of Life Insurers, the Settlement Life Insurance Association, Palm Beach County Principals and the Institute for Non-Profit Management, as well as community groups, management trainees, and staff at several corporations and non-profit organizations.