The consistently outstanding and increasing ly global University of Miami Ethics Programs have been draped with a prestigious flag—the official flag from the World Health Organization (WHO). The flag is in recognition of the Ethics Programs achieving Collaborating Center in Ethics and Global Health Policy designation by the WHO in Geneva. UM’s center is only the third of its kind in the world to receive this recognition and the first ever in the United States.

“This recognition by the WHO underscores and affirms UM’s commitment to ethically optimized international research and public policy,” says Kenneth Goodman, Ph.D., director of the Bioethics Program at the Miller School of Medicine and co-director of the UM Ethics Programs with Anita Cava, J.D., an associate professor of business law. “It is also a mark of a great university’s dedication to collaborative international research.”

The flag was presented to Goodman and Miller School Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., by Andreas Reis, M.D., M.Sc., and Marie-Charlotte Bouësseau, M.D., of the WHO Department of Ethics, Equity, Trade and Human Rights. The flag ceremony took place during a reception and dinner after the close of the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative, or CITI, meeting on Miami Beach in May. The CITI Program is considered the gold standard for online human subjects protection training around the world. CITI and the Ethics Programs have long partnered in the development of online research ethics curricula.

“Miami has traditionally been a place where different cultures meet and face the challenge of dialogue,” said Reis after the flag presentation. “The University of Miami Ethics Programs, benefiting from this specific multicultural context as well as a strategic geographic location, are well suited to facilitate the interchange between North and South.”