Christopher Coffey, director of the Clinical Trials Statistical and Data Management Center and professor of biostatistics in the University of Iowa College of Public Health, and Cristina Tilley, Claire Ferguson-Carlson Faculty Fellow in Law and professor in the UI College of Law, will deliver the UI’s 41st Presidential Lecture.
University of Iowa’s 41st Presidential Lecture
When: 4 p.m. Feb. 19
Where: Concert hall of the Voxman Music Building
Who: Christopher Coffey and Cristina Tilley
More information: Visit the Presidential Lecture webpage.
The lecture, “Pathways to Discovery: Clinical and Legal Trials, Academic Rigor, and Public Perceptions,” will take place at 4 p.m. Feb. 19 in the concert hall of the Voxman Music Building. The lecturers will explore how people in their respective disciplines pursue truth and the challenges of bringing their discoveries to the public.
“The Presidential Lecture is a wonderful opportunity for the university to share its comprehensive excellence and creativity with the community,” says UI President Barbara Wilson. “I very much look forward to the talks by Professors Coffey and Tilley and to our discussion afterward, which will highlight how our various disciplines conduct research and how we bring our discoveries to the public.”
Coffey has more than 20 years of experience providing data management and statistical support—which involves designing trials and monitoring and analyzing data—for clinical trials and other health-related studies to inform further health care development and treatment. His work has examined multiple conditions, such as Huntington’s disease, hypertension, multiple sclerosis, obesity, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, and traumatic brain injury.
Coffey serves as the principal investigator of the Data Coordinating Center for the Network for Excellence in Neuroscience Clinical Trials, co-principal investigator of the Clinical Coordinating Center for the Acute to Chronic Pain Signatures program, and head of the Statistics Core for the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative. He has published extensively in the areas of adaptive designs and general clinical trial design.
Coffey received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Tennessee and a master’s degree and PhD in biostatistics from the University of North Carolina. He came to Iowa in 2009.
Tilley teaches tort and constitutional law, with an emphasis on defamation and lawsuits involving speech. She has focused on how engagement from everyday people in the law, such as jury trials resolving neighbor-to-neighbor conflicts, is the ideal way to create fair treatment and personal dignity for all. Her work has also explored issues such as media freedom, artificial intelligence, and police accountability.
Tilley’s work has appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the Northwestern University Law Review, and the Journal of Tort Law. She also has been selected for presentation at the Harvard/Yale/Stanford Junior Faculty Forum.
Tilley graduated from Northwestern University Law School, where she was editor in chief of the Northwestern University Law Review and taught at Northwestern as a visiting assistant professor. After law school, she clerked for Judge Richard D. Cudahy of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She came to Iowa in 2017.
The Presidential Lecture Series provides an opportunity for distinguished faculty members to present significant aspects of their work to the greater university community and general public. The university established the annual series to encourage intellectual communication among the many disciplines that constitute the UI, as well as to provide a public forum for scholarship, research, and creative achievement. The series is made possible by the generosity of donors of unrestricted gifts to the UI Center for Advancement.