The 41st annual Presidential Lecture will highlight two University of Iowa faculty members’ thoughts on pursuing truth in their respective disciplines and bringing discoveries to the public in a lecture titled “Pathways to Discovery: Clinical and Legal Trials, Academic Rigor, and Public Perceptions.” The lecture will take place at 4 p.m. Monday, Feb. 19, in the concert hall of Voxman Music Building.
Christopher Coffey, director of the Clinical Trials Statistical and Data Management Center and professor of biostatistics in the UI College of Public Health, and Cristina Tilley, Claire Ferguson-Carlson Faculty Fellow in Law and professor in the UI College of Law, are this year’s lecturers.
Christopher Coffey
How does the topic of the lecture relate to your field, and what major points do you hope people take away?
First, I hope to provide more knowledge about the clinical trials process: What the different phases of a clinical trial are and how the type of clinical trial affects how the evidence should be viewed by someone interpreting the results. Second, I hope to highlight the success that the UI’s Clinical Trials Statistical and Data Management Center has had recently. For example, we have an ongoing relationship with the Parkinson’s Progression Marker Initiative, a large study funded by the Michael J. Fox Foundation, that showed promising results for detecting Parkinson’s disease earlier. There are very few data coordinating centers of our size across the country, and getting to play a role in scientific advances is important for our center and for Iowa. It also provides meaning to all the work we do daily.
What does it mean to have been chosen to deliver the Presidential Lecture?
This is quite an honor, and I am extremely humbled to have been chosen. But more than the individual aspects of delivering this lecture, I am proud to represent the quality and dedication of all the staff in the Clinical Trials Statistical and Data Management Center. Our success is very much driven by teamwork, and I would not be delivering this lecture if not for the contributions of every single individual that has worked in the center during my time at Iowa. It’s a great team that works hard to make the studies we work on successful.
What drew you to the University of Iowa and Iowa City?
Growing up in east Tennessee, I would have never predicted that I would end up as a college professor, let alone one at the University of Iowa. After I graduated with my undergraduate degree in industrial statistics from the University of Tennessee, I was told by a UT faculty member about an opportunity to work as a temporary statistician at an automotive supplier in Keokuk, Iowa. Before long, I was packing everything I owned into my car and making the long drive to Keokuk, which turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life. My then-fiancée (now wife) was still in school and came to visit for spring break. During that trip, we made our first-ever trip to Iowa City for the NCAA women’s basketball regional tournament to see the Vivian Stringer-coached Iowa team defeat Tennessee to go to their first Final Four. I ultimately moved back south to pursue graduate studies and became a faculty member at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where I got involved in clinical trials. After a number of years, I was having a conversation with my wife about what my “ideal” job would be. Not long after, an ad appeared for a faculty position at Iowa that was looking for just what I had described. The fact that the job was also at a place that I had some prior connections and great experience at convinced us that it was a great next step. We moved in 2009 and have been here since.
What do you love about Iowa that keeps you here?
On a personal note, it would have to be the connections we’ve made both personally and professionally. It is said a lot, but Iowa City is a really great place to raise a family. On a wider level, I love the atmosphere of a college town. Plus, in my experience, most universities seem to be dominated by either the research culture or liberal arts culture. I love that Iowa has enormous strengths in both. It makes for a great overall atmosphere.
Cristina Tilley
How does the topic of the lecture relate to your field, and what major points do you hope people take away?
In law, trials have evolved over the past several decades to rely more on judicial expertise and less on ordinary Americans joining their neighbors in jury service. Of course, judges and jurors might have different intuitions, so depending on how the trial is conducted, we might be getting very different decisions about how to resolve a dispute. And for a system like the law, which relies on public trust for its legitimacy, it’s worth asking when we want judicial experts to make those calls and when we want to draw on the experiences of people like the cashier at the local grocery store. I teach personal injury law, and I think we’ve undervalued these intensely personal disputes about issues ranging from defamation to driving accidents. They are one of the few places where the community comes together to hear evidence, to reflect on the world, and to talk about visions of the good life.
What does it mean to have been chosen to deliver the Presidential Lecture?
The Presidential Lecture is a unique chance to think broadly about how higher education adds value to community life and how the community adds value to higher education. To be in conversation with President Barbara Wilson, who knows that both talking and listening are essential to education and community building, is an honor and a real growth opportunity. Also, to share a podium with Chris Coffey and an auditorium with university colleagues and Iowa City neighbors is exactly the kind of person-to-person exchange that I most prize. I’m enormously grateful.
What drew you to the University of Iowa and Iowa City?
I first visited Iowa City during the month of November, and I’ll never forget the scarlet trees lining the river and on the drive into campus. As a former print journalist, it was immediately clear that the reverence for the written word runs deep in this institution and in this city. It is a constant inspiration and elevates everything we do. The pie milkshakes at the Hamburg Inn were also a big draw!
What do you love about Iowa that keeps you here?
I love that in a single day, it’s possible to attend a library exhibit with all of Tom Brokaw’s press passes documenting a history of journalism and politics, to enjoy Oasis falafel with colleagues discussing the philosophy of artificial intelligence, to be in the middle of cornfields that bring the rhythm of rural life into perspective, and to wrap up the evening seeing the American Ballet Theatre perform at Hancher Auditorium. Talk about a 10-minute city!
About the Presidential Lecture Series
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.