Engineering Ethics and Conflicts of Interest 

About the Speaker:

Ms. Tara Hoke is General Counsel at the American Society of Civil Engineers and a member of the Virginia Bar. In addition to serving as ASCE's legal counsel in matters of contract law, intellectual property, and other matters, Tara oversees ASCE's professional conduct committee and writes a bimonthly column A Question of Ethics, which is published in Civil Engineering magazine. Tara also serves as Secretary for the Committee on Publication Ethics, a UK-based charity that provides ethics guidance for scholarly publishers.

Presentation Details: 

Approximately one-hour presentation will discuss ethical issues related to conflicts of interest. What are the drivers that lead us into conflicts of interest and when do conflicts rise to the level of an ethics violations? A review of case studies will explore when conflicts of interest should be disclosed, when they violate ethical and professional standards, why perception can matter as much as reality, and why this is an important and relevant topic for the profession.