New Chair of the ISU Institutional Review Board 

Dr. Christopher Owens has been appointed chair of Idaho State University's Institutional Review Board (IRB), also known as the Human Subjects Committee, which reviews research involving human participants. His appointment took effect August 17 and runs through June 2029.

Dr. Owens also serves as Associate Vice President for Health Sciences and has previously been a member of the IRB for several years. He is a Professor of Pharmacy Practice, holds a master's degree in public health, and has experience in clinical and population-based research. He also manages ISU's institutional account with ClinicalTrials.gov.

The IRB reviews clinical and biomedical studies, but also research using surveys, interviews, and focus groups, and projects in education, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and the health professions. If a project involves people and is designed to contribute to generalizable knowledge, it comes through the IRB for review.

"The IRB is committed to helping facilitate research on campus," Owens said. "Our main responsibility is to ensure that research involving human participants is valuable, valid, and done in an ethically responsible way. Review is not just approval or disapproval; our members often raise questions about design or consent that make a study protocol stronger."

Investigators with questions about human subjects research can contact Tom Bailey, the committee's administrator, in the Office for Research.

Dr. Owens takes over from Dr. Deb Easterly, who stepped in as interim chair for the past year and kept the committee's work moving through the transition. The Office for Research is grateful for her service.