Staff can be contacted via email, using the first letter of the first name and the full last name, at geneticsandsociety.org. Thus, John Doe would be jdoe[AT]geneticsandsociety[DOT]org.

Click on the name of each program staff member to see their talks, articles, news and blog posts.

Richard Hayes, PhD, Executive Director, has written and spoken widely concerning democratic governance of science and technology, economic inequality, and the need for social oversight of the new human genetic technologies. In the 1970's he worked as an organizer with the Citizens Action League and other organizations in Northern Cailfornia and Los Angeles. In the early 1980s he served as Executive Director of the San Francisco Democratic Party Central Committee and ran the electoral field operations for the late Congressmembers Phillip Burton and Sala Burton. From 1983 through 1992 he was Associate Political Director and then National Director of Volunteer Development for the Sierra Club. In the early 1990s he was Chair of the Sierra Club's Global Warming Campaign Committee. His PhD is in  Energy and Resources from the University of California at Berkeley.

Marcy Darnovsky, PhD, Associate Executive Director, speaks and writes widely on the politics of human biotechnology, focusing on their social justice and public interest implications. She has appeared on national television news and been cited in hundreds of news and magazine articles. She has worked as an organizer and advocate in a range of environmental and progressive political movements, and taught courses at Sonoma State University and at California State University East Bay. Her Ph.D. is from the History of Consciousness program at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Charles Garzón, Director of Finance and Administration, has over 15 years of experience working with public policy and advocacy organizations. Most recent, he has been associated with a progressive policy think-tank and legal defense fund located in New York City. He holds a Bachelor's in Politics and Sociology as well as a Master's degree in Political Science with emphasis in international relations.

Senior Program Associates

Emily Smith Beitiks, received a PhD in American Studies at the University of Minnesota in April 2012. She attended the University of California, Davis and received a B.A. in American Studies. Emily's dissertation, "Building the Normal Body: Disability and the Techno-Makeover Industry," looks to integrate Disability Studies and Science and Technology Studies into American Studies. In particular, she questions U.S. hegemonic celebrations of the disabled body being "fixed" by technological interventions in science policy and popular culture, while looking at how people with disabilities understand the body/machine interface in ways that resist a simplified cyborg representation through the disability rights movement and emerging assistive technology-focused communities. She has taught at UMN, UCSC, UCD, and in Ghana with course topics covering social justice, cultural understandings of "the body," and the role of technology in American culture. She now lives in San Francisco and has been working with the Center for Genetics and Society since April 2011.

Fellows

Osagie K. Obasogie, JD, PhD, is Senior Fellow at the Center for Genetics and Society. He is also an Associate Professor of Law at the University of California, Hastings College of Law in San Francisco with a joint appointment at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences. His writings have spanned both academic and public outlets, with journal articles in the Stanford Journal of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, the Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics, and Trends in Pharmacological Sciences along with commentaries in Slate, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, and New Scientist" among others. He contributes regularly to CGS’s blog Biopolitical Times and is the former director of CGS’s Project on Bioethics, Law, and Society. Obasogie received his B.A. with distinction from Yale University, his J.D. from Columbia Law School where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley where he was a fellow with the National Science Foundation.

Blog contributors

Pete Shanks MA, attended Oxford University, where he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and moved to California in the mid-1970s. He has been active in a range of local and international political movements, while mostly making his living in the publishing industry, especially on the production side; he enjoys the craft of bookmaking. Appalled by the eugenic possibilities of biotechnology, he has worked with the Center for Genetics and Society since its earliest days. He is the author of Human Genetic Engineering: A Guide for Activists, Skeptics, and the Very Perplexed (Nation Books) and a regular contributor to Biopolitical Times.

Staff Associates

Douglas Pet graduated in December of 2009 from a double-bachelor’s degree program at Tufts University and the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) in Boston. He received a B.A. with majors in Anthropology and Community Health (focusing on biomedical and evolutionary issues) from Tufts and a B.M. in Jazz Performance from NEC. Having worked many years in group-homes for the Department of Children and Family Services, Doug has a background in social and legal issues affecting marginalized youth. Studying global public health and evolutionary medicine in college, Doug developed a passionate interest in the cultural and bioethical implications of evolving medical technologies—both in the nature of their usage and how they are distributed.

Daniel Sharp recently graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, receiving his B.A. in philosophy and interdisciplinary studies. Though he is broadly interested in the intersections of science, society and power in the contemporary world, Daniel's current research focuses on the emergent field of "neuro self-help." He is particularly interested in how notions of health, happiness, and the good life are being transformed by a naturalistic, brain-based view of the self.  He is also seriously interested in how the humanities and social sciences can work collaboratively to remediate some of the challenges presented by biotechnology, and is particularly concerned about issues surrounding eugenics. 

Sona Makker is a CGS Staff Associate helping organize this year's Tarrytown Meetings. She graduated with honors from UC Berkeley with a B.A. in Sociology and a Minor in Global Poverty. Her experiences include running and managing a community clinic in Berkeley and conducting qualitative research focused on informing responsible innovation in healthcare. She is interested in legal policies surrounding reproductive technologies and plans on pursuing a J.D. in 2013.