Blog 8

This past week I was shocked to learn of the case of Dr. Shawn McElmurry and Dr. Kasey Faust. Dr. Faust was one of our guest speakers and hearing her story firsthand was even more shocking than the initial readings for the week. 

As a graduate student, there are many ways in which the system does not protect us. Dr. Faust detailed how her external committee member, Dr. McElmurry, not only misrepresented his experience in Flint but also used her work while keeping her at an arm's length from the other Flint researchers. It is horrifying to think that anyone on your committee would take your data and use courtesy authorship on one paper to misrepresent their experience to exploit a public health crisis. Hearing about these experiences made me think a little more carefully about how I trust and engage with others. While I do believe that there are good academics and advocates, situations like this make me remember that there are also bad players.

Comments

  1. rf2021November 15, 2021 at 10:22 AM

    I was shocked as well, especially after hearing from Dr. Faust during class. If you can’t trust your committee members to have your best interests in mind, who can you trust? I wonder if Dr. McElmurry is going to keep to his story, or if there will ever be some situation that makes him admit to fraud.

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