After six years at the CU Anschutz Center for Bioethics and Humanities, we say farewell to Lisa Bero, PhD, Professor of Internal Medicine at the CU School of Medicine, Academic Leadership Council Liasion for the Colorado School of Public Health, and Chief Scientist at the Center. Bero joined CBH from Australia at an unusual moment—moving countries and beginning a new role during the height of the COVID‑19 pandemic. As she put it, the experience was “very odd.” Even so, she quickly became a steady presence and a deeply influential leader.
Bero arrived with an international reputation as a leading expert on conflicts of interest in research and health policy. Her work has long focused on how transparency, integrity, and accountability shape the credibility of science—and ultimately, public trust. She brought that expertise to CBH in ways that were both rigorous and generous. At CU Anschutz, those commitments translated into building strong empirical bioethics research, mentoring faculty and trainees, and asking careful questions about how research systems can better serve the public good.
What Bero says she’ll remember most about her time at the Center for Bioethics and Humanities is the people.
“I’ll remember the passion everyone at the Center has for the work—it’s catching,” she said, along with how rare it is to see a center so “truly integrated across the schools on campus.”
She also reflected on being part of the growth of the empirical ethics research team, a period marked by productivity, collaboration, and ambition.
Eric Campbell, PhD, Professor of Medicine and CBH’s Director of Research, describes working with Lisa as a privilege.
“Her passion for research integrity and her unwavering commitment to transparency and masterful mentoring have left an indelible mark on our Center and on all of us with whom she has worked," he said.
Bero says she has difficulty processing the word “retirement,” noting that there is “so much more work that needs doing.” She will be continuing her work as Senior Research Integrity Editor, at Cochrane and with a few ongoing projects. While her day‑to‑day role at the Center is ending, her influence will continue—in the research she helped shape, the people she mentored, and the questions she pushed us to ask more critically, especially when it comes to conflicts of interest in health policy and research--a topic so integrated with what makes us human that the there will be no shortage of conundrums and headlines in the years to come. While Bero may be stepping back from a long and productive career, the research and policy expertise she contributed will guide those who continue to advocate for ethical empirical research and health policy for decades to come.
We are deeply grateful for Bero’s leadership, presence, and perspective.
Farewell, Dr. Bero—"until our paths cross again."