Frazier Benya

Biography

Dr. Frazier Benya is a Senior Program Officer with the Committee on Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine (CWSEM) at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Dr. Benya’s work focuses on ensuring that science, engineering, and medicine are ethical and socially responsible, both in their practice and in who gets to participate in the work. She recently served as the study director for the National Academies consensus study report Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Before joining the CWSEM staff, Dr. Benya worked with the National Academy of Engineering from 2011 to 2017, during which time she managed projects for its Center for Engineering Ethics and Society and co-lead the effort to expand and enhance the NAE Online Ethics Center (OEC) for Engineering and Science website. Her work with the NAE focused on improving and enhancing engineering ethics education and on analyzing the pathways engineers take from education to the workforce.

Dr. Benya holds a B.A with honors in Science, Technology and Society from the University of Puget Sound, and a M.A. in Bioethics and Ph.D. in History of Science, Technology, and Medicine from the University of Minnesota. Her Ph.D. focused on the history of bioethics and scientific social responsibility during the 1960s and 1970s that led to the creation of the first federal bioethics commission in 1974. Her M.A. examined different types of institutional methodologies for considering the social implications of science with a focus on those that integrate scientific research with ethics research in the United States and Canada. Dr. Benya was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences in 2017.