Media Contact: Tehreem Khan
Greg Pence, Ph.D., professor in the College of Arts Sciences Department of Philosophy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, received the Outstanding Service Award at the 2024 Bioethics Bowl.
The Bioethics Bowl is an annual academic competition for undergraduate students at four-year institutions. Attendees research and formulate logical analyses of ethical issues in health and biological sciences.
The Outstanding Service Award was specially created for Pence, who coached at the bowl for 13 years and has been instrumental in the creation and improvement of the competition.
Jennifer Parks, executive board member for the Bioethics Bowl, says Pence saved the competition from being discontinued by creating an executive board that would run and support the competition.
“Greg Pence earned this recognition through his many years of commitment and devotion,” Parks said. “His work creating the executive board gave the competition the leadership and consistency needed for it to move forward and flourish.”
Pence created UAB’s Bioethics Bowl team in 2011 and has been coaching ever since. He says coaching the team is beyond his job description, but he incorporates the cases and practices in his class curricula.
“I needed something in class to make students more active,” Pence said. “I divide students into teams of six each spring semester and have them analyze and debate 14 or 15 ethical cases.”
He has served on the Bioethics board and has coached the UAB team for three national championships, and he is proud of his work for the students and the bowl.