Reflections Since the Formation of the American College of Epidemiology (ACE) Ethics and Policy Committee, 2023-2025

Jennifer Salerno; John H Holmes; Stephen C Waring; William J Lee; WayWay M Hlaing

doi:10.1016/j.annepidem.2026.110123

The American College of Epidemiology (ACE) Ethics and Policy Committee was newly formed in 2023 through the merger of separate Ethics and Policy Committees, and over the last three years has been involved with sponsored symposia, collaborations, policy consultations, education, mentoring, and capacity building. The purpose of this reflection paper is to highlight the achievements of the Committee and further highlight its ethics and policy work and presentations. Speakers with diverse expertise were invited to present at consecutive ACE Annual Meetings. Invited symposia speakers presented along the themes of climate change (PT, CH, JH), causal inference in epidemiology (JH, SW, DW, WL), and integrity in epidemiologic research (IB, DS, WA), aligning with the overall theme of each Annual Meeting. At the same time, the Committee's work involved: (i) consultation on policy and position statements developed by the International Network for Epidemiology in Policy (INEP); (ii) education on ethics in epidemiology and public health through the Ethics Syllabi Collection Project; (iii) mentoring graduate-level epidemiology students as part of the ACE Scholars Program; and (iv) developing and strengthening ethics guidance and resources. The sociopolitical landscape and ongoing global health crises have challenged the foundations of epidemiology and its credibility as a scientific discipline to serve public health and maintain the public's trust. Using a principle-based approach, we examined the ethical considerations in each of the themed symposia and highlight the key principles, values, and professional virtues including justice, respect for persons and their communities, beneficence, transparency, accountability, veracity, excellence, and integrity, among others. We provide recommendations on how to focus research efforts and ethically engage with interdisciplinary colleagues and varied audiences while under pressure to be an advocate or policy expert, and counter misinformation. Our reflection paper demonstrates contemporary ethical reflection through the collective work of the Committee with symposia presenters who together represent expertise in epidemiology, public health, bioethics, health disparities, law, bioinformatics, medicine, and occupational and environmental health. Other work of the Committee involved developing more formalized approaches to policy consultations and furthering our efforts in education, mentoring, and capacity building. The ethical intersections of epidemiology and public health remind us of their shared goal which is to improve population health. Despite the attacks on science and the ongoing public scrutiny of these disciplines, the Committee is committed to ongoing collaborations, policy consultations, education, mentoring, and capacity building in broad and specialized areas of epidemiology and public health and supports the ethical analysis of contemporary issues using established and emerging ethical principles, approaches, and frameworks.