Pictured above: Tiffany Chenneville (center) said she found out she was being appointed the endowed chair on Valentine’s day. She said the news was better than roses.
Courtesy of Tiffany Chenneville
By James Bennett III
Professor and psychology department chair Tiffany Chenneville received a special gift on Valentine’s Day.
She was appointed the Marie E. and E. Leslie Cole Endowed Chair in Ethics.
Chenneville said that although the university announced her position on Feb. 26, she was notified of her appointment on Valentine’s Day.
“It was better than roses,” she said.
“I was really, really excited about it because I’m so interested in the area of ethics and it’s a prestigious position to have. It affords me some creativity to do things in an area that I feel passionately about.”
According to a university press release, the endowed chair was created after former St. Petersburg mayor Edward L. Cole donated $500,000 to the university in 1990. Cole’s donation was matched by the Florida Progress Corporation and the state of Florida, which paid $100,000 and $420,000, respectively.
Chenneville will hold the position until she leaves USF St. Petersburg. As the endowed chair, Chenneville is expected to hold an annual symposium in the field of ethics, research the subject and engage in initiatives related to it.
“It’s a great opportunity to think creatively about how to kind of build on the things I’ve been doing across areas of research, teaching and service, so it’s very exciting,” Chenneville said.
Her research focuses primarily on psychosocial issues related to pediatric and adolescent HIV.
Chenneville has a personal link to the disease. When she was 22, a close friend was diagnosed with HIV. At the time, HIV was relatively new and often resulted in death.
She has visited Kenya multiple times to work on the HIV SEERs Project, which stands for Stigma Reduction through Education, Empowerment and Research.
The project aims to improve the wellness of people with HIV by providing communities with the education and resources necessary to fight the stigma that people attach to the disease.
Chenneville has published multiple peer-reviewed articles and, in 2017, she published a book titled “A Clinical Guide to Pediatric HIV: Bridging the Gaps Between Research and Practice.”
Chenneville has also used funding from a Fulbright Specialist Award to train people about ethical issues surrounding HIV research and treatment of minors at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
Right now, Chenneville said that she is interested in ethical decision-making models and how different cultural values affect how we think about ethics.
Chenneville said she has big shoes to fill. Her predecessor — a philosophy professor named Hugh LaFollette — retired in May 2019.
Although Chenneville acknowledged she isn’t a philosopher, she is the vice-chair of the American Psychological Association Ethics Committee.
“I’m approaching ethics from a different point of view,” Chenneville said.
“Ethical philosophies are included in what I teach and underlie any kind of research or service I do.”
