Ethics & Compliance Week

Ethics & Compliance Week is an opportunity for faculty, staff, and students across U-M Ann Arbor, U-M Dearborn, U-M Flint, and Michigan Medicine to come together in support of a shared commitment to integrity, accountability, and ethical decision-making.

Ethics 101

Session 1: October 20th, 2026 | Pendleton Room | 10:00am – 11:15am | Breakfast Served

Session 2: October 22nd, 2026 | Virtual | 10:00am – 11:15am

Additional Virtual Sessions

Open to faculty, staff, and Michigan Medicine.

 

Ethics 101 is an introductory workshop designed to help U‑M employees navigate everyday situations where the “right next step” may not be obvious. Grounded in the university’s values and the realities of our work, the session builds shared language for ethical decision-making, offers practical tools for addressing uncertainty, and clarifies when and where to seek guidance. Participants will work through brief, relatable scenarios and leave with concrete strategies they can apply immediately.

Participants will be able to:

• Understand and apply UM’s definition of ethical conduct.
• Recognize common “ethical tension” situations in university settings (e.g., conflicts of interest, gifts, appropriate use of resources, data stewardship, respectful conduct).
• Identify practical steps to take when an ethical issue arises.
• Practice using short scenarios to choose value-aligned responses and identify next best actions.

Conflict Resolution for Leaders

October 20th, 2026 | Pendleton Room | 1:00pm – 2:30pm | Lunch Served

Open to all U-M supervisors, managers, and/or leaders (faculty, staff, and Michigan Medicine).

 

Workplace conflict consumes leader time, erodes morale, and can undermine outcomes across academic and clinical settings. In fact, a recent review of U‑M and Michigan Medicine compliance hotline data found that 22% of reported issues involved interpersonal conflict only. This voluntary, in-person training equips supervisors, managers, and leaders with a restorative-informed approach to addressing conflict proactively—before it escalates. Participants will learn a structured set of tools drawn from Restorative Practices, a relationship-centered framework with a long history at U‑M, and will practice applying these tools to common workplace scenarios. The focus is practical: building the courage, confidence, and skill to facilitate productive conversations that clarify impact, surface needs, support accountability, and restore working relationships.

 

One Michigan, One Culture: How Behavior Strengthens Our Community

U-M Panel Discussion

October 21st, 2026 | Rogel Ballroom | 10:00am – 11:30am | Breakfast Served

Open to faculty, staff, Michigan Medicine, and students.

 

Ethics & Compliance Week’s keynote panel brings together voices from across the University of Michigan—including Michigan Medicine, academic leadership, and staff—to explore a simple idea: culture is built in everyday moments.

This session is inspirational and practical. Panelists will share candid stories about pressure, hard calls, and the small decisions that shape “how we do things here.” The conversation will focus on culture and systems—the norms, incentives, and leadership behaviors that either strengthen integrity or quietly erode it—plus what each of us can do to “own” culture on our teams, regardless of title.

The final 10 minutes will be reserved for audience Q&A.

Meet the Panelists

Joe Zichi (he/him) is a higher educational professional specializing in conflict resolution, student conduct, restorative justice, and organizational systems transformation. Zichi serves as the Well-being Collective Lead at the University of Michigan, where he provides backbone support for the university’s adoption of the Okanagan Charter. In addition to his work at the University of Michigan, Zichi is a consultant and operations advisor for Klancy Street, LLC, a specialized law, consulting, and dispute resolution practice focused on helping parties find common ground. Previously, Zichi served as the associate director of the Office of Student Conflict Resolution, where he was responsible for providing programmatic oversight, formal and adaptable resolution processes, and supervision of the office. Zichi is experienced in Title IX resolution processes and was responsible for deciding sanctions and interventions under the Sexual and Gender-based Misconduct Policy at the University of Michigan. Zichi provides consultation and training in adaptable conflict resolution, informal resolution for Title IX, and restorative justice for colleges and universities. Zichi contributed to Applying Restorative Justice to Campus Sexual Misconduct: A Guide to Emerging Practices (Williamsen & Wessel, 2023). He also served on faculty and as a track coordinator for the Donald D. Gehring Academy with the Association of Student Conduct Administration (ASCA). Zichi earned a Master of Arts in Student Affairs Administration and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy, both from Michigan State University.

 Brook Watts, M.D., M.S., F.A.C.P is Chief Quality Officer (Enterprise) and a Professor in Internal Medicine at Michigan Medicine. Her office is responsible for health system quality, safety, performance improvement, project management, infection prevention, accreditation, and quality analytics to support the state-wide University of Michigan health system. She earned her MD from the University of Alabama School of Medicine, completed her Internal Medicine residency and Chief Residency at the University of Michigan, and received Master of Science in Health Policy from Case Western Reserve University. In addition, she completed a two-year National Health Quality Scholars Fellowship with the Department of Veterans Affairs and board-certification in Clinical Informatics through the American Board of Preventive Health. Prior to returning to the University of Michigan in 2022, she was a long-term faculty member at Case Western Reserve University and an executive leader at The MetroHealth System, a 200-year-old safety net system in Cleveland, Ohio. At MetroHealth, she held a variety of leadership positions, most recently reporting to the Chief Executive Officer as Senior Vice President for Quality and Chief Medical Officer, Community & Public Health. Her duties included serving as the Chief Medical Officer for MetroHealth Community Health Centers, the Federally Qualified Health Center arm of the health system. Her other professional experience includes the leadership roles of Chief Quality Officer and Chief Health Informatics Officer at the Louis Stokes VA Medical Center in Cleveland. Among her honors and awards, Dr. Watts has received a Humanism in Medicine Award from The Health Care Foundation of New Jersey and a Wings of Excellence award for Outstanding Service from the Federal Executive Board of Cleveland. She is a member of the editorial board for the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety and the American College of Physicians Performance Measurement Committee, and participates in a variety of other local, regional, and national quality and safety-related groups. 

Monica C. Worline, PhD, is the Faculty Director of the Center for Positive Organizations at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and she teaches in the Management and Organizations group at Michigan Ross. Monica is a leading voice in translating research from the academic field known as Positive Organizational Scholarship into the practice of more courageous thinking, compassionate leadership, and designing organizations that bring people’s best work to life.

Monica co-authored the book Awakening Compassion at Work: The Quiet Power that Elevates People and Organizations (with Jane Dutton), and her current research and writing focus on helping organizations design and build the structures and practices that create scalable, reliable mission excellence while catalyzing human thriving.

Monica has previously served as associate director and research scientist at Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education and on the faculties of Goizueta Business School at Emory University, the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California Irvine, and the UC Irvine School of Social Ecology. Monica completed her doctoral work in organizational psychology at the University of Michigan and earned her BA with distinction and honors at Stanford University.

Workplace Investigations: Core Skills for Recognizing and Applying University Policy

October 21st, 2026 | Pendleton Room | 1:00pm – 3:00pm | Lunch Served

This workshop is intended for any U-M employee who engages in workplaces investigations.

 

This hands-on, in-person workshop strengthens the foundational skills needed to conduct fair, thorough, and values-aligned workplace investigations. Designed for employees who support or lead investigations in their roles, the session focuses on building consistent practices—from planning and interviews to documentation and closure—so that concerns are addressed promptly, respectfully and equitably. Participants will work through practical examples, discuss common challenges, and leave with tools they can use to support trust, accountability, and a culture where people feel heard.

Participants will be able to:

• Recognize which process and/or policies should apply in a given situation.
• Identify the core phases of an investigation (intake, planning, interviews, documentation, findings, closure) and what “good process” looks like.
• Apply foundational interviewing techniques (rapport, neutral questioning, credibility considerations, managing emotion, avoiding leading questions).
• Produce clear, objective documentation that separates facts, observations, and conclusions.