ORI Director David WrightORIDavid Wright, director of the Department of Health and Human Service’s (HHS) Office of Research Integrity (ORI), has quit and will officially leave his post on March 27, according to his letter of resignation, which was obtained and published by ScienceInsider this week (March 12). Wright, who became ORI director in January 2012, cited frustration with “dysfunctional HHS bureaucracy” as his main reason for leaving.
“This has been at once the best and worst job I’ve ever had,” Wright wrote in the opening lines of his letter, which he sent to HHS Assistant Secretary for Health (ASH) Howard Koh on February 25. On March 7, Retraction Watch was the first news outlet to announce Wright’s resignation.
In his letter, Wright provided several examples of the bureaucracy he found so frustrating. In one instance, he wrote, “I urgently needed to fill a vacancy for an ORI division director. I asked the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health (your deputy) when I could proceed. She said there was a priority list. I asked where ORI’s request was on that list. She said the list was secret and that we weren’t on the ...
