Rock Ethics Institute

Biography

Heather C. Bupp is a senior ethics and compliance consultant with Strategic Analysis, Inc., supporting ARPA-H Ethics. Immediately prior she was the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) alternate designated agency ethics official (ADAEO), and  she served as the acting chief ethics counsel for the Office of General Counsel (OGC), overseeing VA’s ethics program, the largest single ethics program within the federal executive branch.

Previously, Heather was VA OGC deputy chief ethics counsel where she led the VA ethics team of attorneys and paralegals to provide advice and training to over 450,000 employees, including 12,000 confidential filers and almost 1,000 public filers. In addition, she guided and supported the work of VA deputy designated agency ethics officials (DDAEOs) and compliance officers acting as agency ethics advisors throughout Veterans Health Administration.

The ethics issues ranged from research, the criminal conflict of interest statutes, the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch, the Hatch Act, FOIA, the Federal Advisory Committee Act, the U.S. Constitution Emoluments Clause, and various Office of Government Ethics, Office of Inspector General and VA financial disclosure reports.

Heather transferred to VA from U.S. Department of Interior, where she was an acting deputy ethics counsel in the Interdepartmental Ethics Office. Previously, while in private practice, Heather served as the ethics director and counsel to the board of ethics for a national professional, scientific, and credentialing, healthcare association, ASHA. She is a former fellow of the National Institute for Teaching Ethics and Professionalism in Atlanta, Georgia.

Earlier in her career, Heather was legal ethics counsel for the District of Columbia Bar in Washington, D.C., where she provided guidance to Bar members, law firms, clinics, and the public on a broad scope of ethical issues. Heather is a graduate of Washington College of Law at American University in Washington, D.C, where she subsequently taught professional responsibility as an adjunct faculty member. Heather also taught legal ethics and legal technology as adjunct faculty for Georgetown University.

Heather graduated from Penn State with a B.A. in political science, where she currently is an advisory board member at the Rock Ethics Institute, promoting engaged ethics research and leadership.