Is there an IRB/ethics career path? Suppose I was back at the beginning of my undergraduate career, and I decided that while I was willing to do human-subjects research, my real career goal was to sit on an IRB and guide lost souls who can't be trusted to figure out right from wrong.

Is there a typical or expected career path for IRB members? More specifically,


Would I be expected to first "make a name for myself" as a researcher in a field involving human subjects and then get additional ethics training (e.g. Advanced Introduction to Intermediate Best Practices in IRB Ethics for Geneticists)?
Would I be expected to concentrate my efforts on gaining a broad and deep education in ethics (majoring in philosophy, etc.), and then top that off with subject matter-specific training (e.g. Introduction to Genetics for Ethicists)?
There are administration jobs involved in the ethics processes.  My university employs several "Ethics Officers" which facilitate the various ethics reviews.  Most of them do not have PhDs.  While these employees may not directly decide ethical issues, they do provide advice to researchers before the application is made which ensures the application is successful.  Knowledge of local laws is at least as important as knowledge of ethics; researchers usually need more help with the legal aspects than the ethical aspects of their ethics application.

If this sort of job appeals to you, then yes it exists, no you do not need to be a researcher to hold it, and I doubt you need to study philosophy.