Ethics Experts for Media

The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics staff and affiliated scholars can provide commentary and background information for media on many topics in applied ethics. Each item in the list below (e.g.: Experts in Character Education) is a link to names, bios, and contact information for sources in that area. If you do not find the topic you are looking for, please contact SCU Media Relations Director Deepa Arora (darora@scu.edu or 408-554-5125) or Center Communications Director Miriam Schulman (mschulman@scu.edu or 408-554-5116). Please note: The Center is unable to provide counseling for individuals on personal ethical problems.

Experts on Ethics in General including "What is Ethics?" lying, heroism, virtues, values, etc.

Experts on Bioethics including medical ethics, clinical ethics, end-of-life issues, genetic testing, gene patenting, cloning, access to care, medically ineffective treatment, etc.

Experts on Business Ethics including corporate responsibility, organizational ethics, conflict of interest, behavioral finance, and corporate governance, etc.

Experts on Character Education including education ethics, raising an ethical child, ethical parenting, moral development, plagiarism and academic integrity, cheating, bullying, etc.

Experts on Environmental Ethics including biodiversity, stewardship, sustainability, e-waste, etc.

Experts on Global Leadership and Ethics including human rights, global leadership, human responsibilities, development, intervention, etc.

Experts on Government Ethics and Public Policy including campaign ethics, conflicts of interest, pay-to-play, access, sunshine laws, poverty, war, terrorism, etc.

Experts on Legal Ethics including capital punishment, criminal justice, family law, sentencing, racial equality, etc.

Experts on Media Ethics with a focus on reporting on science and health.

Experts on Religion and Ethics including the place of religion in public life, Catholic social teaching, etc.

Experts on Technology Ethics including privacy, intellectual property, the digital divide, etc.

ETHICS IN GENERAL

Kirk O. Hanson: Kirk O. Hanson, executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, is John Courtney Murray S.J. University Professor of Social Ethics. In 2001, he took early retirement from Stanford University where he taught business ethics in the Graduate School of Business for 23 years. In the area of general ethics, he has written and done research on such topics as cheating and conflicts of interest.
Phone: 408-554-7898
E-mail: kohanson@scu.edu

Margaret R. McLean: As Ethics Center assistant director and director of Biotechnology and Health Care Ethics, Margaret McLean can address a wide range of issues in applied ethics. She has her master's in divinity from Luther Theological Seminary, as well as two Ph.Ds, one in Pathology (Medical College of Wisconsin) and one in ethics (Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley).
Phone: 408-554-5319
E-Mail: mmclean@scu.edu

David DeCosse: David DeCosse can address general questions in ethics, as well as Catholic moral teaching and social justice. He is director of campus ethics programs at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. Previously, he worked at Doubleday Books, where he edited But Was It Just? Reflections on the Morality of the Persian Gulf War and Lead Us Not Into Temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children by Jason Berry.
Phone: 408-554-5715
E-mail: ddecosse@scu.edu

BIOETHICS

Margaret R. McLean: McLean is both director of biotechnology and health care ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and director of the O'Connor Hospital Applied Ethics Center, a joint program between the hospital and SCU. With her background in science and ethics-she holds a doctorate in clinical pathology from the Medical College of Wisconsin and a doctorate in ethics from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley- she was tapped as an advisor to the California Senate Select Committee on Genetics and a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Project Consultation on Human Cloning.
Phone: 408-554-5319
E-Mail: mmclean@scu.edu

Lawrence Nelson : Lawrence Nelson, associate professor of philosophy at SCU, is also an attorney and has provided bioethics consultation and education as an independent practitioner. He has published articles on ethics, law, and health care in journals such as Journal of the American Medical Association and Hastings Center Report. In 1996 he was awarded a $100,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to study the legal and ethical aspects of prenatal substance abuse. His most recent major article argues that regardless of whether the fetus is considered a constitutional person or not, the Constitution is not silent on abortion as many, such as Justice Scalia, have claimed.
Phone: 408-554-5093
E-Mail: lnelson@scu.edu

Dale Larson: Dale Larson, professor of counseling psychology at SCU, is a national leader in psychosocial issues in bereavement and end-of-life care. A former Fulbright Scholar, Larson was a member of the Advisory Panel for the American Psychological Association Ad Hoc Committee on End-of-Life Issues, and was the senior editor of Finding Our Way: Living With Dying in America, a 15-week newspaper series funded by the Robert Wood Johnson foundation.
Phone: 408-554-4320
E-mail: dlarson@scu.edu

Sally Lehrman : Lehrman holds the Knight Ridder San Jose Mercury News Endowed Chair in Journalism and the Public Interest. She has distinguished herself as a writer and reporter on science and society for outlets including Scientific American, Nature, Health, Salon.com, and the radio documentary series The DNA Files, distributed by National Public Radio. She has been honored with a John S. Knight Fellowship and shares a Peabody award and Peabody/Robert Wood Johnson Award for excellence in health and medical programming, and a Columbia/Du Pont Silver Baton.
Phone: 408-551-3000 extn 4256
E-mail: slehrman@scu.edu

BUSINESS ETHICS

Kirk O. Hanson: Kirk O. Hanson, executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, is University Professor of Organizations and Society. In 2001, he took early retirement from Stanford University where he taught business ethics in the Graduate School of Business for 23 years. His research interests include corporate responsibility, organizational ethics, and conflicts of interest. He is co-editor of The Accountable Corporation (Praeger Publishers).
Phone: 408-554-7898
E-mail: kohanson@scu.edu

Hersh Shefrin: Hersh Shefrin, who holds the Mario L. Belotti Chair in the Department of Finance at the Leavey School of Business, is one of the pioneers of behavioral finance. His most recent books include Beyond Greed and Fear: Understanding Behavioral Finance and the Psychology of Investing (Oxford University Press, 2002), A Behavioral Approach to Asset Pricing (Academic Press, 2005), and Behavioral Corporate Finance (McGraw-Hill, 2006). Shefrin is an Ethics Center Scholar.
Phone: 408-554-6893
E-mail: hshefrin@scu.edu

Manuel Velasquez: The Dirksen Professor of Business Ethics in the SCU Management Department, Manuel Velasquez is the author of one of the most popular textbooks in business ethics, Business Ethics: Concepts and Cases. He was the founding director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and has a particular interest in the teaching of business ethics. His research is in international business ethics.
Phone: (408) 554-4848
E-mail: mvelasquez@scu.edu

CHARACTER EDUCATION

Steve Johnson: As director of Character Education at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Steve Johnson developed the Character-Based Literacy Curriculum, which is currently in use in 25 California counties and thousands of individual classrooms across the nation. A former high school teacher and principal, Johnson also lectures for parents on raising an ethical child.
Phone: 408-551-7049
E-mail: ethics@scu.edu

ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS

Michelle Marvier: Michelle Marvier is executive director of the SCU Environmental Studies Institute and an assistant professor of biology. Her research program has coalesced around the theme of informing environmental policy and strategy. This entails endangered species management, conservation investment, and environmental risk assessment for genetically modified crops.
Phone: 408-551-7189
E-mail: mmarvier@scu.edu

Keith Warner: A Franciscan friar, Keith Warner is the Faith, Ethics, and Vocation Project director in the Environmental Studies Institute at Santa Clara University. He is an interdisciplinary environmental scholar who studies how values, ethics, institutions and the expansion of knowledge shape nature-society relations. His areas of expertise include California environmental issues, pesticides, water management, and agricultural science.
Phone: 831-245-5769
E-mail: kwarner@scu.edu

Chad Raphael: Associate Professor of Communications Chad Raphael is an Ethics Center Scholar with an interest in public discourse on the environment. He has written on the problem of e-waste.
Phone: 408-554-4516
E-mail: craphael@scu.edu

Sara Garcia: Sara Garcia was the recipient of a Fulbright Scholar award to develop a collaborative model for teaching concepts related to drought in the Chihuahua desert. Garcia, a professor of education, has also consulted with the Center's Character Education Program on environmental education. She is also director of the MA program in Interdisciplinary Education with an emphasis on Environmental Literacy and Ethics in the SCU Education Department.
Phone: 408-554-4507
E-mail: sgarcia@scu.edu

GLOBAL LEADERSHIP AND ETHICS

Kirk O. Hanson: Center Executive Director Kirk O. Hanson works directly with the Center's Global Leadership and Ethics Program. He has addressed the InterAction Council, a group of former heads of state, on the question, "Are we meeting our responsibilities to children?"
Phone: 408-554-7898
E-mail: kohanson@scu.edu

Eric O. Hanson: Donohoe Professor of Political Science Eric Hanson teaches comparative politics (China, religion and politics). He is the author of Catholic Politics in China and Korea (UMI Books on Demand, 1980), The Catholic Church in World Politics (Princeton, 1987), and Religion and Politics in the International System Today (Cambridge, December 2005).
Phone: 408-554-6882
E-mail: ehanson@scu.edu

Michael Kevane: Associate Professor of Economics Michael Kevane is a former president of the Sudan Studies Association and president and founder of Friends of African Village Libraries. He has published widely in development studies with an emphasis on African economic development. He has a particular interest in gender issues and is the author of Women and Development in Africa: How Gender Works (Lynn Rienner Publishers, 2004) and co-editor of Kordofan Invaded: Peripheral Incorporation in Islamic Africa (E.J. Brill, 1998).
Phone: 408-554-6888
E-mail: mkevane@scu.edu

GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC POLICY ETHICS

Judy Nadler: Senior Fellow in Government Ethics Judy Nadler was formerly mayor of the city of Santa Clara, Calif., where she worked with the Ethics Center to develop a code of ethics and values, as well as an award-winning program, "Infusing Political Campaigns with Community Ethics and Values." She conducts ethics workshops for local elected officials on issues such as conflicts of interest, "pay to play," sunshine laws, and access.
Phone: 408-554-7892
E-Mail: jnadler@scu.edu

Kirk O. Hanson: Center Executive Director Kirk O. Hanson was the first chairman of the Santa Clara County Ethics Commission. He is a frequent commentator about public policy issues, especially those touching on the relationship between government and business.
Phone: 408-554-7898
E-mail: kohanson@scu.edu

David DeCosse: War, terrorism, and ethics are of particular interest to Center Director of Campus Ethics Programs David DeCosse. DeCosse was the editor of But Was It Just? Reflections on the Morality of the Persian Gulf War.
Phone: 408-554-5715
E-mail: ddecosse@scu.edu

Elsa Chen: Director of the Public Sector Studies Program at SCU, Assistant Professor of Political Science Elsa Chen was an analyst for the Rand Corporation, where she co-authored "Three Strikes Revisited." Her research interests include criminal justice and get-tough sentencing policies, as well as the use of the Internet by public officials.
Phone: 408-551-7055
E-mail: echen@scu.edu

William Sundstrom: Professor of Economics William Sundstrom has a special interest in the wealth and income gap between rich and poor, labor issues, and the economics of racial discrimination.
Phone: 408-554-6892
E-mail: wsundstrom@scu.edu

LEGAL ETHICS

Margalynne Armstrong: A contributing author to Privilege Revealed: How Invisible Preference Undermines America (New York University Press, 1996), Associate Professor of Law Margalynne Armstrong specializes in race and racism and the law, constitutional law, and property law.
Phone: 408-554-4778
E-mail: marmstrong@scu.edu

Ellen Kreitzberg: Professor of Law Ellen Kreitzberg is a co- founder and director of SCU's Death Penalty College, which brings together attorneys with pending capital cases and defense counsel faculty. This model for capital training has resulted in a BJA (Bureau of Justice Assistance) grant to implement training programs for lawyers, mitigation specialists, and investigators in capital cases. She has previously served on the Board of Governors of the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice.
Phone: 408-554-4724 (home 650-325-8340)
E-mail: ekreitzberg@scu.edu

Margaret Russell: Specializing in constitutional law and civil procedure, SCU Professor of Law Margaret Russell is a former vice president of the National American Civil Liberties Union. In 1991, she traveled to South Africa with a delegation of legal scholars to consult with the African National Congress on constitution drafting. She is a board member and founding member of the Equal Justice Society, a civil rights organization based in San Francisco.
Phone: 408-554-5234
E-mail: mrussell@scu.edu

Gerald Uelmen: An expert on legal ethics, particularly media coverage of legal proceedings, SCU Professor of Law Gerald Uelmen has participated in the defense of Daniel Ellsberg and of O.J. Simpson. He is a former dean of the SCU School of Law.
Phone: 408-554-5729
E-mail: guelmen@scu.edu

MEDIA ETHICS

Sally Lehrman : Lehrman holds the Knight Ridder San Jose Mercury News Endowed Chair in Journalism and the Public Interest. She has distinguished herself as a writer and reporter on science and society for outlets including Scientific American, Nature, Health, Salon.com, and the radio documentary series The DNA Files, distributed by National Public Radio. She has been honored with a John S. Knight Fellowship and shares a Peabody award and Peabody/Robert Wood Johnson Award for excellence in health and medical programming, and a Columbia/Du Pont Silver Baton.
Phone: 408-551-3000 extn 4256
E-mail: slehrman@scu.edu

RELIGION AND ETHICS

David DeCosse: Center Director of Campus Ethics Programs David DeCosse specializes in Catholic social teaching with an emphasis on issues of free speech and ethics and war. A Ph.D. from the Boston College-Westin Jesuit School of Philosophy, he was the Editor of Lead Us Not Into Temptation: Catholic Priests and the Sexual Abuse of Children (Doubleday) by Jason Berry.
Phone: 408-554-5715
E-mail: ddecosse@scu.edu

Margaret R. McLean: Ethics Center Assistant Director Margaret R. McLean has her master's in divinity from Luther Theological Seminary, as well as two Ph.Ds, one in Pathology (Medical College of Wisconsin) and one in ethics (Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley). She teaches in the Religious Studies Department and was a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Project Consultation on Human Cloning.
Phone: 554-5319
E-Mail: mmclean@scu.edu

Eric O. Hanson: The Donohoe Professor of Political Science, Eric Hanson teaches comparative politics (China, religion and politics). He is the author of Catholic Politics in China and Korea (UMI Books on Demand, 1980), The Catholic Church in World Politics (Princeton, 1987), and Religion and Politics in the International System Today (Cambridge, December 2005).
Phone: 408-554-6882
E-mail: ehanson@scu.edu

Thomas Plante: SCU Professor of Psychology Thomas Plante is a nationally recognized commentator on the problem of clergy sexual abuse. He is the author of Sin Against the Innocent: Sexual Abuse by Priests and the Role of the Catholic Church (Greenwood, 2004) and Do the Right Thing: Living Ethically in an Unethical World (New Harbinger, 2004).
Phone: 408-554-4471 or 650-326-5930
E-mail: tplante@scu.edu

TECHNOLOGY ETHICS

Irina Raicu: Internet Ethics Program Manager at the Center, Irina Raicu can speak about online privacy, as well as other issues related to technology and ethics. Previously, she was an attorney in private practice.
Phone: 408-551-1814
E-mail: iraicu@scu.edu

Pedro Hernandez-Ramos: Pedro Hernandez-Ramos is the program director of Economic and Social Development at the Center for Science, Technology, and Society. Previously he was business development manager for Apple Pacific and research manager for the Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow. His interests include the integration of technology in teaching and learning, the "digital divide" domestically and internationally, and online learning.
Phone: 408-554-4131
E-mail: phernandezramos@scu.edu