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Markkula Center for Applied Ethics
Thank You for Your Support

Because of your support – more than 100 individual gifts – we unlocked THREE challenges throughout the day!

Thank you to the generosity of the Markkula Foundation, Ethics Center Advisory Board Chairman Dan Cooperman, Anna Bowman and John Buscher, and Gary Connor, we unlocked an additional $85K towards continuing our vision to empower people and organizations to make better decisions for a more caring world.

Together, with contributions from our faculty and staff, advisory board and ethics councils, SCU alumni, current students, friends, family, and members of our extended community, we raised more than $162K for ethics!

Access the Day of Giving Website

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Digital Dignity Day

Join us May 2 in person or via livestream for a daylong conference exploring the impact AI is having on human dignity, part of the Markkula Center’s work in the international project New Humanism in the time of Neurosciences and Artificial Intelligence (NHNAI).

8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m. PDT |  Friday May 2, 2025

St. Clare Room, Learning Commons, Santa Clara University

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AI and the Environment: Sustaining the Common Good

On November 1, 2024 the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and Next10 cohosted a daylong conference on AI and sustainability.

Access Recordings from "AI and the Environment" Panels

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Ethics in the Age of Disruptive Technologies: An Operational Roadmap

By José Roger Flahaux, Brian Patrick Green, and Ann Skeet

"Ethics in the Age of Disruptive Technologies: An Operational Roadmap,” or, more briefly, the “ITEC Handbook,” offers organizations a strategic plan to enhance ethical management practices, empowering them to navigate the complex landscape of disruptive technologies such as AI, machine learning, encryption, tracking, and others while upholding strong ethical standards.

Download the ITEC Handbook

All About Ethics: Perspectives From Across the Center
book and coffee cup on a saucer on a table

Join us on April 29 for this year’s Regan Lecture, addressing AI ethics.

Technologies can change the medium by which people experience personal leadership, but they shouldn’t be allowed to erase the personal connections so important to the human race.

Map of the United States. The northwestern corner displays an American flag. The lower half of the map displays the U.S. Constitution showing the words,

Governments must ensure that representative democracy is preserved through the responsible use of AI by the citizens’ representatives.

An Industry Leader in Ethics Consultation

For more than 35 years, the Ethics Center has helped individuals and organizations make better decisions and includes offering fee-for-service options for organizations that want a customized approach to building training programs, case studies, and other materials.

Featured Ethics Spotlights
Generative Artificial Intelligence including text, computer generated images.

Throughout history, new technologies have disrupted society in different ways–some positively and some negatively–from steam-powered engines and electricity, to the Internet, and now again with artificial intelligence (AI); generative AI in particular in this instance. The creation of art, journalism, education, and the very truth itself have all been tested by the use of ChatGPT and other generative AIs. Markkula Center staff and scholars unpack some of the many related ethical dilemmas in this Ethics Spotlight.

The U.S. Flag and Constitution, semi-automatic guns, a shooter with AR-15, and a human hand held in the air to block or stop the action.

The gun debate has again reached a fever pitch in the shadow of several horrific mass shootings. Ethics Center staff and faculty interrogate the moral and ethical issues associated with gun use and regulation.

California wildfire

The world has been experiencing worsening wildfire conditions for decades, and in California the situation is particularly bad. The Ethics Center staff and other scholars address some of the key ethical issues surrounding these disasters.

Center News
Santa Clara University Markkula Center for Applied Ethics

Santa Clara University has named Guadalupe Hayes-Mota as the director of the Bioethics Program at the University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.

An arm outstretched holding a heart with words

Join us May 2 in person or via livestream for a daylong conference exploring the impact AI is having on human dignity, part of the Markkula Center’s work in the international project New Humanism in the time of Neurosciences and Artificial Intelligence (NHNAI).

Hannah Hamawi, Arden DeCicco, Jessica Garofalo, and David DeCosse at the Pajaro Levee on March 1, 2025.

The 2024-25 Environmental Ethics Fellows are focusing on the ethical dimensions of the 2023 levee failure in Pajaro, California.

Aalto University Researchers, Vikas Garg and Samuel Kaski, Kirk Bresniker’89, Chief Architect of Hewlett Packard Labs, HP Enterprise Fellow and Vice President, and Maya Ackerman, SCU engineering professor and AI pioneer, joined panel moderator, Irina Raicu, Ethics Center director of Internet ethics to discuss

During this thought-provoking event participants identified key themes including the transformative potential of AI, its risks and pitfalls, and the critical question of who sets the rules that will determine its impact on humanity.

Teaching Note: Interview of Theranos Whistleblower, Tyler Shultz

This teaching module for business ethics, leadership and management courses includes two videos, homework assignments, and class discussion, all designed to spark conversation about ethical issues associated with whistleblowers and corporate governance.

View the Teaching Module

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Evaluating Culture for Ethics

Our Culture Self-Assessment Practice recommends approaches to evaluating culture for ethics within companies and other types of organizations. The materials are primarily for members of an organization’s leadership team, including human resources and legal, but designed to engage a cross-section of leaders from various disciplines.

Get Started

Media Commentary

John Pelissero, director of government, quoted by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Pope Francis

Ann Skeet, senior director, leadership ethics, quoted by Forbes.

Pope Francis greeting people in a corridor.

David DeCosse, director, religious and Catholic ethics, interviewed by KPIX CBS News.

Thomas Plante, Santa Clara University psychology professor and faculty scholar at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, quoted by HuffPost.

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