As I look back over my 17 years at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, I can honestly say that 2017-18 has been the most extraordinary year to date. You’ll get a sense of our activities in this annual report, but beyond its three themes—Free Speech and Civil Discourse, Artificial Intelligence, and Diversity—let me also pull out a few other achievements that were highlights for me:
- Our new Standards for Excellence® program that weaves ethics and good governance into training for nonprofit leaders and philanthropists
- Our Massive Open Online Course on campaign ethics, now being developed as “Campaign Ethics: A Field Guide” to be distributed to candidates and their staffs
- Our expanded work with student fellows on projects from a campus plan for ethical preparedness in the face of pandemics, to a look at sports ethics and the Jesuit tradition. In combination with our long-running internships in health care and business, our programs launch students on careers that are steeped in ethics from the very start.
I turn the Ethics Center reins over now to the impressive Don Heider, the new executive director. I know you will be as generous in your support for him as you have been over the 17 years of my tenure. Many thanks to all of you.
Kirk Hanson