Media Mentions

Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil filed a formal complaint to the California Fair Political Practices Commission against Modesto Irrigation District Board Director, Larry Byrd, for Byrd's “egregious” vote to end an investigation into himself.

Ann Skeet, senior director of leadership ethics said Byrd’s vote was “fundamentally wrong.”

“When someone is elected to public office, they’re entering into a contract with voters saying they’ll put voters’ interests ahead of any other,” Skeet told The Modesto Focus. “Someone who has a personal interest in a matter continuing to vote on it is putting their own interests ahead of the voters’.”

Ann Skeet, senior director, leadership ethics, quoted by The Modesto Focus.

Pennsylvania State Rep. Seth Grove is raising alarms about working for a trade organization while setting laws for that industry, The Keystone reports.

Davina Hurt, the director of government ethics, explained in an interview with The Keystone how these types of dealings erode public trust. 

“Pennsylvania workers deserve labor policy made for them, not shaped by the paid leadership of the industries being regulated even when it’s technically legal.” Hurt said in an interview. 

"Ethics rules are meant to preserve trust, not just prevent crimes, and this situation raises serious questions about whether the system is doing just that," said Hurt.

Davina Hurt, director, government ethics, quoted by The Keystone. (Registration may be required to view this article.)

A near-death trauma and immigrant experience informs Guadalupe Hayes-Mota’s work developing ethical frameworks for all corners of the health care industry. Santa Clara Magazine learns more in conversation with Markkula Center Director of Bioethics, Guadalupe Hayes-Mota.

He went from an isolated childhood spent indoors and in fear of getting hurt to an adolescence navigating a foreign medical system in a foreign country. It was a difficult several years, Hayes-Mota says, but all of it shaped his mission to make health care work for more humans. “From those experiences, I have deep insight into immigrant and rural health care, what it means to be in vulnerable positions and not have access to necessary services,” he says. “It established my own personal ethics, about how I see health care and what I think health care should be.”

Guadalupe Hayes-Mota, director, bioethics, featured in Santa Clara Magazine.

 According to Dauphin County’s nepotism policy, children do not count as family members, is highly unusual and runs counter to best practices, writes Juliette Rihl, reporting for Penn Live.

“These rules exist to preserve fairness and public trust by preventing preferential treatment— excluding children undermines that core purpose,” said Davina Hurt, Ethics Center's director of government ethics.

“Even if the hire technically complies with the revised rules, the public is left questioning whether the rules were changed to serve the public interest— or to serve one person,” Hurt said.

Davina Hurt, director, government ethics, quoted by Penn Live.

Starting Jan. 1, under the state’s first-in-the-nation Delete Act, Californians can reduce the information brokers can gather and sell.

“So many people still don’t realize that these companies even exist, or the scale of the marketplace — the number of these companies that sell information about us,” said Raicu,

“Whether it’s successful will depend in part on how many people know that they can do this,” Raicu said, “and how many people take advantage of it.”

Irina Raicu, director, internet ethics, quoted by The Mercury News.

Motoko Rich reporting for the New York Times, notes that Leo XIV addresses technology’s promise and pitfalls, but has yet to lay out a vision for how AI might be harnessed for spiritual connections, or to protect the vulnerable from harm.

“He sees this as an issue where hopefully he can make a difference,” noted Brian Green, director, technology ethics. “But making a difference entails getting everybody to think about these issues and how it applies to them in their particular context.”

Brian Green, director, technology ethics, quoted by the New York Times.

Deepfakes are steering political narratives and voter perception by merging satire and disinformation, which misleads voters and distorts democratic discourse.

"The irresponsible use of AI by people in government leadership positions suggests that we are at a moment that transcends politics. What is society’s moral code? If politicians, news outlets, and civic organizations adopted a “civic covenant for the AI age,” much like current journalistic standards, could we create a healthier public square?"

Davina Hurt, director, government ethics and Ann Skeet, senior director, leadership ethics, published by Salon.

Artificial intelligence-enhanced photos are being used to enhance the images of houses on the real-estate market.

Irina Raicu, director, internet ethics comments, "These [home purchases] are not the kind of impulse buys that people would make from something they see online and they just click something. It requires the development of a relationship, and relationships need trust."

Irina Raicu, director, internet ethics, quoted by NBC Bay Area.