Media Mentions

Ann Skeet, senior director, leadership ethics says that Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pope, helped build bridges three ways.

“The first is his humility, which he used to connect with his followers as if to say, ‘see, I am one of you.’ The second is the way he encouraged connection between people, suggesting that we go towards relationships we have with others, which he captured in the phrase a ‘culture of encounter.’’

The third way was how he shared his vision with others. He “provided a master class in crafting a shared vision, writing early in his papacy about the need to protect and care for our common home, the earth, and exemplifying the good stewardship that all leaders should adopt in their roles,” Skeet pointed out.

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

"Pope Francis took away the boundaries we put on God's love. Boundaries about who were supposed to love and whom we are not supposed to love, about migrants, people across borders who we are supposed to love or not supposed to love, even just about the power of God's love to heal us. I think he really wanted us to see that this love is something we sinfully confine in all kinds of ways and we shouldn't. It is greater than that and it's really come to heal us and create a sense of love and community"

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

Experts say one of these interchangeable words is much better quality than the other.

When asked if he believes it’s better to strive to be nice or kind, however, Thomas Plante, psychology professor and Ethics Center faculty scholar had a different response: "Why not both?"

“Certainly our world needs more niceness and kindness out there, especially in our currently polarized community,” he said. “Our world is so fractured. We are very quick to be mean to each other and even cruel.”

He called on everyone to step up their efforts to be kind and nice to each other, even if they don’t like each other.

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

After Harvard’s president announced it wouldn’t accept Trump administration demands, the Education Dept.’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism’s froze billions in funding. Now, the leaders of other private universities including Stanford and are standing with Harvard. Raj Mathai speaks with John Pelissero with Santa Clara University.

"I think it's very important for universities to stand together, especially private universities at a time in which the Trump administration is trying to get these universities to bend to it's own ideological views on DEI and other issues, and its a clear violation of these universities right to exercise academic freedom in how it and what it teaches and what it conducts research on."

John Pelissero, director, government ethics, quoted by NBC Bay Area.

Companies that develop a mission statement around their AI practices clearly communicate their values and priorities to employees, customers, and other company stakeholders.

The Vatican is even getting in on the action—it collaborated with the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, a Catholic college in Silicon Valley, to recommend specific steps for companies to navigate AI technologies ethically.

The Institute for Technology, Ethics, and Culture, featured by Stacker, and republished by The Good Men Project.

“Any manipulation of images, any manipulation of information in campaign literature really is unethical because there is an obvious attempt to mislead the voters,” said John Pelissero, the director of government ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.

John Pelissero, director, government ethics, quoted by The San Francisco Chronicle. (paywall)

Associated Press reports some leaders within Silicon Valley began shifting to the right politically, as many of the tech industry’s everyday workers have remained liberal.

“I think you’re seeing a real gap between the leadership elite here in Silicon Valley and their workforce,” said Ann Skeet, Ethics Center's senior director of leadership ethics, and a longtime observer of the industry.

Ann Skeet, senior director, leadership ethics, quoted by the Associated Press.

Words of a German theologian during World War II echo today as U.S. president aggressively expands his executive power.

Bonhoeffer’s understanding of conscience inspires heroic action: People really can do the most dangerous and noble things — a good reminder in our low, dishonest times.

And Bonhoeffer’s understanding of conscience is inspired by religion not to protect religion but to turn religion in service to the concrete, suffering world in which Christ is present in all.

David DeCosse, director, religious and catholic ethics, published by The Mercury News.