Media Mentions
A selection of articles, op-eds, TV segments, and other media featuring Ethics Center staff and programs.
The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics does not advocate for any product, company, or organization. Our engagements are intended to provide training, customized materials, and other resources. The Markkula Center does not offer certifications or seals of approval.
Politico reports on Brittany Kelm’s departure from the White House to lead the Washington office of a Houston oil company, and the ethics questions now raised about the connection between her role as a government official and corporate interests.
While departing government for the private sector is not inherently improper, “the ethics concern arises when that distance between an official’s public responsibilities and the private employment is so exceptionally close together, particularly when the official moves directly to a company whose interests she personally worked on while exercising governmental authority,” said Davina Hurt, director of government ethics.
Davina Hurt, director, government ethics, quoted by Politico.
San Jose Spotlight reports San Jose’s will return online public comment to City Council meetings and for its various commissions and committees. The change is part of a broader package of reform measures intended to streamline commission operations, including the appointment process for commissioners. The proposal also calls for removing a requirement which mandates background checks for those applying to serve on advisory bodies.
“Protecting public trust isn’t as simple as removing a requirement,” Davina Hurt, director of government ethics told San José Spotlight. “It requires scaffolding other accountability measures in its place: a clear public complaint and referral pathway, clearly articulated recusal policy, and consistent enforcement.”
Davina Hurt, director, government ethics, quoted by San Jose Spotlight.
People are betting on wildfires. Wagers include questions about when a wildfire could start, the duration of a fire, how far it will spread, and if homes will burn. Prediction marketplace Kalshi says their service prohibits betting on these types of events. Other marketplaces don't have restrictions.
Ann Skeet, senior director of leadership ethics questions what allowing these types of bets says about society.
"The fabric of society is fraying a little bit when we're betting on the harm and demise of our neighbors," Skeet told CBS News.
Ann Skeet, senior director, leadership ethics, quoted by CBS News.
After more than $1.2 million in bets were placed during the 2025 Palisades and Eaton wildfires in Los Angeles, seven U.S. Senators, including California Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, are calling on prediction market platforms to stop offering betting markets tied to wildfires, arguing that the practice profits from disaster and could create harmful incentives.
"There's starting to be the ability to actually place bets on whether wildfires will occur, how quickly they'll spread. It's monetizing human suffering and potential harm to people," said Ann Skeet, senior director of leadership ethics.
Skeet said the practice raises concerns beyond ethics alone.
"We refer to it as perverse incentives, when someone's motivated to do something that is not good, not serving society. And certainly in this case, the ability to start a fire"
Ann Skeet, senior director, leadership ethics, quoted by ABC News 7.
A multimillion-dollar labor agreement between the Oakland Unified School District and its teachers could be in jeopardy due to an apparent conflict of interest of a district board member, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The Oakland Unified School District Board voted on June 24 to approve a multimillion-dollar labor agreement for Oakland educators. One board member who voted also serves on the board of the California Teachers Association, which represents Oakland teachers. The deal could now be in jeopardy due to conflict of interest.
Davina Hurt, Ethic Center's director of government ethics told the newspaper that “having a foot in both rooms isn’t a problem per se. It’s the voting. The conflict lives in having to make a decision.”
Davina Hurt, director, government ethics, quoted by the San Francisco Chronicle.
As the United States faces another intense wildfire season, a group of U.S. lawmakers is sounding the alarm over prediction market platforms that allow users to bet on these fires, and experts warn such actions potentially raises the risk of arson.
The Guardian reports, huge wildfires in Washington state and Oregon have burned more than 2m acres and forced tens of thousands to evacuate.
Ann Skeet, senior director of leadership ethics, commended the senators’ demands of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and says offering bets on how a wildfire spreads could incentivize people to commit arson.
“Somebody could place a bet and then be motivated to actually start a fire,” Skeet said. “There’s just the practical reality of what it is you might be motivating people to do.”
Ann Skeet, senior director, leadership ethics, quoted by The Guardian.
The Herald Sun reports, the director of the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) attended a political fundraiser at a Southport, North Carolina restaurant for a state lawmaker. The next day, an SBI social media post praised state lawmakers for their support."
Davina Hurt, Ethics Center director of government ethics said she didn’t know enough to speak on the SBI investigation, but Hawley’s appearance and the social media post were troubling.
“It is my opinion that the most significant ethical concern is not attendance alone, but the combination of attending a political fundraiser and using the agency’s official communications platform, publicly thanking a legislator who funds the agency and doing so during an election cycle,” Hurt said in an email response. “Individually, each fact might be explainable, but together they present ethical red flags.”
Davina Hurt, director, government ethics, quoted by The Herald Sun.
As Oregon's fire season crossed 2 million acres on August 2, nine Democratic senators are appealing to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) requesting that federal regulators restrict or outright prohibit event contracts that let users profit from wildfire scale, duration, and destruction, effectively closing the door on wildfire prediction markets.
Ann Skeet, Ethics Center's senior director of leadership ethics, identified the deeper issue. "When you start gambling on somebody's potential death or harm, you're really diminishing the value that you're placing on human life," Skeet said.
Ann Skeet, senior director, leadership ethics, quoted by Tech Times.
