I returned to Ohio State this fall after graduating with my PhD from the Department of Philosophy back in 2018. Most recently, I was the Inaugural Director of Ethics and Leadership at the University of Dayton. In my four years at UD, I put together a framework for Ethics and Leadership that remains today, alongside an undergraduate certificate program, plans for a minor program, a speaker series, Ethics Bowl and Ethics in Engineering Competition teams, a student club, and a summer internship program. Now back at Ohio State, I will be helping to run and develop programming around a new interdisciplinary major in the College of Arts and Sciences in Leadership that is focused on placing the liberal arts at the base of leadership development.
Why the liberal arts? As I came to articulate it while in Dayton, ethics is (in part) figuring out what to do and leadership is doing it. The two are intricately tied together. Yet, when folks study leadership directly, this idea is often overlooked. Students focus on how to run an organization, without first securing a firm foundation in what matters. Effective leaders must make difficult, informed decisions, and they must balance the interests of their organization and the people it serves with the broader interests of society, both as it exists in the present and as they help to shape it for the future. They must recognize when their decisions have put their organization on the wrong path and be willing and able to change course when necessary. They must also understand the cultural and political constraints on such changes.
Responsible ethical leadership requires a coherent understanding of moral principles, an ability to navigate difficult ethical tradeoffs, and an appreciation of the virtues that sustain good decision-making. In working to face the challenges of tomorrow, leaders must also appreciate how inequities and injustices can bring people, perspectives, and values into conflict, and they must be able to learn from the past as they lead their organizations and constituencies forward. Training in ethics, and the liberal arts more generally, is critically important to engage these challenges conscientiously.
For our part, eighteen different philosophy courses are included in the leadership major’s curriculum, including one mandatory Core Course in Ethics and Leadership. Whether it is from grappling with thorny questions of values, developing into a clearer thinker, or perfecting one’s skills in logic and argument, our hope is that this partnership will drive an increasing number of students to appreciate both the value and the joy that comes from practicing philosophy.
