Ethical Vision

The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics welcomed a new executive director in August. Donald Heider comes to SCU from Loyola University Chicago, where he served as dean of the School of Communication. Heider is steeped in questions of digital and journalism ethics. He has taught courses on communication and journalism and has won five Emmys as a broadcast journalist. He takes the ethics baton from Kirk O. Hanson, under whose 17-year stewardship the Center garnered recognition as the largest and most active university-based ethics center on the planet. It brings ethics into real-world problems and provides programming for the Mission campus, Silicon Valley, and beyond. Heider already knew the Center’s work; he had hosted internet ethics expert Irina Raicu and collaborated with journalism ethics expert Sally Lehrman. He’s also an SCU parent: Daughter Anna Heider ’19 arrived here a few years ago and is studying sociology and psychology.