About Us
The Center Advisory Board (CAB)
The Center Advisory Board (CAB) was appointed in February 2000 with the approval of the Dean of The Graduate School.
The Center Advisory Board includes both faculty and administrators from within Loyola and representatives of the community to whom the Center offers its ethics education programs, consulting services and social justice initiatives.
The CAB meets at least twice a year to evaluate each year's strategic plan. It meets mid-year to evaluate progress towards the plan and to recommend amendments to it as needed.
Director of the Center
William French is an Associate Professor of Theology at Loyola University Chicago. He graduated from Dickinson College in 1973, received his M.Div. degree from Harvard University in 1977 and completed his Ph.D. in the "Ethics and Society" program at the University of Chicago in 1985. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on Christianity's responses to emerging ecological concerns.
French teaches courses in ethics at the undergraduate level focusing on war and peace issues, ecological ethics, and religion and nature. At the graduate level he offers courses on those areas as well as in the history of Christian ethics and the natural law tradition. His research centers on religious ethics and ecological concerns and on religion, violence and peace-making. He has published on global warming concerns, the Catholic common good tradition, global population rise, the moral status of animal and plant life, green taxation and sustainability, Christian theology and animal rights, and the ecological dimensions of global security. His articles have appeared in such journals as the Journal of Religion, Journal of Environmental Ethics, Soundings, New Theology Review, Christian Century, Theology and Public Policy, Peace Review and Second Opinion. He has also published chapters in a number of books.
French has been the recipient of a Louisville Institute Grant for research on a book project, Natural Law and Ecological Concern, a project that continues to occupy his attention. While trained in Christian ethics, French has strong interests in other religious traditions and their understandings of conflict and peace and of humanity's relationship to the rest of the natural world. He has traveled widely in the Mideast, South Asia, and Europe. His courses regularly serve Loyola's Peace Studies and Environmental Studies Programs. He serves on the board of the National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education and is a member of a task force working on an Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature.
Past Director of the Center
David Ozar is professor and co-director of graduate studies in health care ethics in the Department of Philosophy at Loyola University Chicago, and Director of Loyola's Center for Ethics and Social Justice. In addition, he is adjunct professor of medical humanities in Loyola's Stritch School of Medicine, where he served as acting director of medical humanities in 1984. He has also lectured in Loyola's schools of law, dentistry, nursing, business, education and social work. He earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees from Loyola, and received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Yale University in 1974. He has taught at Loyola since 1972.
In 1975, Ozar introduced Loyola's undergraduate course in health care ethics, which he has been teaching regularly ever since. In 1984, he designed the philosophy department's graduate program in health care ethics, which he directed for seven years and now co-directs. This program offers a master's degree in health care ethics, chiefly for clinicians, and provides research opportunities in health care ethics for doctoral students specializing in moral philosophy.
In addition to his work at Loyola, Ozar is also since 1985 an associate member of the professional staff, associate director of the medical ethics program, member of the institutional ethics committee, and consulting ethicist at Evanston Hospital in Evanston, Illinois. He served on the research review committee of the Chicago Department of Health from 1986 to 1993; the consulting ethicist for the Palliative Care Center of the North Shore; and a member of the ethics board of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. He was the founder and first president of the Professional Ethics in Dentistry Network and has held offices in the Society for Health and Human Values, the American Philosophical Association, and other professional organizations.
Ozar is a frequent lecturer to university, professional and community groups on such topics as health care ethics, professional ethics and professional ethics education, and contemporary social issues. He has published numerous articles in professional journals and books. He co-edited Philosophical Issues in Human Rights: Theories and Applications (Random House, 1985); and, with co-author David Sokol, D.D.S., published Dental Ethics at Chairside: Professional Principles and Practical Applications, 2nd edition (Georgetown University Press, 2002). He also has two books and several articles in preparation.
Mission
The Center for Ethics and Social Justice at Loyola University of Chicago was founded in 1991 with the following goals:
1. Contribution to University Outreach: The Center shall provide a gathering-place for scholars and other communities Loyola serves to engage in thoughtful multi-disciplinary reflection and application of ethical virtues and principles in their respective disciplines as well as supporting the Jesuit values of compassion and justice in discussions related to issues of pressing societal concern.
2. Contribution to University Voice: The Center shall promote and assist the University in fulfilling its societal responsibilities as Chicago's Jesuit University for being a voice for reason, compassion, and justice in society.
3. Contribution to University Character: The Center shall develop programs and initiatives for the University administration, staff, students, and faculty to be more fully and effectively engaged in the scholarly application of ethics to all aspects of their work.
Find out more about the history of the Center
Center Initiatives
Ethics Across the University
(Faculty - Staff - Students)
It is central to the Center's mission to develop programs and initiatives for all members of the university community (staff, students and faculty) that will allow them to be more fully and effectively engaged in the scholarly application of ethics to all aspects of their work. In so doing, the Center endeavors to accomplish the third goal of its threefold mission: Contribution to University Character.
Highlights among the Center's programs in this sphere include the Faculty Fellows Program, the undergraduate Ethics Bowl competition, and the many Ethics Workshops for faculty and staff, which are usually taught during the Summer.
- Buehler Grants
- Ethics Bowl
- Ethics Workshops for Faculty and Staff
- Faculty Fellows Program
- Loyola-Marymount Competition
- Outcomes-Centered Ethics Teaching
- The Ethics and Social Justice Portal
The Center supports the Magis Program and Loyola Partners in their efforts to promote service-learning and community-engaged learning among Loyola University's student body.
Ethics Outreach Activities
Among the goals stated in the Center's mission is to contribute to university outreach. The Center's exceptionally strong outreach record establishes it as a leader among ethics centers nationwide. Major activities include programs in the following areas:
- Corporate Ethics
- Dental Ethics/ASDE
- Ethics Across the Curriculum
- Ethics Advice Line for Journalists
- Health Care Ethics
Social Justice Initiatives
In 2001, the Center for Ethics added "social justice" to its name to make this area a more explicit component to its mission. The name change also underscores that the Center now incorporates many of the important social justice activities that were previously conducted by Loyola's Considine Chair in Applied Ethics. Find out more...