Alexandra Perry

          Though first year faculty at MC are exempt from committee assignments, I believe that I was able to draw on my background as an ethicist to provide service to the College.  I was very enthusiastic about the opportunity to serve on the diversity dimension committee of the Foundations of Excellence initiative.  I think that this committee made a substantive contribution to the Foundations of Excellence program and also prompted many important and timely discussions about diversity, recruitment, and retention.

          At the end of last academic year I became involved with the corporate social responsibility working group which has been meeting regularly to develop a minor and certificate in social responsibility.  Each of these programs will be cross-disciplinary and will include courses from disciplines such as leadership, engineering, business, economics, communications, history, and others.  One of my service goals this year is to continue working with this group and to develop the first draft of the guidelines for the experiential education component of the program.  I also plan to research and establish some experiential education opportunities (such as internships, volunteer opportunities, and so on) for these programs. 

            Through the work that I’ve done with the CSR group I have also begun to talk with a member of the petroleum engineering faculty about projects in leadership and engineering education.  We developed a conference proposal, which unfortunately was not accepted, and are in the process of developing a second conference proposal along with a speaker’s series.  In the spring, I participated in an on-campus panel discussion on the topic of ethics and energy.  The panel included faculty from political science and petroleum engineering and was very well attended.

            One of my favorite parts of my first year at MC was beginning to get involved with the programming offered by the Office of Civic Engagement.  For example, last fall I was able to help register volunteers for Make a Difference Day and to serve as a photographer for some of the Make a Difference Day Sites.  I plan to do the same this year.  Last Spring I was able to participate in many of the events that the OCE planned for the week of MLK’s birthday.  In particular, I gave a talk on modern day civil rights movements along with a faculty member from the Communications department.

            Finally, I was able to serve the college by becoming the advisor to a student-run group, Survivors of Suicide, which is affiliated with the Cincinnati chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.  In addition to weekly meetings and outreach on campus, the student group will host its first annual Out of Darkness walk on Saturday, September 13th, 2014.  I helped the students organize this walk and will be spending this year helping them to work toward recognition as a chapter of the national group, “To Write Love on Her Arms.”  Sometimes called TWLOHA, this group is recognized as one of the most effective national programs focused on campus mental health.

            During the Spring semester of last year I was able to co-organize a new McDonough case study student group.  The group meets weekly and develops, analyzes, and presents on leadership cases.  One of my goals for this year is to take this group to the International Leadership Association conference in San Diego, CA, to compete in their annual student case study competition.  I believe that our students are well-positioned for this competition.

            I continue to serve as the managing editor of Theoretical & Applied Ethics, a peer-reviewed, scholarly journal published by the University of Nebraska Press.  This year the journal published two issues, the first on ethics and human relationships, and the second commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Milgram Experiments.  In the Milgram issue we published an original retrospective by Diana Baumrind who was Stanley Milgram’s first critic.  Dr. Baumrind, who is now in her 90’s, wrote an article for the journal that outlined how her views had changed (and remained the same) after 50 years of discussion and debate over Milgram.  The issue was well received by the field and many Milgram scholars responded to Baumrind’s piece and to the issue itself.  This year the journal will move to quarterly issues, the first of which will be on the principle of clinical equipoise.

            I also continue to serve as the series co-editor for the Studies in Theoretical & Applied Ethics book series.  Over the past year we have brought three new books under contract:  one on ethics and religion, a second on bioethics in Africa, and a third on the moral thought of Frederick Douglass.  Each of these books will be published over the coming year.

            I have also had the opportunity to become engaged with the field through two professional organizations this year, the International Leadership Association (ILA) and the American Philosophical Association (APA).  I am currently in my second year of a three year term on one of the APA’s executive committees.  The committee is focused on the status of two-year colleges and my role is to focus specifically on preparing two-year college students for the transition to four-year colleges. Through ILA I am volunteering as a part of the committee that runs the case study competition, and am also working with the women in leadership interest group to plan their bi-annual conference.  The conference will be held in June 2015 and I am on the fundraising committee working with other group members to raise money to provide scholarships to leaders in developing countries and members of NGO’s.

            Finally, I served as a reviewer this year for three academic journals along with Oxford University Press.