FWI cosponsors RNS 90th Anniversary Symposium & Gala,

moderates panel "AI and Religion"

The Faith & Work Initiative was pleased to cosponsor the 90th anniversary symposium and gala of the Religion News Service in New York City on September 10, 2024. The day celebrated the iconic news organization's informed and insightful journalism on the role of religion(s) in the world around us, helping shape national and civic dialogue for nearly a century. The FWI panel “AI and Religion” looked at how the world's faith traditions can inform and support the difficult decisions that creators and industries of AI confront concerning AI's impact on humanity and on creation.

The panel, moderated by FWI director David W. Miller, included (above) David Goldman, director of the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics; Seth Cohen, Chief Impact Officer at Forbes; Nicole Kalhorn ’19, cofounder of Myelin Development; Caroline Frist ’23, investment analyst at Centerview Partners; and the Rev. Kenyatta Gilbert, dean of the Howard University Divinity School.

The day's symposium also included speakers such as Ruth Ben-Ghiat, scholar of authoritarianism, propaganda, and democracy protection; Robert P. Jones, founder and director of PRRI; and Odette Yousef, National Security Correspondent on Extremism, NPR; with gala keynote speaker Martin Baron, Washington Post editor and former editor of the Boston Globe. You can see a full list of speakers and the day's agenda here.

Michael Thate invited to speak at "Educating Character Across Differences" conference

Michael J. Thate is invited to present his paper “The Economics and Pedagogy of Character" at the December 2024 conference “Educating Character Across Differences.” The conference will be held at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., which houses the Educating Character Initiative, on behalf of the Program for Leadership and Character program at Wake Forest. The conference “is an international, interdisciplinary conference that aims to explore opportunities for cultivating communities of character among university faculty, staff, and students across a variety of differences." 

Miller, Thate, and Richardson receive awards for outstanding teaching for Spring 2024

Teaching comprises one of the three major areas of emphasis for the Princeton Faith & Work Initiative, with courses that reach both undergraduate and graduate students. For spring semester 2024, David W. Miller and Michael J. Thate received outstanding faculty teaching recognition within the Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education. David received it for his trademark course “Professional Responsibility and Ethics: Succeeding without Selling Your Soul,” perennially oversubscribed. Michael was recognized for his course “History of Entrepreneurship.” Susan Richardson, lecturer and manager for FWI communications and operations, received an award for outstanding preceptor for her work with the precepts for “Professional Responsibility and Ethics: Succeeding without Selling Your Soul.” The awards are based on student evaluations. 

The Princeton Bioethics Exchange launches its 2024-25 program year

FWI is a proud cofounder and cosponsor of the Princeton Bioethics Exchange (PBE), a group of graduate students, postdocs, and faculty committed to exploring the ethical implications of their work. On September 19, 2024, the PBE kicked off its program year for 2024-2025 with a discussion led by Heather Howard, Professor of the Practice, School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) and co-director, Global Health Program. The topic of the discussion was “Health Care (Un)Affordability in the US: Assessing the Effectiveness of State Responses.” Our cosponsors include the Council on Science & Technology, the Omenn-Darling Bioengineering Institute, and GradFUTURES. For more information, contact FWI Manager Susan Richardson.

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FWI Advisory Board

• George Bauer, Chairman, GPB, Ltd.
• Marc Belton, Founder, Wisefellows Consulting
• Yoni Benyamini '16, Mortgage Backed Securities Analyst, Citi
• Rich Berg, Executive Chairman and Co-Founder, Performance Trust Capital Partners
• Barbara Byrne S76 P10 P13 P15 P16, Independent Director, Paramount Global, PowerSchool, LanzaTech
• Laura Forese MD '83 P13 P18, COO (ret.), New York-Presbyterian Healthcare System
• Brill Garrett '88 S89, Jason Garrett Starfish Charities
• Pat Gelsinger, CEO, Intel
• Tom Horton P15, Partner, Global Infrastructure Partners
• Dale Jones, President and CEO, Diversified Search
• Tom Levinson '96, Author, cofounder of LK Advisors
• Yung Bong Lim '87 P24 P25, Managing Partner (ret.), RDG Funds LLC

• Devon Naftzger McCourt '16 S15, Vice President at BDT & MSD Partners
• Lizzy McGee '18, founder and CEO of TexasLand USA
• Mimi Pivirotto Murley '76 S72 P07 P10, Leading civic volunteer
• Robert Murley '72 S76 P07 P10, Vice Chairman and Senior Advisor, UBS
• Craig Philip '75 S76 P06, Director, Vanderbilt University Center for Transportation Research
• Marcus Stroud '16, Cofounder and CEO, TXV Partners
• Toni Townes-Whitley '85, CEO, Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC)
• John Tyson, Chairman, Tyson Foods, Inc.
• Kevin Weiss '79 S79 CEO, Sectigo, Inc.
• Jacob Worenklein, Chairman and CEO, US Grid Company
• Johanna Zeilstra, CEO, Gender Fair

The Faith & Work Initiative is a teaching and research center within the Princeton University School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Keller Center committed to exploring ethics, values, and practices of exchange on the frontier of complex social challenges. We explore foundational meanings and promote ethical awareness across our constituencies at every phase of life and work. To do so, we look back—both in terms of the histories of ethical philosophy and also the varying authoritative traditions of religious communities. We approach such histories and wisdom traditions as beneficial for understanding as well as framing contemporary global challenges. With our team of ethical philosophers, philosophers of religion, and historians, as well as our global partners from a range of other disciplines, we commit to this rigorous portfolio of offerings for students, academic peers, religious communities, and leaders in the marketplace.