Military Ethicist to Deliver Stockdale Lecture

Albert C. Pierce, Professor of Ethics and National Security at the National Defense University, will discuss “Ethical Leadership: How Things Go Wrong, How To Do Better”at the 2007 James Bond Stockdale Leadership and Ethics Symposium on Tuesday, October 9, in the University of San Diego’s Shiley Theatre at 6 p.m.

The Stockdale Symposium, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the San Diego NROTC consortium and the USD School of Business Masters in Science in Global Leadership.

The Stockdale Symposium allows members of the university, military and corporate communities to come together for discussions of moral issues in leadership in our society. The late Admiral Stockdale, a Medal of Honor recipient,bore witness to the importance of studying, understanding and applying ethical principles to one's profession, and the conduct of one's life.

The focus of Dr. Pierce’s remarks will be directed at individuals within an organization who are subject to different cross pressures and how good people can sometimes do the wrong thing based on mixed, unconscious or unintentional signals. The nature of the organization can be military, corporate, academic, religious or any number of other hierarchical groups.

In February 2006, Dr. Pierce was appointed the first Professor of Ethics and National Security at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., where he serves as a resource in ethics across the university, including its teaching colleges, research institutes, and special programs. From 1998 until 2006, Dr. Pierce served as the founding director of the Center for the Study of Professional Military Ethics (now known as the Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership) at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland.

The University of San Diego, a Catholic Institution of higher learning chartered in 1949. The university enrolls approximately 7,500 students and is known for its commitment to teaching, the liberal arts, the formation of values and community service. The inauguration this fall of the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace brings the university’s total number of schools and colleges to six. Other academic divisions include the College of Arts and Sciences and the schools of Business Administration, Education, Law and Nursing and Health Science.

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About the University of San Diego

Strengthened by the Catholic intellectual tradition, we confront humanity’s challenges by fostering peace, working for justice and leading with love. With more than 8,000 students from 75 countries and 44 states, USD is the youngest independent institution on the U.S. News & World Report list of top 100 universities in the United States. USD’s eight academic divisions include the College of Arts and Sciences, the Knauss School of Business, the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering, the School of Law, the School of Leadership and Education Sciences, the Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science, the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, and the Division of Professional and Continuing Education. In 2021, USD was named a “Laudato Si’ University” by the Vatican with a seven-year commitment to address humanity’s urgent challenges by working together to take care of our common home.