UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Policy advocate and New York Times bestselling author Heather McGhee will deliver the Penn State Rock Ethics Institute’s 2024 Richard B. Lippin Lecture in Ethics on Thursday, March 28.
The free event will take place from 6-7 p.m. in Freeman Auditorium in the HUB-Robeson Center at University Park campus and is open to the public. It also will be livestreamed by WPSU.
Penn State staff who attend the event in-person or virtually and register through the Penn State Learning Resource Network (LRN) will receive diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) professional development credit on their LRN transcripts once the attendance is confirmed.
McGhee’s book, “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together,” examines how racism hurts all people and is at the heart of our country’s most pressing policy challenges.
During her lecture, McGhee will discuss the detrimental impact of the “zero-sum paradigm” — the notion that progress for some must come at the expense of others. She also will explore the “Solidarity Dividend” — the benefits that all society can reap when diverse communities come together to achieve what is impossible alone.
The Rock Ethics Institute, established in 2001, seeks to promote engaged ethics research and ethical leadership. The annual Lippin Lecture, created by Richard B. Lippin, a 1968 psychology alumnus, and his wife, the late Ronnie Lippin, addresses questions of justice with particular emphasis on ethical issues facing the fields of business, medicine, science and technology.
Event co-sponsor Penn State Outreach and Online Education (OOE) teamed with Penn State Human Resources (HR) to make the lecture available through the LRN to bring this DEI professional development opportunity to staff and faculty across the University.
Karen Armstrong, director of diversity, equity and inclusion for OOE, said her office will continue to partner with Penn State HR to provide similar opportunities in the future.
“Now, when we have an event like this, people can go on the LRN and see what is available,” Armstrong said. “They can explore what they would like to learn about. Then it goes on their transcript.”
Christy Helms, senior director of talent management for Penn State HR, said partnering on events like this helps provide greater access to learning and professional development opportunities to the Penn State community.
“We want to be partners in promoting and bringing awareness around events to the broadest communities possible,” she said. “We want to be a part of creating access to these events to the larger community, so if we can work with people that way, our door is open.”
Co-sponsors for the 2024 Richard B. Lippin Lecture in Ethics are the University Park Allocation Committee; Rock Ethics Institute; McCourtney Institute for Democracy; Office of the Vice Provost for Educational Equity; Humanities Institute; Paterno Fellows Program; Paul Robeson Cultural Center; College of Earth and Mineral Sciences; College of Education; Department of African American Studies; Department of Philosophy; Department of Sociology and Criminology; Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Penn State Outreach and Online Education; Penn State Public Policy Association; and Smeal College of Business.
