Moral Courage Topic of Convocation Speech 

LEXINGTON, Va., Sept. 7, 2009 - Rushworth Kidder, president and founder of the Institute for Global Ethics, will deliver the keynote address at the Virginia Military Institute's academic convocation on Sept. 9.

Kidder's talk, "Moral Courage: the Guts of a Tough Decision," will sketch out the characteristics of morally courageous leaders - a high tolerance for ambiguity, public exposure, and personal risk - while emphasizing the role of trust. The event is free and open to the public, and it will begin at 11:15 a.m. in Cameron Hall.

Kidder, whose weekly columns on social issues and trends began appearing in The Christian Science Monitor newspaper in the early 1980s, is the author of nine books.  He founded the Institute for Global Ethics, a non-partisan, non-sectarian, non-profit think-tank, in Camden, Maine, in 1990.

His latest book, The Ethics Recession , brings together 30 of his columns from Ethics Newsline, the Institute's electronic newsletter that reports ethics news each week from around the world. In the book, Kidder argues that what started as an economic recession has become an ethics recession - a full-blown collapse of integrity and responsibility that is now shaping the way Americans need to think about and respond to this crisis. 

A graduate of Amherst College with a doctorate from Columbia University, Kidder appears monthly as part of an ethics panel in O: The Oprah Magazine and places op-ed pieces in such periodicals as the Los Angeles Times , the Chicago Tribune , and The Boston Globe .

Kidder's appearance is part of VMI's Distinguished Speakers Series, which brings to the Corps of Cadets key themes and issues of the day. Under the leadership of Col. Francis Bush, professor of economics and business, a new Distinguished Speakers Series Committee will determine the shape the program will take in coming years, a process that will involve more faculty members in the selection process of speakers.

-VMI-