Are you interested in joining a highly collaborative, talented team at an exciting time in the history of Notre Dame? Do you want to help advance a major strategic priority for the University focused on ethics and the common good? If so, please apply to be the Associate Director of Research and Public Engagement for the Notre Dame Ethics Initiative (ND-EI) and the Institute for Ethics and the Common Good (ECG).

Emerging from the University’s new Strategic Framework, ND-EI is a collaborative cross-campus initiative to establish Notre Dame as a premier university for research in ethics, offering superb training for future generations of ethicists and ethical leaders and directing all of our efforts toward guiding and strengthening public understanding of the most significant ethical issues of our time. The Institute for Ethics and the Common Good is under the umbrella of the Ethics Initiative and serves as the primary home for interdisciplinary groups of faculty fellows, faculty researchers, postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduate scholars each year to study questions that engage complex ethical challenges of our time and affect our ability to lead valuable, meaningful lives.
 Working closely with the Institute’s faculty director and managing director, the associate director serves on the Institute’s leadership team to help to advance the mission and strategic objectives of the ND EI and the Institute, including to make Notre Dame the premiere destination for the research and study of ethics. This position leads the newly formed Research and Public Engagement team, supervising up to three staff members. Developing and leading a dynamic team is crucial to this position. He/she will be responsible for setting a research and public engagement strategy to expand, support, and enhance faculty, postdoc, and graduate student research and scholarship that is interdisciplinary in nature and related to foundational and applied areas of ethics, including technology ethics, virtue ethics, business ethics, and more. He/she is responsible for leading and expanding the Distinguished Graduate Fellowship program that supports doctoral students with exceptional academic records whose research, teaching, and career interests centrally involve important ethical questions and values embedded within them. In this capacity, the associate director leads weekly seminars, an annual retreat, provides opportunities for doctoral fellows to network, supports their career development and prepares fellows for job talks and public lectures. The associate director will work with Institute leadership to identify resources to expand the doctoral fellows program through benefaction and grant writing.

Liaising with campus collaborators such as the Graduate School, professional schools, and the Office of the Provost, the associate director creates and implements a strategic plan to develop pathways for graduate students interested in ethics. He/she assists in forwarding an ambition plan to make Notre Dame a renowned and sought-after university for educating and training the next generation of ethicists. He/she is the administrative lead for receiving and placing postdocs within the ND EI’s and Institute’s research ecosystem.

Finally, the associate director is responsible for developing and overseeing a process by which the research and scholarly outcomes that are supported through the Institute are properly tracked, assessed, captured, and utilized to grow the Institute’s and Notre Dame’s research impact and reputation in ethics. He/she is responsible for internal academic reporting and works with the faculty director to publish findings, best practices, and outcomes related to research in ethics.

As a vital member of the Institute leadership team, the associate director will report to the managing director. This is a limited term position for three years with the intention to make it non-limited once funding is secured.

Essential duties include:

Program Leadership and Development (40%): The associate director oversees and expands all aspects of the Wilsey Family Distinguished Graduate Fellowship program in ethics, including the recruitment and selection of high-talented doctoral students. He/she leads weekly seminars, an annual retreat, enhances research and career development opportunities for fellows through networking and placement support, and provides career coaching and job talk support. He/she collaborates with the College of Arts & Letters, the Graduate School, and other campus units to ensure strategic alignment, strong communication, and programmatic rigor and assessment for doctoral students. Working closely with the managing director, the associate director is responsible for expanding the graduate fellowship program, including but not limited to working with Development to identify further benefaction and/or grant opportunities. He/she supports stewardship efforts for donors supporting the graduate fellowship program in the form of expressions of gratitude, annual reports, and sharing the research outcomes of graduate fellows with current and/or potential donors.

Management and Strategic Planning (40%): The associate director oversees the integration of and strategic goals and growth of a newly formed team focused on research in ethics and public engagement. He/she supervises three staff members who support multiple faculty and postdocs to advance research in ethics, and who manage current grants, and seek out and support future research grant opportunities for faculty. Working closely with this team, he/she develops and executes a 5 year strategic plan to enhance existing research-focused programs and to develop additional initiatives as appropriate to advance and deepen Notre Dame’s reputation in ethics research, scholarship, training, and public engagement. Technology ethics, including the IBM-Tech Ethics Lab, virtue ethics, business ethics, environmental ethics, and other areas of foundational and applied ethics are areas of research the associate director is responsible for cultivating as an extension of the ND EI and Institute. Further, the associate director creates public engagement training and opportunities for faculty and students to translate their research for public consumption and impact.

The associate director is also responsible for advancing a key strategic priority of the ND EI–to make Notre Dame a highly-sought after destination for doctoral students interested in being educated and trained as ethicists. Further, in collaboration with the Graduate School and other professional schools, the associate director is charged with creating pathways for graduate students to integrate ethics within their studies and research. One such pathway is the development of immersive experiences and/or internships within corporations, government agencies, ecclesial entities, and/or non-profit organizations in which graduate students can apply their ethics training within real world contexts. Further, developing a process for postdocs to be recruited and placed within the ND-EI and Institute is the responsibility of the senior associate director.

Finally, as a member of the senior leadership for the Institute, the associate director contributes to the strategic priorities and planning of the Institute to ensure long-term sustainability of all programs, particularly those related to research, doctoral studies and training, and public engagement related to contemporary, complex ethical issues.

Assessment and Academic Reporting (15%): The associate director is responsible to track, assess, capture, and utilize research and scholarly outcomes to grow the Institute’s and Notre Dame’s research impact and reputation in ethics. He/she is responsible for internal academic reporting and works with the faculty director to publish findings, best practices, and outcomes related to research in ethics. Reporting related to grants or outside funding is also the responsibility of the associate director. He/she works closely with the managing director and assistant director of communications to convey relevant stories, data, and information related to ethics-focused research conducted through the ND EI and Institute.

Special Projects (5%): It is expected that special projects, start-up or longer-term, arise to forward the goals of a newly formed team. The associate director is expected to contribute to new opportunities on behalf of his/her team, but also on behalf of the ND EI and Institute.

This is a limited term position for three years with the intention to make it non-limited once funding is secured.