Carnegie Council President Joel Rosenthal looks back over the highlights of 2015 and forward to our ambitious plans for 2016 (includes slide show).
We enter 2016—our 102nd year—with high energy and a big agenda. For an organization with the slogan "Ethics Matter," world events demand that we redouble our efforts.
2015 was a big year for the Council. Some numbers help tell the story:
- 75 Public Events
- 541 educational products (video, audio, transcript, print)
- 1.2 million downloaded podcasts
- Reached 45 million homes with Global Ethics Forum, our PBS-broadcast television series
- Ethics & International Affairs journal used in classrooms across the globe through our consortium of 44 universities on six continents
Program highlights for me included:
- Conversations with General Martin Dempsey, Secretary Chuck Hagel, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, Egyptian activist Mona Eltahawy, and environmentalist Karenna Gore.
- "Athens Democracy Forum," in cooperation with the International New York Times, featuring the Aga Khan Foundation, Mayor of Athens Georgios Kaminis, NYT columnists Paul Krugman and Roger Cohen, and student debate teams from around the world.
- Site visits to Fukushima, Japan; Mandalay and Yangon, Burma; and South Africa.
All of these activities are accessible on www.carnegiecouncil.org. Looking ahead, we will continue to develop creative new programs in our Studio.
We also have ambitious plans for our Global Ethics Network. In October, we will hold our annual Carnegie-Oxford-Uehiro gathering in Oxford, featuring a lecture from Michael Ignatieff. Michael will use this occasion to preview his findings from our Centennial project "Ethics for a Connected World."
Finally, we will be working hard this year to improve our digital platform and library so that all of our educational materials can reach our growing global audience. As part of that effort, we will expand our activities in social media, update our website, and continue to develop our translation capacity so that key resources will be available in Chinese, Spanish, French, and Russian.
As we begin the new year, we gain strength and momentum from our most recent work. Please take a moment to click through the brief slideshow above to get a sense of the great work that has been done by our Board, staff, and friends, and what is on the horizon.
Your voice, and your participation, can make all the difference. Please join us in one, or many, of our activities in the coming year.
Thank you for all you have done for the Council. I hope to see you soon!
Joel H. Rosenthal, President of the Carnegie Council
