The University of Miami has announced the fourth annual Adrienne Arsht Distinguished Speaker Series in Ethics to be held on Monday, March 28. The featured guest will be Anita L. Allen, appointed to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues by President Barack Obama and an authority on privacy law and practical ethics.

She will present the lecture “The Ethics of Privacy in an Era of Revelation” in the Storer Auditorium at the School of Business Administration, 5250 University Drive, on the Coral Gables campus. The program begins at 6 p.m. Seating for the lecture is limited, so please RSVP by March 21. Call 305-284-6486 or e-mail [email protected].

Anita L. Allen is the Henry R. Silverman Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She also serves as deputy dean for academic affairs at the school and is senior fellow in the Bioethics Department, School of Medicine. Allen is recognized for her work on privacy issues in medicine, genetics and research, racial justice, and women’s health.

“We are thrilled to welcome Professor Allen to campus as the Arsht Distinguished Speaker in Ethics this year,” said Anita Cava, a professor and co-director of UM Ethics Programs. “Her work in privacy from both the legal and the philosophical perspective is provocative and illuminating. We especially welcome students to come to hear her talk and ask questions.”

Allen’s column, “The Moralist,” appears monthly in the Newark Star-Ledger. She is also the author of The New Ethics: A Guided Tour of the 21st Century Moral Landscape and Why Privacy Isn’t Everything: Feminist Reflections on Personal Accountability and has been featured on the MSNBC show The Ethical Edge.

“Professor Allen is a powerful reminder that ethics can be both challenging and practical,” said Kenneth W. Goodman, professor and director of the Bioethics Program and co-director of UM Ethics Programs. “The Arsht series is successful precisely because speakers of Allen’s caliber stimulate critical thinking and point the way to solutions to some very large problems.”

Adrienne Arsht is a widely respected philanthropist and business and community leader in Miami and Washington, D.C. She is treasurer of the Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and is well known for the $30 million contribution to the City of Miami’s Carnival Center for the Performing Arts, renamed the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. She serves on the University of Miami Board of Trustees and is a member of the Athletics Advisory Committee. Arsht has donated generously, giving $1 million to UM Ethics Programs in 2006, followed by a $5 million donation to the University in 2008, $2 million of which further supports the UM Ethics Programs. The initial gift, at the time equaling the largest gift supporting ethics programs in Florida, funded a suite of University-wide, interdisciplinary initiatives including an ethics debate series, a distinguished speakers program, and a faculty/student research program in ethics and community. Arsht’s largesse has enabled the Ethics Programs to continue and expand these efforts in significant ways.