The CGO has seen a wide variety of guests since we began in 2012. From business ethics to how art can shape our ideas of what ethics actually are, students in the CGO have been fortunate to interact with people ranging from the Eugene area to internationally recognized human rights leaders. During our visits we hear their stories and then engage in how they engage with ethics in their activities. Students get very personal accounts and get to engage with people who are leaders and passionate in their causes.
2023-2024
Judge Kamala Shugar
ASUO President (and Carnegie) Chloe Bosnar
Former pro basketball player and UO men’s team star Olu Ashaolu
Oregon Legislature and former Duck Adam Walsh
4J IT Director Steve Menachemson
2022-2023
Julia Morrill, Director of Basic Needs & Off Campus Community Support
Ella Meloy, UO Student Employees Union Organizer
Irisa Mehta, ASUO Senate President
Trevor Walraven, Oregon Justice Resource Center
Jim Shephard, CEO, Banque AIG
State Representative Marty Wilde
Sister Helen Prejean
2021-2022
Harley Emery, (CGO ’19) International Migration Organization, The United Nations
Steve Mital, Director, UO Office of Sustainability
Lieutenant Sean Nack, US Army
Laura Diamond, Community Supported Shelters
Dr. Sam Reis-Dennis, Albany Medical College/Rice University
2019-2021 (covid curtailed)
Chris Holman, County Executive, Portage County, WI
Andrew Katz, Car Seat Headrest
Kelly Graves, Head Coach, UO Women’s Basketball
Prof. Scott Warren, No Mas Muertas
Namratha Somayajula (CGO ’17), Human Rights Watch
Tom Mulhern, Executive Director, Food for Lane County
Joel Ekdahl (CGO ’15), Ethics and Difference in the Public Classroom
Prof. Diane Baxter, Honor and Ethics
Kate Connolly (CGO ’15) An Insiders Look at Politics in NYC
Matt Cohen, The Ethics of Special Education Advocacy
Mika Weinstein (CGO ’14), Impact Justice – Food & Prisons
Scott Warren sharing his story with ’20s, ’21s, ’22s, and ’23s
21s, 20s, 19s, 18s, and a 16 meeting with Maria Hinojosa of National Public Radio’s Latino USA.
Carnegies enjoy an extraordinary moment with Vijay Gupta, violinist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and founder of the Street Symphony program for homeless and incarcerated residents of L.A.
UO Tribal Liaison and Coquille Tribal Leader Jason Younker visits with the CGO
2018-2019
Senator Michael Dembrow, Oregon State Legislature
Dexter Johnson, Chief Legal Counsel, Oregon State Legislature
Brandi Miller, Reclaiming My Theology
Jason Lewis-Berry, Lead Foreign Service Officer – US State Dept. Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations (ret.)
Jessica Price, UO Associate General Counsel
Eowyn Soran, Our Children’s Trust
Peace Activists Prof. Edy Kaufman (Israel) and Dr. Mubarak Awad (Palestine)
Paul Solomon, Executive Director, Sponsors Inc.
2017-2018
2017/2018 was another busy one for the CGO! In the second week of the Fall term our new cohort (the 21s) had a chance to meet with Laura Johnson, formerly Deputy Program Manager at the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama. Laura spoke with the Carnegies about their summer reading, Just Mercy, written by the head of EJI Bryan Stevenson. Laura also talked about her current work as Director of Program Development at Sponsors, Inc. in Eugene. Members of the broader CGO world, including some recent graduates, also had an interesting conversation with Maria Hinojosa, four-time Emmy winning journalist and the host of N.P.R.’s Latino USA. This year we’ve tackled issues of mass incarceration, citizenship, multiculturalism, food and ethics, and ethics in professional life in America. Thanks go to the Humanities Center at the University for creating time for Carnegies with their special guests, including George Packer, a National Book Award winner, author for the New Yorker magazine, and widely heralded novelist and playwright. We got a huge dose of charisma and inspiration from Damon Davis, St. Louis/Ferguson-based artist, musician, activist, and director of the film “Whose Streets?”
Dr. Imraan Buccus, Auwal Socio-Economic Research Institute, Johannesburg, South Africa
Eugene Mayor Lucy Vinis
Maria Hinojosa NPR/Latino USA
Jen McKinney, DSA
Laura Johonson, Sponsors Inc.
George Packer, The New Yorker
Damon Davis, Heartache and Paint
Prof. Alison Gash
Mika Weinstein, InsightJustice (CGO ’14!)
Sandy Weintraub, UO Student Conduct Cooridinator
Craig Weinerman, Federal Public Defender & Joseph Huynh, US Prosecutor’s Office
2016-2017
Vijay Gupta, Founder of Street Symphony, member, Los Angeles Philharmonic
Rev. Dan Bryant, First Christian Church, Eugene
John Holmes, Director of Ethics, Peace Health
Ross Kari, UO Board of Trustees, former CFO of FreddieMac and Exec. VP Wells Fargo
Maylian Pak and Tom Bowerman, Oregon Community Foundation
Clair Wiles, USN (Retired) AVID Program
Dennis Lueck, Landscape Architecture
Gordon Lafer, Labor Education Research Center
Kellee Weinhold, Director of Communications, The Professor Is In
Trevor W
2015-2016
Claire Wiles, USN (Retired), AVID Program
Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
Carilyn McDermed, UO Chief of Police
Betty Taylor, Eugene City Council
Oscar Maciel, KEZI News
Rabbi Ruhi Rubenstein, Temple Beth Israel
Katie Dwyer, Another Look
Walid Salem, Director, Center for Democracy, Jerusalem
Jason Lewis-Berry, Deputy Asst. Sec., Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, US State Department
Jim Finkle, Overseas Security Advisory Council, US State Department
Capt. Chad Plaistad, US Army Special Forces
Curt Toftland, Shakespeare in Prison
2014-2015
Derek Watkins, Graphics Editor, The New York Times
Mark Hackett, Founder and President, Operation Broken Silence
Greg Stanton, Founder and President, Genocide Watch
Aurelia Moser, Ushahidi
Lorry Lokey, Founder, Business Wire
Judge Timothy Gerking
David Reese, The Critical Veteran
Professor Hugo Slim, University of Oxford
Ambassador Eric Benjaminson
UO Tribal Liaison and Coquille Tribal Leader Jason Younker
Captain Sam Kamkar, Eugene Police Department Diversity and Ethics Trainer
UO Vice-President for Equity and Inclusion Yvette Alex-Assensoh
Maureen Hetherington, Director, The Junction Northern Ireland
Nobel Prize Winner Rigoberta Menchu (w/PeaceJam Northwest)
Rudwan Dawod, Girifna, Darfur, Sudan
Nancy O’Malley, Alameda County District Attorney
Diana Janz, Founder, Hope Ranch Ministries
Seventh Step, Oregon State Penitentiary
2013-2014
Prof. Hugo Slim, University of Oxford
Dr. Victoria Sweet, author God’s Hotel
Prof. Saladin Ambar, Malcolm X at the Oxford Union
Dennis Lueck, Eco-Eugene
Prof. Kenji Yoshino, New York University
Easther Chigumira, University of Zimbabwe and Meche Lu, ELAW
Chris Holman, Nami Moon Farms
Interim Dean Andrew Marcus, Three Cups of Tea
Jennifer Jackson, Sponsors Inc. Re-entry Services
Ross Kari, UO Board of Trustees
Dave Frohnmayer, former State Legislator and Oregon Attorney General, UO President Emeritus
Jim Shephard, CEO, Banque AIG
Mike Andreasen, VP University Advancement
Prof. Brendan Murtagh, Queens University Belfast
Lorry Lokey, Founder, Business Wire
Prof. Hugo Slim, University of Oxford
Seventh Step, Oregon State Penitentiary
2012-2013
Lee Pera, US Environmental Protection Agency, Tiny Houses (from Washington, DC)
Sister Helen Prejean, Author, The Death of Innocents
Salman Ahmad, UN Goodwill Ambassador and founder of Pakistan’s #1 music group Janoon
Andy Stahl, Founder and Executive Director, Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics
Craig Weinerman, Federal Public Defender
Chimamanda Adichie, Nigerian Author and MacArthur Genius Award recipient
Fresh off the plane, Nigerian Author and MacArthur Genius Award winner Chimamanda Adiche talks with the CGO about ethical challenges that have influenced her work.
Lorina McAdam, Mercy Corps Country Director, Democratic Republic of Congo
Brian Daugherty, Director, St. Columbs Peace & Reconciliation Centre, Londonderry, Northern Ireland
Mark Hackett, Founder and Director, Operation Broken Silence
Richard Weinman, Director of Homeless Services, City of Eugene
Nabil Selbak and Walid Saleeby, Arab Spring and Change in the Middle East
Professor Henry Shue, University of Oxford, Centre for Practical Ethics
Paul Solomon, Executive Director, Sponsors Inc. Re-entry Services
Ross Kari, CFO, FreddieMac
Rina Ortiz and Bethany Loberg, Share Foundation, Human Rights El Salvador
2011-2012
Jim Shephard, CEO, Banque AIG
Sister Helen Prejean, Author, Dead Man Walking
Sister Helen Prejean Visits with the CGO, on one of her three visits with us
Greg Stanton, Founder, Genocide Awareness Project
UO Professor Paul Slovic
Ambassador Joyce Leader, Deputy Chief of Mission During Genocide in Rwanda
Greg Kuykendall, Head, Mexico Capital Legal Assistance Program
Captain Chad Plaisted, US Army Special Forces (from Special Forces base)
Professor Ann Laudati, University of Bristol (from fieldwork in the Democratic Republic of Congo)
Ann-Marie Woodward, Events Coordinator, Food for Lane County
Dr. Elaine Snow, Former Director of Research, Mergers, and Acquisitions, Chief of Staff, Invitrogen
Gershom Gorenberg, Israeli Journalist and Historian