CIRCLE Sanctuary Old Union, 3rd floor, Stanford University
Sponsored by Office for Religious Life at Stanford University
The purpose of What Matters to Me and Why is to encourage reflection within the Stanford community on matters of personal values, beliefs, and motivations in order to better understand the lives and inspirations of those who shape the University.
Thomas Ehrlich is a Visiting Professor at the Stanford University School of Education. He has previously served as president of Indiana University, provost of the University of Pennsylvania, and dean of Stanford Law School. He was also the first president of the Legal Services Corporation in Washington, DC, and the first director of the International Development Cooperation Agency, reporting to President Carter. After his tenure at Indiana University, he was a Distinguished University Scholar at California State University and taught regularly at San Francisco State University. From 2000 to 2010 he was a Senior Scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. He is author, co-author, or editor of 14 books including What You Can Do for Your Country: Civic Work, Civic Lessons, with Ernestine Fu (2013); Preparing Undergraduates for Business: Liberal Learning for Professional Education (2011), which won the Ness Prize for the best book of the year on liberal education; Reconnecting Education and Foundations: Turning Good Intentions into Educational Capital (2007); and Educating for Democracy: Preparing Undergraduates for Lives of Responsible Political Engagement(2007). He has been a trustee of Bennett College, of Mills College, and of the University of Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School and holds five honorary degrees. He is also member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.