Adela J. Gondek PhD, BA

Dr. Adela J. Gondek is a Lecturer in Discipline at Columbia University, where she has been a faculty member since 1989. She teaches ethics in four programs and is based in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology. In the School of International and Public Affairs, Dr. Gondek teaches public ethics in the Executive Master of Public Administration Program and environmental ethics in the Master of Public Administration Program in Environmental Science and Policy. In the School of Continuing Education, she teaches ethics for sustainability management; and in the undergraduate Sustainable Development Program at the Earth Institute, Dr. Gondek teaches ethics for sustainable development. She has also taught American political thought in the Department of Political Science, and Contemporary Civilization in the Core Curriculum Program of Columbia College.

At Columbia, Dr. Gondek has done extensive curriculum design in the developing field of practical ethics. Recently, she was appointed as an Associate of the Centre for Business and Public Sector Ethics in Cambridge, England. Prior to her academic career, she served as a legislative analyst in the Massachusetts Senate, with expertise in consumer product safety and corrections reform.

She received her B.A., summa cum laude, from Goucher College, and her Ph.D. in political philosophy and American public policy in the Department of Government at Harvard University, with cross-registration to the Kennedy School of Government and the Law School. Recent publications include an article on Sustainability Ethics and Metrics, Earth Institute Website, November, 2013; and Thinking of Environmental Ethics, prefatory essay and six edited articles, Cosmopolis-Globalist, June 2012. Dr. Gondek is currently engaged in writing a manuscript on Rationality, Sensitivity and Sustainability Ethics.