Welcome to the Florida Blue Center for Ethics
The Florida Blue Center for Ethics at the University of North Florida (the "Center") fosters deliberation on ethical issues as they emerge in public and professional life.
The Center is dedicated to facilitating the application of moral reasoning to questions of ethics and values as faced by policymakers, researchers, and professional practitioners in the areas of health care, law, business, engineering, education, government, and public life generally.
The Center contributes to regional, national, and international discussion of these matters through research, education, community outreach, and professional ethics consultations.
History of The Ethics Center
The Center is an outgrowth of the University's philosophy program recognizing a need for ethics education in the professions both for students and the local community. This type of education has been identified by the state of Florida as an important objective in education, and the objective has been ratified by Florida's Board of Governors which operates the state university system. The UNF Board of Trustees of this University also strongly support this type of education in the area of applied ethics.
Florida Blue made the largest gift to an academic program in the history of UNF on January 30, 2003. The $1 million gift, plus $750,000 in state matching funds, provides the core of funding for the Center. The Center also relies on additional gifts and grants.
Founding Management
Dr. A. David Kline was the Founding Director of the Center and Professor of Philosophy, and the former Provost and Interim President of UNF. Additionally, he held administrative posts at the State University of New York-New Paltz as Dean of the College of Arts and Science and at Iowa State University as Chair of the Department of Philosophy. Dr. Kline’s undergraduate degree is in Biology from Wake Forest University; his Ph.D. is in Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin. His research and teaching interests included: applied ethics, philosophy of science and philosophy of technology. Additionally, he worked on topics in educational ethics including lying, affirmative action in admission policies and the justification of civic engagement. He retired from a distinguished career in May 2011.