The Ethics Institute was established in 1982 by a group of Dartmouth faculty who were concerned about issues in applied and professional ethics: Professor Bernard Gert in Philosophy, Dr. Charles Culver at the Medical School, and John Hennessey, the Dean of the Business School. With the approval of the Board of Trustees, the Institute was in a position to hire a staff and seek funding, and in 1982 a small office in the basement of Thornton Hall served as the first home to the Ethics Institute. The faculty fellows sought funding for a director and hired a recent graduate of the Harvard Education Department – Deni Elliot. Deni served in the position of director until 1993, when she moved to the University of Montana. Upon her departure the organizational structure of the Institute was changed, with a part-time faculty director, Ronald M. Green (Religion) and a full-time Executive Director, Aine Donovan.
Over the course of its twenty years of existence, programs have expanded from informal discussion groups among interested faculty, to offerings such as interdisciplinary college courses that are team-taught by faculty who are committed to ethics education; innovative federal grants; films; panel discussions; essay competitions, and more. These programs and initiatives are developed by the Institute staff in conjunction with the Faculty Advisory Board.
The Institute has a membership of nearly 200 that includes Dartmouth College faculty and staff, Upper Valley community members, and interested individuals from across the country. Members receive quarterly newsletters and invitations to events that the Institute sponsors. The membership has increased over time; the Institute expects that this trend will continue as the Institute's website and programs evolve.
In 2001 Aine Donovan joined the staff at the Ethics Institute, serving as the full-time Executive Director. She, in collaboration with the Faculty Director, have expanded programming to include faculty seminars on integrating ethics into the curriculum (EATC), developed a comprehensive graduate ethics training for all in-coming graduate students, and a program in ethics in higher education.
