Ugandan human rights leader Frank Mugisha to be awarded 2026 Inamori Ethics Prize; Case Western Reserve University, April 3, 2026

  Bill Lubinger, Case Western Reserve University; Ugandan human rights leader Frank Mugisha to be awarded 2026 Inamori Ethics Prize

"Frank Mugisha, executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), has devoted his life to advocating for basic human rights for all people—not only in his home country, but globally.

A recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award and the Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize, Mugisha has been recognized internationally for his activism and courage. He was a 2014 nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, chosen one of Fortune magazine's 2017 World's Greatest Leaders, and named among the 100 Most Influential People of 2024 by TIME magazine. 

And now, add one more honor to the list: The Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellenceat Case Western Reserve University will award Mugisha with the 2026 Inamori Ethics Prize. 

"It is truly humbling to be recognized alongside the inspiring work of previous Inamori Ethics Prize recipients,” Mugisha said. “This recognition inspires me greatly and means so much—not only to me personally but also to the communities I have the privilege to serve. It strengthens our resolve to continue advancing human rights, equality and ethical leadership.”

Mugisha will be awarded the prize, deliver a free public lecture about his work, and participate in a symposium panel discussion during the 2026 Inamori Ethics Prize events Sept. 17-18 on the Case Western Reserve campus.

“Mr. Mugisha’s dedication to and advocacy for human rights is inspiring. Driven by impact and propelled by purpose, Mr. Mugisha is changing lives around the world,” said Case Western Reserve President Eric W. Kaler. “We look forward to hearing about his life’s work this fall and honoring him as the 2026 Inamori Ethics Prize winner.”

The Inamori Ethics Prize has been awarded since 2008 to honor outstanding international ethical leaders whose actions and influence have greatly improved the condition of humankind.

“Frank Mugisha reflects the very spirit of the Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence—grounded in human dignity, global awareness, and moral courage. His leadership challenges us to see beyond differences and to strengthen our common humanity,” Provost and Executive Vice President Joy K. Ward said.

Grassroots movement

Mugisha has led the grassroots movement to save thousands of LBGTI Ugandans from persecution, incarceration, and death.

During his undergraduate studies, Mugisha founded Icebreakers Uganda in 2004, an organization created as a support network for LGBTI people who are out or in the process of coming out to family and friends. 

Icebreakers Uganda offers counseling, suicide-prevention, and education services to those who are sexual minorities and open about their identity—because it is viewed by law and some public opinion in that country as criminal. 

Mugisha has expanded his efforts while at SMUG, now an umbrella organization of over 40 groups, including the first and only LGBTI health center in Uganda. 

In addition to promoting equality for the LGBTI community in Uganda, Mugisha and his team at SMUG have been fighting legal and ideological battles with Ugandan Parliament and championed legal efforts in U.S. District Court against anti-LGBT activists for years. 

Mugisha has led the movements to abolish Uganda’s anti-homosexuality and sexual-offense legislation which makes it a crime to identify as queer, considers all same-sex conduct to be nonconsensual, and allows for the death penalty in certain cases. 

Ugandan courts upheld the large majority of the Anti-Homosexuality Act in 2024. However, SMUG’s advocacy efforts did convince legislators to eliminate sections that restricted healthcare access for LGBTI people, criminalized renting premises to LGBTI people, and required alleged acts of homosexuality to be reported. Mugisha and advocates continue to seek a full annulment of the Act before the Supreme Court of Uganda.

Mugisha was 14 when he told his brother he was gay. Both brothers were born and raised in a strict Catholic family in suburban Kampala, the capital of Uganda, where anti-LGBTI laws are among the harshest in the world. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say “coming out” in the East African country could draw a beating, land you in prison, or even cost your life.

“Frank Mugisha embodies moral courage in its highest form,” said Inamori Center Director Eileen Anderson, Inamori Professor in Ethics and the Anne Templeton Zimmerman, MD Professor of Bioethics at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine. “For more than two decades, he has led the fight for human dignity and equality in Uganda, transforming personal risk into global impact.”"

Honoring Alex Pretti’s Moral Courage and the Cost of Caring; The Hastings Center for Bioethics, February 17, 2026

 Connie M. Ulrich, Mary D. Naylor and Martha A. Q. Curley , The Hastings Center for Bioethics; Honoring Alex Pretti’s Moral Courage and the Cost of Caring

"The death of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse who was killed last month in an anti-immigration protest in Minneapolis, is, first and foremost, a devastating loss for his loved ones. But it has also shaken the nursing profession to the core. 

People often encounter nurses at the bedside when they  are ill or someone close to them is ill. But nurses also have a long history of advocating for social justice in their communities, speaking out against unjust policies, challenging unsafe practices, and advancing public health reforms.

The 2025 Code of Ethics for Nurses reflects this activism. It calls on all nurses to be civically engaged and to work toward policies and systems that have positive ends for the communities in which we live and work. Alex met this call. 

Alex used his ICU training to help someone in need; it was second nature to him and reflected his primary obligation as a registered nurse to protect the rights and well-being of patients, families, and communities. He lost his life because he helped a woman during a protest against federal immigration action in Minneapolis. Pretti stepped in front of the woman, who was on the ground, to protect her from being pepper sprayed by U.S. Border Patrol agents. Agents then pinned Pretti to the ground and shot him.

Nurses are no strangers to conflict and moral turmoil. They take a professional and ethical oath to care for anyone — victim or perpetrator — regardless of their identity or ideological belief. But Alex’s death exposes a stark and troubling reality for every nurse and healthcare provider: Immigration enforcement agents are now occupying spaces that should be protected in hospitals, waiting rooms, lobbies, and clinics. These are places where patients must feel safe and trust that they will receive care without discrimination and be protected from intimidation. 

The presence of immigration enforcement agents in these places is creating profound moral distress and a climate of deep fear for all those who deliver care and for the people who need it most within these buildings. Nurses and other healthcare providers are caught in the age-old dilemma between what is ethical and what is legal: They question what they ought to do when faced with immigration enforcement agents standing outside hospital rooms and observing the care they are ethically and professionally obligated to protect.

When nurses and other healthcare providers cannot meet their ethical duties to protect the rights and welfare of their patients, this distress can intensify into a deeper wound with lingering residue of regret and a searing violation of their sense of integrity. 

For their part, patients may withhold critical health information, become afraid to ask questions, and mistrust health professionals when immigration enforcement agents are present. Patients who are immigrants are most vulnerable to these harms, but other patients may also experience them. The harms – to healthcare providers and patients – can ultimately compromise ethical decision-making, patient-and family-centered care, and the overall quality of care that all patients deserve, and healthcare providers are trained to deliver.

The patients and families cared for by Alex will always remember him. Nurses will remember Alex’s sacrifice – that his caring extended beyond the walls of his hospital to the stranger he protected in his community. 

Nurses can honor Alex’s moral courage through our individual and professional resolve. We must say no more to the infiltration of immigration enforcement into healthcare spaces that were previously off limits to them. We must speak out on re-establishing “safe zones,” hospital-wide policies that limit enforcement access, and confidential reporting mechanisms that reflect the humanity of the nursing profession towards those we took an oath to serve. 

May a better and more humane world prevail, reminding each of us that moral courage carries risk, but it also helps us rise to the occasion when change and moral repair are needed most. We are at that moment.

Connie M. Ulrich, PhD, RN, is a registered nurse and professor of nursing and of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and a Hastings Center Fellow. LinkedIn: connieulrich1, X: @cm_ulrich

Mary D. Naylor, PhD, RN, is a registered nurse and professor of gerontology and nursing at Penn’s School of Nursing. LinkedIn: Mary_Naylor,  X: @MaryDNaylor

Martha A.Q. Curley, PhD, RN, is a registered nurse and professor of pediatric nursing at Penn’s School of Nursing.LinkedIn: Martha-a-q-curley, X: maqcurley, Bluesky: @maqc.bsky.social"

New Year’s Eve Concerts at Kennedy Center Are Canceled; The New York Times, December 29, 2025

 Adam Nagourney and Neil Vigdor, The New York Times ; New Year’s Eve Concerts at Kennedy Center Are Canceled

[Kip Currier: The principles of integrity and character are unsurprisingly alien to Richard Grenell. Artists are likely canceling Kennedy Center engagements because they don't want to be associated with an administration that has attacked free expression, financially diminished the arts, as well as science, and that has violated federal law by adding Donald Trump's name to an arts organization memorializing our slain 35th President, John F. Kennedy Jr.

Standing up for values one believes in -- values that are bigger than oneself -- is an example of moral courage, not "derangement".]

[Excerpt]

"A veteran jazz ensemble and a New York dance company have canceled events at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, intensifying the fallout at one of the nation’s pre-eminent arts centers after it was renamed to include President Trump...

The Cookers did not give a reason for the decision in a statement on Monday that said, “Jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom: freedom of thought, of expression, and of the full human voice."...

Doug Varone and Dancers, a New York dance company, also said on Monday that it was canceling two performances in April that had been intended to celebrate its 40th anniversary. Mr. Varone, the head of the company, said it would lose $40,000 by pulling out.

“It is financially devastating but morally exhilarating,” he said in an email.

Richard Grenell, the Kennedy Center’s chairman, said in a statement on Monday night that the artists canceling shows were “far-left political activists” and that they had been booked by previous leadership. “Boycotting the arts to show you support the arts is a form of derangement syndrome,” he said."

Where is the moral courage in the decision to eliminate DEI at UMich?; The Michigan Daily, April 10, 2025

  Kevin Cokley, Ph.D., is the University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor of Psychology and Associate Chair for Diversity Initiatives at the University of Michigan, The Michigan Daily; Where is the moral courage in the decision to eliminate DEI at UMich?

"There appears to have been no resistance by the administration to the factually inaccurate criticisms of DEI by the regents, resulting in a pivot on the University’s supposed core values. Perhaps my understanding of values differs from the administration’s. Values are what people or institutions believe are fundamentally right or wrong and what are most important in life. Institutional core values are not supposed to be easily changeable, and if University leadership is so quick to abandon its core values of DEI, one may wonder if they were ever really core values to begin with.

I’m reminded of the proverb, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” This proverb means that in difficult times, individuals with strong character are even more determined to succeed. As the University and higher education at large are being threatened with, what are likely, unconstitutional executive orders, it is more important than ever to have leaders who defend the University’s core values rather than acquiesce...

Martin Luther King Jr. once addressed the moral courage that one needs to stand up for what is right. He said, “Cowardice asks the question — is it safe? Expediency asks the question — is it politic? Vanity asks the question — is it popular? But conscience asks the question — is it right? There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one’s conscience tells one that it is right.”"

Quitting Time; American Libraries, June 1, 2022

Lara Ewen , American Libraries ; Quitting Time

The pandemic is exacerbating attrition among library workers

"Those feelings of career ambivalence were complicated, Rorie says, by vocational awe, a term coined in 2017 by academic librarian Fobazi Ettarh to describe the notion that librarians, the library profession, and the institution of libraries as a whole is inherently good and therefore above reproach. For Rorie, the idealized standard only made her feel worse. “I feel like I let down the community,” she says. “I feel like I should have tried harder. It’s hard to have to come face-to-face with that.”

Yet even librarians who spoke out say they were largely ignored. “I told my boss, my director, my team, the whole library on multiple occasions that I was really burned out and not doing okay,” says Jules, a queer, neurodivergent academic librarian at a Mountain-state community college who decided in late 2021 to leave libraries. “And it never changed.” Jules is currently looking for nonlibrarian jobs.

Similar experiences have led to low morale across the profession, according to Kaetrena Davis Kendrick, a researcher and library leader whose work on morale has been widely cited.

“Low morale is a traumatic experience for librarians that was happening before the pandemic,” she says. For the purposes of her research, Kendrick defines low morale as the result of “repeated, protracted exposure to workplace abuse and neglect” and says that the issue strikes at the heart of librarians’ identities. “We feel comfortable in libraries,” she says. “But we’re realizing that libraries are not places of comfort or refuge for librarians anymore. So how do we reconcile those feelings of nostalgia, those feelings of having a calling, when we go to work and we’re being abused and neglected?”

Some libraries have tried to assuage employee unhappiness by implementing programs aimed at reducing stress, but Alex says they fall short. “They don’t seem to understand that wellness programs are placing the problem with the individual library worker,” she says. “You can’t meditate your way out of systemic issues or terrible pay or horrible levels of stress.”...

Yet it’s not just about money, says Elaina Norlin, professional development and diversity, equity, and inclusion program coordinator for the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries. “One of the mistakes most organizations—not just libraries—make is, they assume pay will resolve everything,” says Norlin, author of The Six-Step Guide to Library Worker Engagement (ALA Editions, 2021). “When you look at pay, it’s essential, but it’s not a guarantee of [being] engaged, excited, or interested. I’m not saying money isn’t important. But you can’t just say, ‘Here’s the money’ and expect all of this [other] stuff to go away.”

Norlin says that a library system with a diverse workforce will cultivate diversity of thought and different approaches. “We need libraries to invest internally as much as we invest externally,” she says. “And we need to take a really critical look at hierarchy. There is always a small percentage of people who are benefiting from status quo. They’re the gatekeepers, and that needs to be challenged for the [field] to turn around.”"

A generation of GOP stars stands diminished: ‘Everything Trump touches dies’; Washington Post, 10/9/16

Philip Rucker, Washington Post; A generation of GOP stars stands diminished: ‘Everything Trump touches dies’ :

"“There is nobody who holds any position of responsibility who in private conversations views Donald Trump as equipped mentally, morally and intellectually to be the president of the United States,” said Steve Schmidt, a veteran GOP strategist. “But scores of Republican leaders have failed a fundamental test of moral courage and political leadership in not speaking truth to the American people about what is so obvious.”"