Meghan Sullivan

Meghan Sullivan is the Wilsey Family College Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, where her work encompasses ethics, metaphysics, and philosophy of religion. Sullivan holds degrees from the University of Virginia, Oxford, and Rutgers, and studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. She has spent her academic career at Notre Dame, where she was awarded tenure. Sullivan has received Notre Dame's Joyce Awards for Teaching, the Provost's All-Faculty Team Award, and the City of South Bend's 40 Under 40 Award.

Sullivan serves as director of the University-wide Ethics Initiative and is the founding director of Notre Dame's Institute for Ethics and the Common Good. The Institute, a hub for research and teaching in ethics, includes the Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C, Center for Virtue Ethics, the Notre Dame–IBM Technology Ethics Lab, and a major grant from the John Templeton Foundation focused on developing courses on human flourishing. Sullivan has served as principal investigator for more than $15 million in grants to advance ethics and human flourishing, with support from organizations such as the John Templeton Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, the Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She also works under the Office of the Provost to guide Notre Dame's Ethics Priority in the ND 2033 Strategic Framework.

Sullivan is the author of the book "Time Biases," published by Oxford University Press, which explores philosophical challenges related to the passage of time and rational planning. The book was featured in The New Yorker. She co-authored "The Good Life Method" with Paul Blaschko, based on the introductory philosophy course "God and the Good Life" at Notre Dame, which has guided more than 5,500 students in developing a philosophical approach to their lives. The course has received major grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, and the John Templeton Foundation, and more than 120 faculty at other universities have participated in course development programs. Sullivan has published articles in leading philosophy journals, including Ethics, Nous, and Philosophical Studies, and serves as a co-editor for Nous.

Sullivan leads a national research initiative on artificial intelligence and human dignity and is recognized for her work at the intersection of faith, technology, and ethics. Notre Dame received a $50.8 million grant from the Lilly Endowment to support the DELTA Network, a faith-based approach to AI ethics, with Sullivan as its founding director. She is working on a book about the role of love in moral life and directs a major grant project with scholars and nonprofit leaders to expand the love ethic, as well as a planning grant examining the role of Christian thought in AI ethics. Sullivan is also a featured speaker at the TED Next Conference.