Marvin T. Brown

Marvin Brown’s work has been largely shaped by his effort to integrate his academic background in theology and philosophy with a long-term career of teaching and writing in the area of social and business ethics.

Soon after Marvin finished his doctorate in theology and rhetoric at Graduate Theological Union in 1978, he began teaching social ethics at the University of San Francisco. Drawing on what he learned from his students and mentors, Brown published Working Ethics (Jossey-Bass), in 1990, followed in 1993 by The Ethical Process (Prentice-Hall).

During the 1990s, Brown worked as an ethics and diversity consultant for such organizations as Levi Strauss and Company. In the following decades, he was invited to give lectures and workshops in Germany, Poland, Argentine, Venezuela, Norway, Canada, and China.

Brown’s contact with colleagues and other authors fostered the writing of Corporate Integrity (Cambridge University Press) in 2005, Civilizing the Economy (Cambridge University Press) in 2010, and A Climate of Justice (Springer) in 2022. His books, and papers, have been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, Korean, and Chinese. In 2020, Brown started the blog Climate of Justice Project, which serves as a platform for writing about the possibilities for a social climate of justice, as a necessary condition for the survival of our planet.

Marvin has received an Alumni Achievement Award from Nebraska Wesleyan University and a Lifetime Service Award from the Philosophy Department at the University of San Francisco

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