The University of St. Thomas-Houston announces a transformative gift of $5.25 million from the Notsew Orm Sands Foundation. This generous contribution will establish an endowed scholarship fund and provide ongoing program support, strengthening the University’s mission to cultivate future ethical leaders.
Garfield Mitchell, one of the Foundation’s trustees, said, “The Foundation is so pleased to be able to support the University of St. Thomas in this way — an institution that meant so much to our dear Aunt Miriam Burnett and our wonderful cousin Charles Ryland Burnett III.”
Establishing an Endowed Scholarship & Strengthening the Leadership Chair
Specifically, the gift to Houston’s only Catholic university establishes the Burnett Family Leadership Endowed Scholarship and further strengthens the Burnett Family Distinguished Chair in Leadership, which was established in 2007 and has been held by Dr. Timothy Furlan since 2020.
UST Associate Vice President of Development Meredith McCrary said, “The Burnett Family Leadership Endowed Scholarship will continue to grow, helping the University attract and support the most talented and motivated students—those who are not just focused on graduating but on building meaningful careers. These students will go on to become leaders, making a real impact in their communities. This scholarship will make a huge difference for many UST students who rely on financial aid to pursue their education. And just as importantly, it gives St. Thomas a chance to honor the legacy of Charles Burnett and the Burnett family, inspiring future generations of students.”
The gift will also bolster Dr. Furlan’s impactful and fascinating work, described as “interdisciplinary at the intersection of law, medicine, philosophy and public policy” and spanning a wide range of topics. These include philosophical foundations of dignity and human rights, the scope of the moral community, theories of justice, natural law theory, double effect reasoning, the nature of intention, the ethics of homicide, just war theory, abortion, euthanasia, pediatric ethics, genetic engineering, neuroethics, brain-computer interfaces, and artificial intelligence.
Furlan’s Ethical Leadership Classes
Dr. Furlan’s courses in ethical leadership—a vital and often controversial concept in current culture—examine foundational issues and key theoretical problems that have occupied moral and political thinkers from Plato and Aristotle to St. Thomas Aquinas and the American Founders.
Professor Furlan stated some of the challenging questions his students confront, saying, “What makes a leader successful? What sort of characteristics and virtues are necessary for leadership? What kind of education and formation do leaders require? Who are moral exemplars, and how can we identify them? What kinds of societies and political structures best serve to encourage good leaders and constrain bad ones? How might power tempt and corrupt leaders, and how can these dangers be resisted or prevented? What is the relationship between leadership and morality?”
In his classes, Dr. Furlan incorporates a wide range of case studies, examining figures that include St. Ignatius of Loyola and his concept of “heroic leadership,” Abraham Lincoln’s leadership during the abolitionist movement and the American Civil War, and Mahatma Gandhi’s principle of “satyagraha” (“holding onto the truth”) in the context of the Indian Independence Movement.
Dr. Furlan joined UST as a post-doctoral research scholar at the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics, where he also served as editor of the “Harvard Journal of Bioethics.” Recently, he participated in an invitation-only conference for healthcare leaders at Harvard Medical School on Moral Leadership in Medicine. The elite event was sponsored by the Advanced Ethics in Leadership program and the Center for Bioethics and convened some of the top bioethicists and health care leaders in the world.
Going Forward Propelled by the Generous Gift
Through the exceptional generosity and commitment of the Notsew Orm Sands Foundation, the University of St. Thomas-Houston underscores its commitment to ethical leadership, extending opportunities to deserving students. This generous gift not only honors the Burnett family legacy but also empowers future leaders to navigate today’s complex ethical landscape.