Rate My Professor Debra Satz

Satz received her B.A. in Philosophy from the City College of New York in 1978 and her Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1988. She began her academic career as a Lecturer in Harvard University's Program in Social Studies (1986-1987) and Assistant Professor at Swarthmore College (1987-1988), joining Stanford in 1988 as Assistant Professor of Philosophy, promoted to Associate Professor in 1996 and Professor in 2007. She has held key administrative roles including Senior Associate Dean for the Humanities and Arts (2010-2017), Faculty Director of the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society (2008-2015), interim Chair of the Philosophy Department (2004-2005), and Chair of the Stanford Faculty Senate (2016-2017). Satz served as President of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association (2022-2023) and was the first woman Editor-in-Chief of Philosophy and Public Affairs (2018-present), while serving on its editorial board.

Her major publications include Why Some Things Should Not Be for Sale: The Moral Limits of Markets (Oxford University Press, 2010), Economic Analysis, Moral Philosophy and Public Policy, with Dan Hausman and Michael McPherson (Cambridge University Press, 2017), Occupy the Future, edited with David Grusky, Doug McAdam, and Rob Reich (MIT Press, 2013), and Ideas That Matter: Democracy, Justice, Rights, co-edited with Annabelle Lever (Oxford University Press, 2019). Notable awards include election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2018), the Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching (2004), Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education, and fellowships from the Stanford Humanities Center and Princeton's University Center for Human Values. She co-founded the Hope House Scholars program, influencing ethics education and public philosophy.