American Whistleblowers: Essential Voices for Accountability

This is an Archive of a Past Event

Every year, thousands of Americans witness wrongdoing on the job. These workers discover waste, fraud, abuse or malfeasance that could jeopardize the lives of others, or the well-being of the public. They may see a food processing plant sending contaminated and dangerous meat to consumers, a nuclear facility in gross violations of safety protocols, a chemical company dump hazardous waste into rivers unlawfully, or accounting fraud that deceives thousands of stockholders.

Most employees remain silent, typically out of fear of losing their jobs. Others choose to risk their professional and personal lives to come forward with the truth, seeking to make a difference by “blowing the whistle” on unethical conduct in the workplace. Deciding to unveil misdoings often requires great courage and reflection on what it means to lead a moral life. Each whistleblower has a unique narrative leading up to their discovery of wrongdoing and disclosure; notably, each also has a unique story about the aftermath.

The Government Accountability Project's collegiate American Whistleblower Tour seeks to educate the public--particularly the future workforce--about the important role whistleblowers play in promoting government and corporate accountability, and the challenges they face in exercising moral courage by disclosing serious wrongdoing. GAP's American Whistleblower Tour, by presenting the candid, authentic stories of historic whistleblowers, provokes us to think about the complex issue of whistleblowing and moral courage in new ways.