Blogs

Kate Blanchard, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Alma College I have always been gifted at getting people’s hackles up. Maybe it comes from being the self-righteous firstborn of two firstborns. Maybe it comes from being socially awkward, always better at...

Israel Galindo Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond Recently I spoke with a seminary dean in her fourth year in office. After four years she is stepping down, but takes some pride in having hit the top end of the average...

Eric Barreto, Assistant Professor of New Testament, Luther Seminary It was the middle of the semester, a time when exhaustion so often overtakes pedagogical finesse, a time when the energy of new courses is abating and the promise of a...

Kent Brintnall, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina, Charlotte To paraphrase Eleanor of Aquitaine in The Lion in Winter, “I have a confession: I don’t much like my students.” It’s not that I don’t like them as...

Israel Galindo Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond Deans work in complex systems and, often, need to communicate complex ideas when leading Faculty to interpret problems and determine solutions. I've found that using graphic interpretation of data helps facilitate communication and...

Lisa M. Hess, Associate Professor of Practical Theology, United Theological Seminary Arriving onto the campus of my first fulltime teaching job in higher education was not unlike finding myself in a strange land with a little dog under my arm....

Israel Galindo Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond Deans in theological schools tend to come from the Faculty, for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it's a question of who is most willing to serve (or, who missed the meeting when the...

Israel Galindo Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond Deans in theological schools face increasing demands to demonstrate educational effectiveness from accrediting agencies and constituents. For many theological schools, and for new deans, this can seem like an imposing challenge. Demonstrating educational...

Israel Galindo Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond Theological school deans serve in the capacity of institutional change agents. By virtue of leading from the center, deans bring about change through vision, influence, and, by pushing against inertia. As a person...

Israel Galindo Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond The relationship of the dean with faculty does not have to be adversarial, but it occasionally can be. Edwin Friedman wrote, “Living with crisis is a major part of leaders’ lives. The crises...