Administration - Not for Everyone: Willie James Jennings
Dialogue on Teaching, Wabash Center’s podcast series, is hosted by Nancy Lynne Westfield, Ph.D., Director of the Wabash Center. Amplifying the Wabash Center’s mission, the podcasts focus upon issues of teaching and learning in theology and religion within colleges, university, seminaries, as well as the publics impacted by these schools. Dialogues with faculty and administrators working in the wide range of institutional contexts illumine the complexity of teaching and the teaching life.
Willie James Jennings is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Systematic Theology and Africana Studies at Yale Divinity School.
Administrative duties are a work of care for the thriving of all in the community. Being a good administrator requires the ability to think organizationally, and the willingness to prioritize nurturing faculty, students, and staff. Effective leaders are capable of visioning for the future of the institution. Good leaders have a heart for their people, even those people who they do not agree with or like. Good leaders have an exit strategy.