leadership

It's that time of the year when I cull my bookshelf. Nine bookcases of books at the office and four at home is more than I need. I'll put some volumes out on a small table in the hallway for students to take. I'll fondly wish for them a good ...

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 tenure for faculty in that office. While she had taken some undergraduate education courses she spoke of ...

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 vote was taken!). Sometimes it's a decision based of budget constraints. Sometimes it's political. More often than ...

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 effectiveness falls to the office of the dean in most schools, highlighting again, that theological school deans ...

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 who leads from the center, theological school deans see beyond the horizon (when others may not) and ...