STILLPOINT Archive: last updated 05/06/2011
Dr. D. Michael Lindsay
“He is a man of solid character, highly knowledgeable, and an eager learner with a rare humility.
I can’t think of a better person to head up Gordon College.”
—George Gallup Jr., Founding Chairman, George H. Gallup International Institute
After a seven-month international search, Rice University sociology professor D. Michael Lindsay was named the eighth president of Gordon College. The news was made public March 28. A leading expert on religion and public life, Lindsay is currently completing the largest interview-based research to date of senior organizational leaders, including former Presidents Carter and Bush, and hundreds of CEOs at the nation’s largest corporations and nonprofits.
A graduate of Baylor University, Lindsay completed his Ph.D. at Princeton University and worked with the George H. Gallup International Institute. He also holds graduate degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary and Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University. He is the author of two dozen publications, including scholarly articles in the top journals of three different fields as well as the award-winning book Faith in the Halls of Power.
Lindsay has delivered academic lectures in Europe, Africa, South America and throughout the United States. Because of his expertise on religion and public life, he has been quoted or profiled in hundreds of news outlets over the last decade, and he is a featured “On Leadership” panelist for WashingtonPost.com. He holds elected positions in the American Academy of Religion and the American Sociological Association.
The Presidential Search Committee, chaired by Gordon trustee and alumnus Herman J. Smith Jr. ’70, consisted of eight other board members, one faculty representative and a staff representative. The Board also engaged Price Harding III, a managing partner of CarterBaldwin Executive Search.
Smith says that Lindsay “absolutely personifies the scholarly and Christian virtues Gordon seeks to encourage in our students. He exemplifies the next generation of leaders who are having a strong impact already on our culture.”
“I feel tremendously blessed to be given the opportunity to serve the Gordon community in this role,” Lindsay said. “I have long admired Gordon College for its commitment to Christ, its intellectual rigor, and its reputation for excellence in New England and around the world. It will be exciting to work with my Gordon colleagues in making a great institution even better.”
Editor’s note: Look for more about President-Elect Lindsay and his family on the Gordon website at www.gordon.edu/newpresident, and in the next issue of STILLPOINT.
