The Academic Vocation in a Post-2020 World:

Dr. Margaret Diddams is the principal consultant with The Diddams Group, which is dedicated to building strong Christian leadership teams aligned with their institution’s strategic vision. As a leadership and organizational scholar, Diddams has over 30 years of experience in leadership development, team building, employee engagement surveys, effective and legal hiring processes, performance management, program evaluation, creating work-life balance, and mitigating workplace stress and burnout.

Diddams is the editor of The Christian Scholar’s Review; the premier journal for scholarship that advances the dialogue between Christian faith and learning. She recently served as the Provost and Chief Academic Officer of Wheaton College (2016-2020) a liberal arts college grounded in its Evangelical Christian faith tradition. With oversight of 500 employees and a $50 MM budget, she provided leadership for over 50 undergraduate and graduate academic programs. She earned a MA and Ph.D. in Industrial / Organizational Psychology from New York University and her BA in Psychology from Wheaton College.

As Baylor’s chief academic officer, Dr. Brickhouse oversees the University’s 12 colleges and schools, research enterprise, University Libraries, and centers and institutes.

She previously served as provost at Saint Louis University (SLU), a Jesuit research university with 8,000 undergraduate students and 6,000 graduate students at its main campus in St. Louis. During her tenure, she played a key role in repositioning SLU’s finance, operations, and academic endeavors to meet a rapidly changing higher education landscape.
Dr. Brickhouse graduated from Baylor magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, going on to earn a master’s degree in chemistry and a doctorate in science education from Purdue University.

Prior to her appointment as SLU’s provost in 2015, Dr. Brickhouse filled several senior administrative positions during 27 years of service and leadership at the University of Delaware, including the roles of deputy provost, interim provost — for which she received special recognition from the UD Board of Trustees for her exemplary service, deputy dean of the College of Education and Human Development, and director of the School of Education.

Dr. Thomas M. Landy, a sociologist with a specialization in the sociology of religion and Catholicism, is director of the Rev. Michael C. McFarland, S.J. Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture at the College of the Holy Cross. His primary research is in global Catholicism, and he founded and leads research for Catholics & Cultures, a web-based initiative to explore the religious lives and practices of lay Catholics in their particular cultural contexts around the world. He has conducted research in 30 countries and authored nearly 250 articles for the site. Since 2003, he has organized an annual Ignatian pilgrimage to Spain and Rome for faculty from Holy Cross and other Jesuit colleges and universities. Landy holds a Ph.D. in sociology from Boston University, an M.Div. from Weston School of Theology, an M.A. in international relations from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in history from Fairfield University.

Rev. Gerard J. Olinger, C.S.C., serves as Vice President for Mission Engagement and Church Affairs at the University of Notre Dame, a role he began in August of 2018. In this position, Father Olinger stewards and deepens Notre Dame’s Catholic and Holy Cross mission and is the University’s liaison to the Congregation of Holy Cross, the U.S. Bishops, the USCCB and its affiliates, and the Holy See. He also oversees the Tantur Ecumenical Institute in Jerusalem, the Notre Dame-Newman Center for Faith and Reason in Dublin, and the Grotto Network. In addition to these responsibilities, he serves as an in-residence priest in Alumni Hall.

A native of Springfield, Pennsylvania, Father Olinger graduated from Notre Dame with a bachelor’s degree in history and government. He also earned two post-graduate degrees from Notre Dame: a juris doctor in 2004 and a master of divinity in 2009. After law school, Father Olinger entered formation with the Congregation of Holy Cross, made his final vows in August of 2009, and was ordained a priest in April of 2010.

Dr. Amos Yong came to Fuller in 2014 as professor of theology and mission and director of the School of Intercultural Studies’ Center for Missiological Research, overseeing the PhD and ThM intercultural studies programs. In 2019, he was appointed dean of the School of Intercultural Studies and of the School of Theology, and in 2020 was named chief academic officer for Fuller. He has authored or edited more than 50 books and 225 scholarly articles, and remains active in church and academy.

Before coming to Fuller, he taught for nine years at Regent University School of Divinity, where the last positions he held were J. Rodman Williams Professor of Theology and dean. Prior to that he was on the faculty at Bethel University in St. Paul, Bethany College of the Assemblies of God, and served as a pastor. He also worked in Social and Health Services in Vancouver, Washington.