Douglas A. Hicks Associate Professor of Leadership Studies and Religion, Executive Director of the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement Curriculum Vitae Richmond Research Institute Profile University Communications Experts Guide Profile

Dr. Douglas A. Hicks is associate professor of leadership studies and religion and Executive Director of the University’s Bonner Center for Civic Engagement.

Hicks’s research focuses on religion in public life and the ethical dimensions of economic issues. Frequently quoted in the national media on topics including religion and ethics in politics and the workplace and on issues related to poverty and inequality, he has authored several books and numerous articles.  

He is completing research on a book on leadership, religious diversity and civil society in the United States and Spain. Hicks obtained two grants to help fund his research: a Foreign Researcher Sabbatical Grant from Spain’s Ministry of Education and Science and a research grant from the Pluralism Project of Harvard.

An ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), Hicks is a parish associate at Bon Air Presbyterian Church in Richmond. Hicks also serves as chair of the American Academy of Religion’s section on religion and the social sciences. He is an editorial board member of The Journal of Religious Leadership. He is past-president of the Richmond Association of Phi Beta Kappa and is a board member of the Virginia Poverty Law Center.

Dr. Hicks teaches courses in international leadership, social movements, service and leadership, and leadership and religious values.

Courses and Syllabi

• Foundations of Leadership Studies [Syllabus]
• Justice and Civil Society [Syllabus]
• Leadership in International Contexts [Syllabus]
• Ethics and Leadership [Syllabus]

News

• Hicks Named to Top 40 Under 40
• Hicks receives City's Ambassador Award from Richmond City Council
• Hicks Wins Inaugural Templeton Prize for Opinion Writing on Ethics
• PODCAST--Framing an agenda for addressing global poverty: UR professor Douglas Hicks questions the role America and religion play in alleviating global property. PODCAST
• Center for Civic Engagement Receives 2005 Governor's Community Service and Volunteerism Award
• Appearances on NBC Today Show, CBS Evening News, CNN International on religion and ethics in the workplace.
• Quoted for work on religion and ethics in the workplace in New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Charlotte Observer, Richmond Times Dispatch, Diversity, Inc., Pink.
• Quoted on poverty and/or inequality in Christian Science Monitor, Vital Theology.
  Quoted on the Jepson School in Rolling Stone.
• Received faculty mentor award for University of Richmond Quest IV competition [Article]
• Christian Science Monitor: Disaster relief: What would Adam Smith do? [Article]
• Bonner Center for Civic Engagement to Serve as Focal Point for Addressing Community Issues [Article]
• International Leadership Association Features Hicks' Book

Projects

• Spain’s Ministry of Education and Science, Foreign Researcher Sabbatical Grant, 2007. Project title: “Liderazgo Político y Diversidad Religiosa en España, Referencia Especial a Andalucía y Granada.” Research in Department of Political Science, University of Granada, February-April 2007.
• On sabbatical in the 2006-07 academic year, Hicks taught a graduate course on “Christianity and the Market” at Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond.
• World Bank and World Economics Forum, project on ethics and development. April 2006 conference presentation at Oxford University.
• World Institute for Development Economics Research (WIDER) Helsinki, Finland. Conference presentation in 2003; research paper; book chapter.
• Pluralism Project of Harvard University, research grant. Project title: “We the Religiously Diverse People: Pluralism and American Civic Life,” 2006.
• Keck Foundation and University of Richmond, course development grant, “Leadership and the Liberal Arts” initiative with Loyola Marymount University and Claremont McKenna College, for “Ethics and Economics,” 2005-06.
• Virginia Poverty Law Center Board of Directors
• Lilly Endowment, Inc. project that addresses the economics of ministry. [More]
• Co-convener of the 2004 national colloquy (themed "Christian Faith and Economic Life") of the Institute for Reformed Theology at Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education

Publications

• With God on All Sides: Leadership in a Devout and Diverse America . New York: Oxford University Press, January 2009. 
• Getting and Spending: Christian Reflections on Economic Life. Practices of Faith series. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, forthcoming.
• Global Neighbors: Christian Faith and Moral Obligation in Today’s Economy. Edited with Mark Valeri. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, forthcoming.
• “Global Poverty and Bono’s Celebrity Activism: An Analysis of Moral Imagination and Motivation.” In Global Neighbors: Christian Faith and Moral Obligation in Today’s Economy, forthcoming.
•  Entries on “Economics and Theology” and “Public Theology.” In The New Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology, ed. by Dawn DeVries and B. A. Gerrish. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, forthcoming.
•  “Inequalities, Agency, and Well-being: Conceptual Linkages and Measurement Challenges in Development.” In Understanding Human Well-Being, ed. by Mark McGillivray and Matthew Clarke, pp. 101-116. Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2006.
•  “A Framework for a General Theory of Leadership Ethics.” With Terry L. Price. In Quest for a General Theory of Leadership, ed. by George R. Goethals and Georgia Sorenson, pp. 123-151. Northhampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006.
• “Star Power: The Limits of Celebrity Activism.” The Christian Century 123/6 (March 21, 2006): 23-24.
• Religion and the Workplace. Cambridge University Press, 2003.
• Inequality and Christian Ethics. Cambridge University Press, 2000.
• Dr. Hicks is an editor, with J. Thomas Wren and Terry L. Price, of the three-volume reference work The International Library of Leadership, 2004.
• "Self-Interest, Deprivation, and Agency: Expanding the Capabilities Approach." The Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics. (2005).
• "Religion and Respectful Pluralism in the Workplace: A Constructive Framework." The Journal of Religious Leadership (Spring, 2003).

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