Faculty of SLU
Faculty Biographies
The faculty of Student Leadership University encompasses the sharpest minds and most articulate communicators in the Christian field. Under these world-class instructors, our students receive the best training available in leadership today and are equipped to handle the challenges of tomorrow. Student Leadership University is proud to offer leadership courses taught by the following instructors:
Dr. Daniel Akin, PhD
Kenneth Chuck Allen
Dr. Mark Brister, Ph.D.
Admiral Vernon Clark
Dr. Richard Land, D.Phil.
HRH Prince Michael of Kent
Dr. Albert Mohler, PhD
Sir Nicholas Soames
Dr. Bob Reccord, D.Min.
Dr. Graham Ferguson Lacey
Dr. Ike Reighard, D.Min.
Jonathan Aitken
Dr. Jay Strack, D.Min.
Dr. David Young, D.Phil.
Pat Williams
Michael Bates
Tim Tassopoulos
Will Cavanagh
Dr. Daniel Akin, Ph.D.
President, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
B.A., The Criswell College (1980); M.Div., Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (1983); Ph.D., University of Texas at Arlington(1989).
Before coming to Southeastern, Dr. Akin served as the Senior Vice President for Academic Administration and Dean of The School of Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has served as interim pastor in churches in Texas, Florida, Alabama and Virginia, and he has ministered in Australia, Thailand, Paraguay, Kenya and to the Papago Indians. He was the New Testament editor of The Believer's Study Bible. Dr. Akin wrote the commentary for the Epistles of John in the New American Commentary. He is also the general editor for A Theology for the Church, Broadman & Holman's first systematic theology text. Dr. Akin has numerous other books and articles in publication. He is a member of Evangelical Theological Society as well as a leader and statesman among Southern Baptist.
Dr. Mark Brister, Ph.D.
President, Oklahoma Baptist University
Dr. Mark A. Brister became Oklahoma Baptist University's 14th president on September 1, 1998. During Dr. Brister's tenure at the University, OBU has expanded international involvements and enlarged the size of the campus from 125 to 189 acres. In addition, the University has continued to receive national recognition for the quality of its academic programs. In the Brister era, OBU has led the nation in the number of recent graduates serving in the International Mission Board's Journeyman Program.
A graduate of Baylor University, Waco, TX, Brister completed his master of divinity and doctor of philosophy degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he received the Albert Venting Jr. Memorial Award as the outstanding graduate in the School of Theology. For three consecutive years, his sermons were published in The Zondervan Pastor's Annual. He has also written and contributed to various other articles.
Dr. Richard Land, D. Phil.
President, Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission
Dr. Richard D. Land is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, an agency for "applied Christianity" (social and moral concerns). He has served in this position since his election in October 1988.
Prior to becoming the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission's President, Dr. Land served as The Criswell College's Vice-President for Academic Affairs from 1980 to 1988. He has taught as Professor of Theology and Church History at that institution since 1975.
Dr. Land graduated with the Bachelor of Arts degree (magna cum laude) from Princeton University and with the Doctor of Philosophy degree from Oxford University in England. He also received a Master of Theology degree from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary where he served as student body president and received the Broadman Seminarian Award as the outstanding graduating student.
While on leave of absence from The Criswell College, Dr. Land served from January 1987 to May 1988 as Administrative Assistant to the Honorable William P. Clements, Jr., Governor of Texas. Dr. Land was the Governor's senior advisor on church-state issues and areas relating to "traditional family values" as well as anti-drug, anti-pornography and anti-abortion legislation. In addition to these issues, Dr. Land had senior staff responsibility in the areas of public higher education, mental health and retardation, the physically handicapped, and AIDS.
Dr. Land has spoken on college campuses, in churches and in other forums across America concerning the crucial issues facing American society as we approach the twenty-first century. From 1980 until 1988, Dr. Land hosted a syndicated weekly radio program, "Issues of the Eighties," which generated an enthusiastic response among listeners in many cities, and he currently co-hosts a 30-minute weekday radio talk show, "For Faith & Family," sponsored by The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. It is presently heard on over 337 stations in 42 states.
Dr. Land has contributed articles to both learned journals and popular periodicals and has served as contributing editor for the Criswell Study Bible. He is also contributing editor to the following books: The Earth Is The Lord's, Life At Risk, Citizen Christians, and Christians In The Public Square. Dr. Land is listed in Whos Who in America (1994) and Whos Who in Religion (1992).
Dr. Albert Mohler, Ph.D.
President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., serves as the ninth president of The Southern Theological Seminary-- one of the largest seminaries in the world. A leader among American evangelicals, Dr. Mohler was listed in a 1995 TIME magazine cover story as one of its "50 for the Future"--fifty persons under age 40 who are emerging national leaders in their fields. In 1996 Christianity Today described Dr. Mohler as one of the 40 emerging evangelical leaders. In 1998 Change, a national higher education magazine, named Dr. Mohler one of 40 "Young Leaders of the Academy."
A native of Lakeland, Florida, Dr. Mohler was a Faculty Scholar at Florida Atlantic University before receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree from Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. He holds a Master of Divinity degree and the Doctor of Philosophy (in systematic and historical theology) from Southern Seminary. He has pursued additional study at the St. Meinrad School of Theology and has done research at Oxford University (England).
Dr. Mohlers writings have been published throughout the United States and Europe. He has contributed chapters to several recent books including Here We Stand: A Call From Confessing Evangelicals and The Coming Evangelical Crisis. He served as General Editor of The Gods of the Age or the God of the Ages: Essays by Carl F. H. Henry and served from 1985 to 1993 as Associate Editor of Preaching, a journal for evangelical preachers.
Dr. Bob Reccord, D.Min.
Believing that Gods calling is not static, Bob has served as a corporate vice-president in the business world, pastored churches in three states, and for nine years headed one of the worlds largest mission agencies and the third largest disaster relief ministry in the United States. For four years he hosted the weekly national radio program, Strength For Living. He has spoken for college and NFL chapels, business conferences, young leaders summits, and student and couples conferences. In addition, he has authored eight books focused on challenging people to make their lives count wherever they are. In 2006 he is giving the kickoff message at all nineteen Promise Keeper events throughout the United States.
He is an avid scuba diver, hunter, golfer, skier and reader. In 2003, he paraglided off the Swiss Alps. Dr. Reccord and his wife Cheryl, leave audiences rolling with laughter and impacted with insight on subjects ranging from "Learning How You are Wired, and Avoiding Short-circuiting" to "Leading From the Insight Out." Dr. Reccord lives in Alpharetta , Ga. , with Cheryl, an accomplished pianist, author, speaker and President of Total Life Impact, Inc.
Dr. Ike Reighard, D.Min.
Pastor, North Star Community Church
B.A. (magna cum laude), Mercer University; M.Div., D.Min, Luther Rice Seminary.
Dr. Dwight "Ike" Reighards purpose statement reflects his own life story: Helping people exchange ordinary living for an extraordinary life.
Born in Andrews, North Carolina, in 1950, Ike experienced the difficulties of growing up in an unchurched family, being the "different" kid in school, and dealing with the touch issues of adolescence while growing up in inner-city Atlanta. He accepted Christ as his Savior at the age of 22.
His unique approach to speaking engages and encourages his listeners through humor, energetic delivery and a humility of "having been there" himself. As a result, Ike has excelled as a speaker to a wide variety of audiences, including pastors, youth and management for companies such as Delta Air Lines, Inc., Chick-Fil-A, BellSouth Telecommunications, Homebanc and others. Ike wants those who listen to him to have a sense of affirmation; he wants people to believe in themselves the way God believes in them. Whether he speaks on goal-setting, dealing with death, or real discipleship in a self-focused culture, his teaching is rooted on Biblical truths and his personal conviction that no one can be complete without knowing and loving Jesus Christ.
Dr. Reighard is the author of Treasures From The Dark, the autobiographical account of the tragic death of his wife, Cindy, and their unborn child. The book includes an expanded workbook section to promote recovery and healing.
Discovering Your North Star, his current release, is designed to help people accelerate their potential in their careers and personal lives. Ike has also written a companion book, The North Star Journal, a daily devotional, reflection, and application guide.
Dr. Jay Strack, D.Min.
President/Founder of Student Leadership University
B.A. (cum laude) Charleston Southern University(1975); M.Div. Southwestern Seminary (1978); M.Div. (1984), D.Min. (1986) Luther Rice Seminary.
Dr. Strack is an effective communicator author and minister from Orlando, Florida. Jay has devoted his life to helping others become winners. Having overcome his own drug addiction as an adolescent, he believes, "If I can overcome, anyone can overcome." Acclaimed by leadership in the business world, religious affiliations, and education as a dynamic speaker. Jay has spoken to an estimated 15 million people in his 29 years of ministry in thousands of churches area-wide, inter-denominational, and inter-racial crusades. His versatile style has been presented across the country and in 22 countries, before government entities, corporate groups, numerous professional sports teams in the NFL, NBA, and MLB, to over 10,000 high school assemblies and at some 100 universities. Jay has had the honor of presenting leadership skills before both the Air Force Academy students and faculty and is the featured speaker for the 1998 NBA All-Star Chapel. Commended for his work against drugs by former Secretary of Education, William Bennett and former First Lady Nancy Reagan, Strack has been interviewed nationally and internationally on radio and television including CNN, McNeil Lehrer Report and the 700 Club.
Dr. Strack has served as the editor of two bible translations, the Transformer Student Bible and the True Love Waits Bible. In addition, he has authored more than 15 highly acclaimed books and Good Kids Who Do Bad Things: How to Help Your Kids Make Good Choices.
Pat Williams
Senior Executive Vice President, Orlando Magic / RDV Sports
Pat Williams was raised in Washington, Delaware, earned his bachelors degree at Wake Forest University and his masters degree at Indiana University.
He has a doctorate in humane letters from Flagler University and is currently working on a doctorate in sports administration from Walden University. He is a member of the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame, earning this distinction after catching for the Deacons baseball team, including the 1962 Atlantic Coast Conference championship team. He spent seven years in the Philadelphia Phillies organization, two as a player and five in the front office, and three years in the Minnesota Twins organization.
Since 1968 he has been affiliated with the National Basketball Association teams in Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, including the 1983 World Champion 76ers, and now the Orlando Magic, which he co-founded in 1987 and helped lead to the NBA finals in 1995. Nineteen of his teams have gone to the NBA playoffs and five of them have made the NBA finals. In 1996, Pat was named as one of the 50 most influential people in NBA history by a national publication. He spearheaded the birth of the Orlando Miracle, Orlando's entry in the WNBA.
Pat and his wife, Ruth, are the parents of 19 children, 14 adopted from four nations, ranging in age 13 to 27. Sixteen of the children are currently teenagers. Three of his sons are in the United States Marine Corps.
Pat and his family have been featured in Sports Illustrated, Readers Digest, Good Housekeeping, The Wall Street Journal, Focus on the Family, New Man Magazine, plus CBS, NBC, ABC, ESPN, CNN, CBN, AND The Maury Povich Show.
He teaches an adult Sunday school class at the First Baptist Church of Orlando and hosts a weekly radio show. In the last three years he has run eleven marathons, including the Boston Marathon three times and also climbed Mt. Rainer. Pat is the author of 17 books, the most recent being Ahead of the Game, his long awaited autobiography.
Tim Tassopoulos
Senior Vice President of Operations, Chick-fil-A, Inc.
Tim Tassopoulos is senior vice president of Operations and is responsible for coordinating the activities of Field Operations, Operation Services, Chick-fil-A University, Human Resources, and Purchasing and Distribution. Tim began his career at Chick-fil-A in 1977 as a restaurant team member and joined the home office staff as a business consultant in 1983.
In 1985, Chick-fil-A initiated the move from a Mall restaurant concept and began the development of a new Free-Standing Unit concept. Tim was assigned the development responsibilities of this project and the expansion of the Free-Standing Unit concept for the first 50 locations.
In 1990 when the Free-Standing Unit concept was merged with Mall operations, Tim was assigned to be one of four directors of Operations. In 1995 Tim was appointed vice president of Field Operations, and in 1996 he was appointed to the Executive Committee. In 1999 Tim was appointed to his current position, senior vice president of Operations.
Tim graduated from Oglethorpe University in 1981 with a BA in history and political science and was Valedictorian and an Oglethorpe Cup award winner. He received his MBA from Georgetown University in 1981 and was recognized with a Graduate School Service Award.
Tim currently serves on the board of trustees of Oglethorpe University. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Atlanta Area Council for the Boy Scouts of America. Tim attends Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church where he teaches Sunday School to high school students. He has served on the Parish Council and chaired the church's stewardship committee.
Tim is a native of Atlanta and has been married to the former Maria Copsis for 11 years. Tim and Maria have two sons, Luke and Nicholas.
Kenneth Chuck Allen
Chuck Allen is serving as the President of the Chuck Allen Agency. Prior to this, Chuck was COO and Executive Director of the Next Level Leadership Network and served as Special Assistant to the President of NAMB and on staff as Director of the Direct Evangelism Team. He has also served as Executive Pastor and Staff Coordinator at First Baptist Church, Snellville, Georgia, and Minister of Education and Minister to Children.
Chuck was born in Daytona Beach, Florida, and has attended Dekalb College and Liberty University.
Admiral Vernon Clark
Former Chief of Naval Operations, United States Navy
Born in Sioux City, Iowa, and raised in the midwestern states of Nebraska, Missouri, and Illinois, Admiral Clark graduated from Evangel College and earned a Master's Degree of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Arkansas. He attended Office Candidate School and received his commission in August 1968.
Admiral Clark served aboard the destroyers USS John W. Weeks (DD 701) and USS Gearing (DD 710). As a lieutenant, he commanded USS Grand Rapids (PG 98). He subsequently commanded USS McCloy (FF 1038), USS Spruance (DD 963), the Atlantic Fleet's Anti-Submarine Warfare Training Center, Destroyer Squadron Seventeen, and Destroyer Squadron Five. After being selected for flag rank, Admiral Clark commanded the Carl Vinson Group/Cruiser Destroyer Group Three, the Second Fleet, and the United States Atlantic Fleet.
Ashore, Admiral Clark first served as Special Assistant to the Director of the Systems Analysis Division in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. He later completed assignments as the Administrative Assistant to the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Surface Warfare) and as the Administrative Assistant to the Vice Chief of Naval Operations. He served as Head of the Cruiser/Destroyer Combat Systems Requirements Section and Force Anti-Submarine Warfare Officer for the Commander, Naval Surface Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, and he directed the Joint Staff's Crisis Action Team for Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
Admiral Clark's first flag assignment was at the U.S. Transportation Command where he was Director of both Plans and Policy (J5) and Financial Management and Analysis (J8). While commanding the Carl Vinson Battle Group, he deployed to the Arabian Gulf and later served as the Deputy Commander, Joint Task Force Southwest Asia. Admiral Clark has also served as the Deputy and Chief of Staff, United States Atlantic Fleet; the Director of Operations (J3) and subsequently, the Director of the Joint Staff.
Admiral Clark became the 27th Chief of Naval Operations on July 21, 2000.
Admiral Clark's personal decorations include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal (three awards), the Distinguished Service Medal (two awards), the Legion of Merit (three awards), the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal (four awards), the Navy Commendation Medal, and various service and campaign awards.
HRH Prince Michael of Kent
A qualified Russian interpreter, also fluent in French and with a working knowledge of German and Italian, the Prince travels extensively on business and has led delegations of British businessmen to both China and Russia. As Founder Patron of the Genesis Initiative he is also heavily involved in the promotion of small businesses for the SME sector, with special reference to the export side.
Despite these commitments, the Prince devotes a high proportion of his time to the support of a large number of non-profit-making charities, institutes, trade associations, societies, and health organizations. These range from The Kennel Club and SSAFA (Soldiers', Sailors' & Airmen's Families' Association) Forces Help to The Heart Hospital and Maritime Volunteer Service.
As well as being Commonwealth President of the Royal Life Saving Society, he is also President of the Royal Automobile Club, the National Eye Research Center and the World Health Network Foundation among many other such organizations. His Fellowships include those of the Institute of the Motor Industry, the Royal Aeronautical Society and the Institute of Linguists.
In 1978 in Vienna, he married Baroness Marie-Christine von Reibnitz, daughter of Baron von Reibnitz and the former Countess Marianne Szapary. The Prince and Princess have two children. Frederick, born in 1979, is currently reading Classics a Magdalen College, Oxford while Gabriella, born in 1981, is a pupil at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. The family live at Nether Lypiatt Manor in Gloucestershire and at Kensington Palace.
Eighth in line to the throne at the time of his birth, the Prince was obliged under the 1701 Act of Settlement to renounce his right of succession following his marriage because the Princess is a Roman Catholic. His children, however, still have a claim to the throne having been brought up in the Church of England.
Sir Nicholas Soames
Sir Nicholas Soames was born in 1948. He was educated at St. Aubyns, Sussex and Eton College. He is the son of Lord Soames and grandson of Sir Winston Churchill. He was commissioned into the 11th Hussars and served in Germany and the United Kingdom from 1967-70. He then worked for two years as a stockbroker before becoming Personal Assistant to Sir James Goldsmith in 1973, where he gained experience in both the manufacturing and service industries. Mr. Soames spent a year in America as Legislative Assistant to a Senator, then in 1977 spent four years as a Director with a firm of Lloyds Brokers. He contested Central Dumbartonshire at the 1979 General Election. He was Member of Parliament for Crawley from 1983 until 1997. He won the seat of Mid Sussex at the 1997 General Election, with a majority of 6.854.
Mr. Soames has a specialized knowledge of Europe, trade and industry, and defense. His hobbies include reading, music, and country pursuits. He has traveled widely. In July 1984, Nicholas Soames was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to John Selwyn Gummer MP, Minister of State for Employment and Chairman of the Conservative Party.
He stepped down as a Parliamentary Private Secretary in April 1986 upon his selection as Secretary of the Conservative Foreign Affairs Committee.
Mr. Soames was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Nicholas Ridley, as Secretary of State for the Environment and for Trade and Industry, 1987-90. He was appointed Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in 1992, and from July 1994 until 1997 he was Minister of State for the Armed Forces, Ministry of Defense.
He is married with one son.
Dr. Graham Ferguson Lacey
Born in England in 1948, he commenced business on his own account at age fifteen. He has served on the boards of twenty-seven publicly listed companies in five countries. Dr. Lacey has now dedicated himself to activities that have eternal spiritual dimension.
Dr. Lacey was the executive producer of the award-winning "A Worldwide Christmas Celebration" and is the executive producer of "The Millennium Chorus."
A confidant of many leading evangelists and preachers alike, he has been an active enabler for the cause of Christ in numerous countries around the world. Lacey holds an honorary Doctorate in International Law, which was conferred on him in 1986.
Dr. Lacey is married with two sons and resides in the Isle of Man in the British Isles.
Jonathan Aitken
Oxford educated, Jonathan Aitken started his career as a Fleet Street journalist in the 1960s serving as a war correspondent in Vietnam, Biafra and the Middle East. In 1974 he became a Conservative Member of Parliament spending 18 years on the backbenches until being appointed as Minister of State for Defense in 1994. Jonathan has chaired many Parliamentary committees and business groups including the British Saudi Arabian Parliamentary Group. He was also appointed Chief Executive of TV-Am and Chairman of Aitken Hume Plc, the banking and investment group.
A man who inspires and motivates people by his life is the Director of Prison Fellowship International and regularly visits prisons to talk to inmates. A regular contributor to TV radio and newspapers, Jonathan is also a best selling author. He has completed his first novel and is currently writing a biography. One of the most outstanding public speaker Britain has produced. Jonathan has a remarkable and inspiring story to tell. A superb after dinner and business speaker makes him one of the hottest personality on the circuit. His recent speaking engagements include the Harvard Club of New York, the International Press Club of Hong Kong, and dinners and luncheons in Washington, New York, Palm Springs, Guernsey, Hong Kong and of course the UK.
Dr. David Young, D. Phil.
Managing Director and Founder of Oxford Analytica
Education: 1959, BSc in Physics, Wheaton College; 1963, MA in Law (Oxon); 1964, LLB, Cornell University; 1981, D.Phil. in International Relations, Oxford University.
Employment: 1965-69, Associate at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy (New York); 1969-73, Assistant to Dr. Henry Kissinger, National Security Council, Washington, D.C.; Current position since 1974 - also Lecturer in Politics at Queen's College, Oxford University.
Michael Bates
Director of Consultancy and Research, Oxford Analytica
Joined Oxford Analytica in 1998. Graduate Wadham College, University of Oxford (MBA, 1998). Twelve years in the UK financial services industry. Elected in 1992 to the UK Parliament, serving for five years as a Member and three years as a Minister (Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury and HM Paymaster General). He is a non-executive director of estandardforum.com, Inc. in the U.S. and Congregational and General policy in the UK.
Will Cavanagh
Will Cavanagh is currently the most widely requested instructor by the U.S. Army in the European Battlefield staff ride program. He has been escorting American World War II veterans back to their European battlefields since 1968 and he has been able to relate many personal stories and experiences gained first hand from the guys who were there!
His personal fascination with the battlefields of World War II stems from his family roots in the Belgian Ardennes. As a boy, he listened attentively as his late mother, a Belgian interpreter with U.S. First Army, told of those traumatic times.
Cavanagh served as principal research assistant to the late Charles B. MacDonald, author and former Deputy Chief Historian at the Center for Military History in the research for his book A Time for Trumpets and the running of military tours. He has successfully published 2 of his own books, entitled Krinkelt-Rocherath, The Battle for the Twin Villages and Dauntless- A History of the 99th Infantry Division. He participated in the recovery of the remains of two American MIA's and their repatriation stateside.
Cavanagh is a charter Life Member of the Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge and has assisted in a number of projects to raise monuments and plaques commemorating the sacrifices made by he soldiers of various American units during WWII. His years of experience taking American veterans back to battlefields throughout the ETO and his time as an instructor running staff rides for the U.S. Seventh Army ensure that these tours provide travelers with an unforgettable experience, maximum historical input and an empathetic trip back in time to the raging battles fought on our behalf.