History

Prior to the establishment of Baylor's Christian Higher Education Leadership Seminar in 2007, there was no existing program/seminar in the country designed specifically to develop upper-level academic administrators combing scholarship, practice, and Christian identity. 

Yet, there was clearly a need for such a program, as evidenced by the strong support Don Schmeltekopf received in 2005-06 from all the provosts in the Texas Baptist schools when he proposed to bring interested colleagues together for the specific purpose of education and training in academic leadership and college/university administration.

Institutional leaders were concerned about who our future chairs, deans, provosts, and presidents would be, and where they would come from. Of primary interest was the capacity of our future leaders to set forth the vision needed for our schools and to set the appropriate tone for much of the day-to-day operations of their institutions.

Since the inaugural seminar held at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor in 2007, the seminar has provided leadership training opportunities for over 250 total individuals. Participants primarily come from variety of Christian institutions, although leaders from other schools are welcome to participate as well.