Baylor School of Education Lecture Will Focus on Leadership in the Past, Present and Future

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Baylor University's School of Education will host the spring 2010 Distinguished Lecture Series focused on leadership from an unusual perspective. The featured speaker is Dr. Robert Birnbaum, Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland, College Park, Md.
Birnbaum will discuss leadership in the past, present and future, focusing on human influences from 4 million years ago to the evolution of today's leadership. Birnbaum's lecture "The Evolution of Human Leadership" will be at 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 10, in Roxy Grove Hall, at the corner of South Seventh and James street on the Baylor campus. Refreshments will be served following the lecture.
Birnbaum will discuss his topic "What Evolution Suggests about Leading in the Forest, the Garden and the State" at 8:30 a.m., Thursday, Feb. 11, in the Education Service Center Region 12 community auditorium, 2101 W. Loop 340, Waco. He will address how to be considered for leadership positions and how to maintain those positions over time.
"Leaders require followers," Birnbaum said. "Leadership can't be appointed from above, they must be identified from below."
Birnbaum received his bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Rochester, Rochester, N.Y., and he received his master's degree and doctorate in higher education from the Teacher's College at Columbia University, New York, N.Y.
Birnbaum has served as the Vice Chancellor for the Executive Office at The City University of New York, the Chancellor for the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and the Vice President and Dean of Faculty at Miyazaki International College in Miyazaki, Japan.
Several of Birnbaum's publications have been used for textbooks in classrooms, including How Colleges Work: The Cybernetics of Academic Organization and Leadership; Management Fads in Higher Education: Where They Come From, What They Do, Why They Fail; and How Academic LeadershipWorks: Understanding Success and Failure in the College.
"I want people to understand the way humans influence each other is related to our genetic makeup," Birnbaum said.
The Baylor School of Education Distinguished Lecture Series seeks to engage the school, university and community in discussing relevant educational topics.
For more information, contact the Baylor School of Education at (254) 710-3111 or visit www.baylor.edu/soe.

by Lillyan Baker, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805