Dr. Bill Sterrett, Hale Endowed Chair of School Leadership

Baylor’s Institute for Faith and Learning is at the core of what we aspire to do in our learning community- foster a spirit of both academic excellence and a mission-focused faith grounding that will help anchor the work that we do in the classroom, in the field, and in our research spaces. I was drawn to Baylor for its mission of growing leaders in a community that celebrates what we have in common while seeking to broaden our perspectives and further enrichen our leadership opportunities. The IFL helped me feel right at home through campus-wide monthly lunches, where we thoughtfully explored perspectives across interdisciplinary perspectives, connected various research silos, and took time to reflect upon our unique Missio – our “why” of being at Baylor. These relationships were strengthened at a week-long Communio retreat where we unplugged, worshipped, further engaged in thought-provoking readings and discussions, enjoyed the beautiful creation at our Texas hill country setting, and played and prayed together as brothers and sisters in community.

As an educational leadership professor and department chair, I have also appreciated the annual Symposium on Faith and Culture in which the IFL solicits academic papers across disciplines, united in a common theme. The past several year’s symposiums have been a refreshing and invigorating time of exploring Christian intellectual life in answering some of the most important questions of our time. From exploring how art helps us understand our faith (and vice versa!), to committing to finding places and spaces to come together in an era of upheaval and discord, these annual gatherings provide a time of renewal and reimagining of what our work, and our greater societal expanses, might be as we seek to be a light in our various callings. Through all of this, the IFL has served as a place to rediscover our “why” and grow together in community. I have made new friends and grown to appreciate the work of colleagues in disciplines as varied as physical therapy and sleep sciences, religion, higher education, social work, nursing, engineering, business, and other fields that I may have not intersected with, if not for this call to realize our Missio. . . together. I am grateful for Baylor and for the work of the Institute for Faith and Learning to help us realize what we have imagined together.