Dean Douglas Henry Elected to the National Board of the Lilly Network for Church-Related Colleges and Universities
Dr. Douglas V. Henry, Dean of the Honors College and Associate Professor of Philosophy, has been elected to a four-year term on the National Board of the Lilly Network for Church-Related Colleges and Universities.
“For more than 30 years, the Lilly Network has lifted high the uniting of academic excellence and Christian faithfulness in colleges and universities across the U.S.,” Henry said. “I will forever be grateful that, as a young faculty member, Lilly nurtured my academic vocation through its extraordinary conferences and generous grants. Through the years, I gained additional perspective through service on selection committees for Lilly’s graduate fellows program and as a mentor for students pursuing Christian intellectual life in some of the nation’s best Ph.D. programs. It’s now a joy to make good on my longstanding gratitude to the Lilly Network by contributing to the National Board’s work.”
Henry has served as the Dean of the Honors College since 2019, and he holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in religion and philosophy. He has taught courses across all four programs of the Honors College and is known for his published work on topics spanning Plato, divine hiddenness, and moral formation in American higher education. Dean Henry has been involved in a variety of past leadership roles at Baylor University, including directing the Institute for Faith and Learning and serving as the faculty steward of Brooks Residential College. Beyond academia, he is active in the Waco community, with residential real estate development and small business ownership on his record.
“Douglas Henry brings a wealth of experience to Lilly Network’s National Board,” Honors College professor and current National Board member Darin Davis said. “Throughout his career, he has been a wise and articulate voice for the cause of church-related higher education. The Lilly Network will benefit greatly in the next few years from Doug’s insight and encouragement.”
Founded in 1991, the Lilly Network of Church-related Colleges and Universities (formerly known as the Lilly Fellows Program), seeks to strengthen the quality and shape the character of church-related institutions of learning through three programmatic initiatives. First, it offers postdoctoral teaching fellowships for early career scholars who desire positions of teaching, scholarship, and leadership within church-related institutions. Second, it supports students of exceptional academic talent who are exploring vocations in church-related higher education during their first three years of graduate school in the Lilly Graduate Fellows Program. Third, it maintains a collaborative Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities that sponsors a variety of activities and publications designed to explore the Christian character of the academic vocation and to strengthen the religious nature of church-related institutions. The Lilly Network represents among its current membership of 100 schools a diversity of denominational traditions, institutional types, and geographical locations. Baylor University is a founding member of this Network. The Network is based at Christ College, the interdisciplinary honors college of Valparaiso University in Northwest Indiana.