The Presidential Signature Series unites a variety of special opportunities and some of the nation's leading experts under one series to elevate scholarly conversations and illuminate significant work in the pursuit of flourishing!
We hope you will make plans to join us throughout the season as often as you can. Learn more about the 2024-25 Presidential Signature Series season below.
Oct. 10: Illuminate: Living With Purpose
A one-day conference with break out sessions focused on discovering purpose at the intersection of faith and work featuring keynote speakers David Kinnaman, Jordan Raynor and Amy Sherman.
David Kinnaman is the author of the bestselling books Faith ForExiles. Good Faith. You lost Me and unChristian. He is CEO of Barna Group, a leading research and communications company that works with churches, nonprofits and businesses ranging from film studios to financial services
Amy L. Sherman directs the Center on Faith in Communities at the Sagamore Institute and is an active consultant with Made to Flourish. She is author of seven books and over 100 articles in a variety of periodicals including Christianity Today. Sherman created and co-directed the national Vocation Infusion Learning Communities, a four-year initiative for congregational leaders to discuss various issues.
Jordan Raynor is a leading voice of the faith and work movement. Through his bestselling books, keynote speeches, podcasts and devotionals, Raynor has helped millions around the world connect the Gospel to works. In addition to his writing and speaking. Raynor serves as the executive chairman of Threshold 360, a venture-backed tech startup.
Oct. 21-25: Fashion Week with a focus on Lipscomb’s Halston Collection
Lipscomb University is home to one of the most comprehensive collections of famed designer Halston. The Fashion Week exhibition will feature watercolors from Halston’s studio, photographs of historical and aesthetic importance, media clips from the collection and a sampling of the garments that highlight some of Halston’s greatest work.
The Halston Collection was named after American fashion pioneer designer, Roy Frowick Halston, who rose to international fame in the 1970s, redefined American fashion by employing minimalism and clean lines into his work. He was most noted for his design of the pillbox hat, worn by Jackie Kennedy at President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural in 1962. Then, he expanded to a full fashion line in 1968 and within seven years became one of the top designers in the world.
Nov. 7: Don R. Elliott Distinguished Presidential Lecture
Speaker: Dan Heath
Dan Heath is the co-author, along with his brother, Chip, of four New York Times bestsellers: Decisive, Switch, Made to Stick, and The Power of Moments. The Heath Brothers’ books have sold over 3 million copies worldwide and been translated into 33 languages.
Heath is a Senior Fellow at Duke University’s CASE center, which supports social entrepreneurs. Previously, Dan worked as a researcher and case writer for Harvard Business School. In the late 1990s, Dan co-founded an innovative publishing company called Thinkwell, which for almost 25 years has been producing a line of online college textbooks that feature video lectures from some of the country’s top professors.
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Jan. 30, 2025: McClure Lecture on Faith and Science
Speaker: Dwayne Simmons
Dwayne Simmons is the Cornelia Marschall Smith Endowed Professor in the Department of Biology and the Senior Director of STEM Initiatives in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Office of Engaged Learning at Baylor University. He also serves as Director of the BTRUE (Baylor Transdisciplinary Research Undergraduate Experience). He was Chair of the Department of Biology from 2016-2023 and he holds an appointment as a Visiting Professor in the School of Bioscience at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. In 2015-16, he was a Fulbright Scholar to the United Kingdom where he conducted research at the University of Sheffield on the role of calcium buffering in auditory function and deafness. He received a Career Development Award (2014-17) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Previously at UCLA, he was a professor in the Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology, directed diversity and education programs for the UCLA Brain Research Institute, and directed several NIH-funded undergraduate research programs, whose goals are to increase the number of students from diverse backgrounds who enter biomedical research careers
Feb. 25, 2025: Landiss Lecture
Speaker: Ruta Sepetys
Ruta Sepetys is an internationally acclaimed, #1 New York Times bestselling author of historical fiction such as Between Shades of Gray, Out of the Easy and Salt to the Sea. Her work has been published in over 60 countries and 40 languages. Sepetys is considered a “crossover” novelist as her books are read by both students and adults worldwide. Winner of the Carnegie Medal, her books have won or been shortlisted for over forty book prizes, are included on over thirty state reading lists, and are currently in development for film and television.
Sepetys is passionate about the power of history and story's capability to foster global dialogue and connectivity. She has presented at NATO, European Parliament, the U.S. Capitol, the Library of Congress, and Embassies worldwide. Additionally, she was awarded The Rockefeller Foundation’s prestigious Bellagio Fellowship for her studies on human resilience.
April 1, 2025: Fred Gray Lectureship
The Fred Gray Lectureship will feature a day of engaging and inspirational dialogue featuring some of today's leading thinkers. Speakers include David French and Russell Moore.
David French is a New York Times columnist and Turner Family Distinguished Visiting Professor of Public Policy at Lipscomb University. A graduate of Harvard Law School, French was previously a senior editor at The Dispatch and a contributing writer at The Atlantic. He is a former constitutional litigator and a past president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. French is a New York Times bestselling author, and his most recent book is “Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation.” David is a former major in the United States Army Reserve and is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, where he was awarded the Bronze Star.
Russell Moore is Editor in Chief of Christianity Today and is the author of Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America (Penguin Random House). Russell was President of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention from 2013 to 2021. Prior to that role, Moore served as provost and dean of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, where he also taught theology and ethics. Moore was a Fellow at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics and currently serves on the board of the Becket Law and as a Senior Fellow with the Trinity Forum in Washington, D.C.
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