International Journal of Servant-Leadership

Contact: ferch@gonzaga.edu

Poet and prose writer Shann Ray Ferch teaches leadership and forgiveness studies at Gonzaga University. Dr. Ferch is the author of a work of leadership and political theory, Forgiveness and Power in the Age of Atrocity: Servant Leadership as a Way of Life (Rowman & Littlefield), and the editor, with Larry Spears, of Conversations on Servant Leadership (SUNY Press), and The Spirit of Servant Leadership (Paulist Press). In his role as professor of leadership studies with the internationally renowned PhD program in Leadership Studies at Gonzaga, he has served as a visiting scholar in Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, and North America. His novel, American Copper (Unbridled Press), is a love song to America revealing the radiant and profound life of Evelynne Lowry, a woman who transcends the national myth of regeneration through violence. The novel won the Foreword Book of the Year Readers’ Choice Award and the Western Writers of America Spur Award, and was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award, the High Plains Book Award and the Foreword Book of the Year Award for Literary Fiction.

A former professional basketball player, his collection of stories American Masculine (Graywolf Press) was named a "3 Books Every Man Should Read" selection by Esquire Magazine, and won the American Book Award, the Bakeless Prize, and two High Plains Book Awards, for Best Story Collection and Best First Book. A finalist with Ted Kooser’s Splitting an Order and Erin Belieu’s Slant Six, his book of poems, Balefire, (Lost Horse Press) won the High Plains Book Award for Poetry.

Recent publications:

• Servant-Leadership, Feminism, and Gender Well-Being: How Leaders Transcend Global Inequities Through Hope, Unity, and Love
• Servant-Leadership and Forgiveness: How Leaders Help Heal the Heart of the World
• Global Servant-Leadership: Wisdom, Love and Legitimate Power in the Age of Chaos
• Atomic Theory 7: Poems to My Wife and God

Contact: ijsl@zagmail.gonzaga.edu

Jenny Song is Associate Professor at Northwestern College. After earning her Master of Engineering in China and working in the field of IT for 14 years, Jenny came to the United States to pursue a Master of Divinity from George Fox University. After completing her second Master’s degree, she earned a Ph.D. in Leadership Studies from Gonzaga University. Through this process, she has discovered that she has a passion for both effective leadership and academic work.

During her career in China, she served as the Operation Director of an IT company and managed the Operation Service Center and Marketing Department for seven years. She obtained a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification and an IT Service Management certification and worked as a project manager for more than 10 years. During her graduate study at George Fox University, she worked as Teaching Assistant for Dr. MaryKate Morse, teaching and tutoring graduate students in New Testament Greek. She has been active in ministry to international students and visiting scholars at George Fox University since 2013. She graduated from George Fox University and received the Dean’s Award for “superior academic achievement, exemplary Christian character and extraordinary potential for service as a Christian scholar.” At Gonzaga University, she worked with Dr. Chris Francovich as a data analyst for National Science Foundation’s ADVANCE project. She taught project management and spiritual formation at George Fox University. Currently she is Assistant Professor of Business at Northwestern College and serving as Associate Editor with Dr. Shann Ray Ferch and Larry C. Spears for The International Journal of Servant-Leadership. She received Faculty Excellence in Faith and Learning Award from Northwestern College in 2022. She enjoys reading servant-leadership studies and essays from all over the world.

Recent publications:

• Servant-Leadership, Feminism, and Gender Well-Being: How Leaders Transcend Global Inequities Through Hope, Unity, and Love
• Servant-Leadership and Forgiveness: How Leaders Help Heal the Heart of the World
• Global Servant-Leadership: Wisdom, Love and Legitimate Power in the Age of Chaos

Contact: spears@gonzaga.edu; lspears@spearscenter.org

Larry C. Spears is President & CEO of the Larry C. Spears Center for Servant-Leadership, Inc. (Indianapolis), established in 2008; and, he is Servant-Leadership Scholar at Gonzaga University (Spokane). From 1990-2007 he served as President & CEO of the Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership.

Spears is also a writer and editor who has published hundreds of articles, essays, newsletters, books and other publications on servant-leadership. Dozens of newspapers and journals have interviewed him, including Fortune, the Indianapolis Business Journal, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Washington Post, and Advancing Philanthropy. A 2004 television broadcast interview of Spears by Stone Phillips on NBC’s Dateline was seen by ten million viewers. Larry is editor and contributing author to fifteen books on servant-leadership, including Conversations on Servant-Leadership(with Ferch, McFarland, and Carey; 2015, SUNY Press; The Spirit of Servant Leadership (with Shann Ferch; 2011, Paulist Press); and, Insights on Leadership: Service, Stewardship, Spirit and Servant-Leadership (1998, John Wiley & Sons). He has also contributed chapters to another sixteen books, among them, The Jossey-Bass Reader on Nonprofit and Public Leadership (2010, Jossey-Bass); and, Robert K. Greenleaf: A Life of Servant Leadership (2004, Berrett-Koehler).

Larry has given over two hundred keynote addresses on four continents, a dozen countries, and forty states. He spent time with Robert Greenleaf and first encountered Greenleaf’s writings on servant-leadership in 1982. Among several honors, Spears is the 2018 recipient of Gonzaga University School of Leadership Studies Hall of Honor; the 2008 Community Leadership Award given by DePauw University, and the 2004 Dare-to-Lead Award given by the International Leadership Network. The Spears Center is committed to enhancing the global understanding and practices of servant-leadrship.

Recent publications:

• Servant-Leadership, Feminism, and Gender Well-Being: How Leaders Transcend Global Inequities Through Hope, Unity, and Love
• Servant-Leadership and Forgiveness: How Leaders Help Heal the Heart of the World
• Global Servant-Leadership: Wisdom, Love and Legitimate Power in the Age of Chaos