Associate Vice President for Program Development
Edward H. Levi Hall
5801 South Ellis Avenue, Suite 601
Chicago, IL 60637
Phone: 773.702.3109
Fax: 773.834.9199
In his role as Associate Vice President for Program Development, Ken works closely with faculty and administrative leaders in the planning, initiation and management of large-scale research program initiatives and proposals. These responsibilities include collaborative University research efforts with Argonne National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Arete, the University’s research accelerator, also reports to Ken.
Ken founded Arete with colleagues John Cacioppo and Matthew Christian in 2007 as an incubator for new research ventures at the University of Chicago. Led by the OVPRNL and the University’s Office of Foundation and Corporate Relations, Arete mobilizes intellectual and administrative talent to conceptualize and build research start-ups through creating and executing business plans, facilitating external collaborations, and securing funding. In partnership with federal agencies, private foundations, industry, and individual philanthropists, Arete has successfully developed initiatives across an array of diverse topics, including economics, computation, energy policy, entrepreneurship, decision research, medicine, education, neuroscience, and urban science.
Before joining the OVPRNL, Ken served as Director for Strategic Foundation Initiatives at the University. In this capacity, he led a team responsible for developing large-scale initiatives around institutional priorities and managing the University’s relationships with Chicago-area and major national foundations. Ken’s efforts led to more than 25 projects successfully developed and funded, and he received the Gates Award for outstanding service to the department twice.
Prior to joining the University in 2004, Ken was a research and development consultant with Protestants for the Common Good, an education and advocacy organization that works to improve public policy in the areas of poverty, affordable housing, criminal justice, education and the environment. Earlier in his career, he served as Internship Program Administrator with the Unitarian Universalist Association and as Faculty Administrator at Meadville Lombard Theological School. He was ordained to the ministry in 2000 and served for two years as intern minister at Second Unitarian Church of Chicago.
Ken completed his undergraduate work in literature at the University of Rochester. He holds a Doctor of Ministry from Meadville Lombard Theological School, an affiliate of the University of Chicago, and did advanced graduate work in ethics and religion at Harvard University. In addition to graduating with highest distinction from Rochester and Meadville, Ken received a number of awards including the Harvard University Fellowship; the R.C. Billing Prize for Excellence in Scholarship; and the Bausch & Lomb Honorary Science Award. He has served as adjunct faculty at Meadville, the University of Chicago’s Graham School of General Studies, and as a Teaching Fellow at Harvard. Ken also holds an Executive MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
He is the editor of Through the Rose Window: Art, Myth, and the Religious Imagination (Skinner House Press, 2002), and serves on the Board of Advisors for the John Templeton Foundation.
