Elisabeth R. Kincaid, J.D., Ph.D., Appointed Director of Baylor’s Institute of Faith and Learning

Contact: Lori Fogleman, Baylor University Media and Public Relations, 254-709-5959
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WACO, Texas (April 23, 2024) – Following a successful national search, Baylor University Provost Nancy Brickhouse, Ph.D., announced today the appointment of Elisabeth R. Kincaid, J.D., Ph.D., as director of the Institute for Faith and Learning (IFL), effective Aug. 1. She also will serve as associate professor of ethics, faith and culture in Baylor’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary and affiliate faculty member in the Department of Management in the Hankamer School of Business.

Kincaid succeeds Darin Davis, Ph.D., who led IFL as director from 2007-2023 and serves as clinical professor of moral philosophy in the Honors Program. Elijah Jeong, Ph.D., has served as IFL interim director during the search process.

 A native Texan, Kincaid is a theologian, lawyer and business ethics scholar, with experience in finance and campus ministry. She currently holds the Legendre-Soule Chair in Ethics at the College of Business in Loyola University New Orleans, where she also serves as the inaugural director of the Center for Ethics and Economic Justice.

“I am delighted to welcome Elisabeth Kincaid to Baylor,” Provost Brickhouse said. “She is already well-known to many faculty on campus for her work on the integration of faith and learning. She comes with a stellar academic preparation as well as experience in connecting people with a shared passion for understanding their teaching and scholarship through the lens of their faith.”

The Institute for Faith and Learning (IFL) was founded in 1997 to promote the University’s mission of integrating academic excellence in research and teaching with deep Christian commitment. Since its founding, the Institute has developed several major programs in support of this mission, cultivating high-quality research, sponsoring conferences, mentoring students and encouraging teaching that is faithful to the Christian intellectual tradition.

As IFL director, Kincaid will oversee the planning and implementation of the Institute’s strong record of significant activities, including the annual Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture and the Crane Scholars Program, and guide IFL’s current programming of faculty formation experiences (seminars, reading groups and retreats) and contribute to the development of new initiatives for faculty spiritual well-being. In addition, she will promote the Institute’s university- and nation-wide partnerships and contribute to the national discussion of the role of religion in higher education through an active program of research and publication.

“I’ve watched with great admiration as Baylor has combined tremendous growth with continuing its commitment to its Christian identity and Baptist heritage,” Kincaid said. “The IFL’s integration of faith across academic disciplines has inspired much of my own administrative vision and especially my own interdisciplinary research. I’m thrilled and honored to serve as a leader in the next phase of the IFL’s service across the Baylor campus. I’m very excited to say that I’m now a Baylor Bear.” 

A native of Dallas, Kincaid earned a B.A. from Rice University and her J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law, and upon graduation practiced law with Haynes and Boone LLP and then worked in private equity. Discerning a call to return to the university campus to help students explore integrating Christian faith and work, she started Intervarsity Christian Fellowship Graduate and Faculty Ministries at Southern Methodist University and received her M.T.S. at Perkins School of Theology, where she focused her thesis, directed by Dr. William Abraham, on the legal philosophy of the Christian philosopher Basil Mitchell. She then received her Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame, where she continued her interdisciplinary research in theology, law and business under the direction of Dr. Jean Porter.

Kincaid has held faculty positions in Christian ethics at the Aquinas Institute of Theology and Nashotah House Theological Seminary, where she also served as acting Academic Dean. She has published a monograph exploring questions of Christian engagement with law, “Law from Below” (Georgetown University Press, 2024) as well as in numerous scholarly journals and popular publications. She is currently at work on a book exploring Christian engagement with work and business ethics in order to live a flourishing life. She also writes on virtue ethics, legal philosophy and contemporary and early modern political theology. She is married to the Rev. S. Thomas Kincaid III. They have two children.

Provost Brickhouse also thanked the nine-person IFL search committee for their valuable time and service and DeAnna Toten Beard, Ph.D., vice provost for academic affairs, for her role in assuring strong faculty input during the search and shepherding the process to a successful outcome.

The IFL director search committee was co-chaired by Sara Perry, Ph.D., associate professor of management in the Hankamer School of Business, and Darren J.N. Middleton, Ph.D., director of the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core and professor of literature and theology in the Honors College, and included faculty members Stephanie Boddie, Ph.D., Jacob Brewer, Ph.D., DPT, Sara Dolan, Ph.D., Perry Glanzer, Ph.D., Horace Maxile, Ph.D., Doug Weaver, Ph.D., and Lenore Wright, Ph.D.

ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked Research 1 institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 20,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions.