Justad Named Director for the Center for Principled Problem Solving at Guilford College

Mark Justad has been named director of the Center for Principled Problem Solving at Guilford College, effective August 1.

In his new position, Justad will coordinate the foundation, development and evaluation of the Center and its programming and outreach. A key academic initiative in The Strategic Plan for Guilford College 2005-2010: Creative Leadership for the 21st Century, Principled Problem Solving (PPS) is an effort to employ the knowledge, skills and life experiences of students, faculty, staff and community members to address a broad range of real world problems in ways consistent with Guilford's core values of community, diversity, equality, excellence, justice, integrity and stewardship.

"Principled problem solving constitutes the core of a Guilford education and is a centerpiece of our strategic plan," says President Kent Chabotar. "We welcome Mark to his new role of providing a more organized approach for faculty, students and staff to bring our core values to bear on problems at all levels of our society."

Justad has substantial experience integrating academic values and scholarly interests with programmatic initiatives designed to address broad cultural concerns. Since 2003 he has served as executive and associate director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Culture (CSRC) at Vanderbilt University, an interdisciplinary research center featuring multi-year collaborative research projects that address significant intersections of culture and religion. From 2000 to 2007 Justad was senior lecturer and research associate in religion and society at Vanderbilt Divinity School. Since 1993, Justad has served in several other university-wide administrative positions at Vanderbilt, including a three-year term as the assistant to the chancellor.

"Mark brings great depth to a critical leadership position," says Adrienne Israel, vice president and academic dean at Guilford. "He has organized and directed a center similar to the one being established at Guilford and he has excellent credentials in the liberal arts. He has depth in a disciplinary field for which principles are paramount and a track record in applying theory to 'real world' problems. He seems to understand intuitively how the principled problem solving initiative can more concretely link the academic program at Guilford with efforts to meet the challenges of a changing world."

"I was immediately drawn to the new position and to Guilford’s PPS initiative because of its potential for bringing the ideal and the practical into direct and productive interaction," says Justad. "The point of education is, of course, not only to understand and appreciate our world, but also to transform it in positive and creative ways."

Justad is originally from Bothell, Wash. His partner, Joanne Sandberg, is an assistant professor of sociology at High Point University. They have two sons, Cade and Cole, who is a rising sophomore at The Early College at Guilford. Justad has a doctorate in religion from Vanderbilt, a master's in divinity from the Harvard University Divinity School, and a bachelor's degree from the University of Puget Sound.

For more information about Principled Problem Solving, visit http://www.guilford.edu/about_guilford/values/strategic_plan/pps.html.

June 8, 2007