Dr. David C. Kirkpatrick
David C. Kirkpatrick is an accomplished university executive and tenured faculty member at James Madison University, where he has served as senior advisor to three presidents, and currently serves as Vice President and Chief of Staff and Secretary to the Board of Visitors. In this role, he oversees strategic planning, board relations, institutional research, local government and community affairs, and major cross-university initiatives that shape JMU’s future direction. Dr. Kirkpatrick has been a central architect of JMU’s transformation into one of the nation’s most dynamic public universities.
A scholar-administrator, Dr. Kirkpatrick brings a blend of academic expertise, strategic leadership, and operational execution. He has held multiple academic leadership roles, including associate department chair of the Department of Philosophy & Religion and executive director of the Madison Center for Civic Engagement, and he maintains an active research portfolio as a tenured associate professor. He completed his PhD at the University of Edinburgh and a postdoctoral fellowship at Florida State University.
Dr. Kirkpatrick is recognized nationally for his leadership in civic engagement, intellectual diversity, and campus culture development. He designed and implemented a university-wide ecosystem for freedom of expression at JMU that includes a signature deliberative dialogue program reaching every student, led fundraising and planning for a new civic living-learning complex, which integrates residential and academic life around intellectual diversity and democratic engagement ($24 million project), created a multi-college civic leadership curriculum, and launched a faculty fellows program advancing democratic skills across disciplines. JMU’s work in this area has become a national model for preparing students for civic life and the 21st century workplace.
As an external leader, Dr. Kirkpatrick has secured over $2 million in federal and foundation funding—including a 2024 U.S. Department of State grant supporting global civic engagement—and has forged partnerships with government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and international universities. His scholarship focuses on religion, politics, and social movements, and includes books with the University of Pennsylvania Press, Rutgers University Press, and Oxford University Press, and research featured in leading academic journals and national media outlets. He has delivered lectures and papers at Oxford, Cambridge, Emory, Princeton Theological Seminary, Marquette, Dartmouth, among others.
Dr. Kirkpatrick is currently leading JMU’s university-wide strategic planning process, co-chairing the provost search, and guiding major institutional initiatives that position JMU for the next decade of growth and impact.
