After a three-year stint as president of the Robertson Scholars Program, Tony Brown is returning to his true passion: teaching. In the fall of 2010, he'll be back in the classroom at the Sanford School of Public Policy, where he was a professor of the practice from 1994 to 2006.
This time around, he'll also serve as co-director of the Hart Leadership Program with current director Alma Blount.
"I am returning to the best job at Duke," Brown said. "I'll be 67 this month and I want to finish my career in the classroom. My time away from teaching has rekindled my passion."
Blount said Brown is the perfect person to help lead the Hart Leadership Program as it improves the quality of existing programs and charts new territory. "We're both passionately interested in leadership and we're both incredibly passionate about teaching Duke students," she said. "We trust each other's judgment and we trust the ways we complement each other."
Brown is planning new courses when he returns. One will explore what moral courage means in the 21st century; another will help students integrate summer service experiences into their lives. A third will focus on how young adults exercise leadership as they navigate their lives after college.
It wasn't until mid-life that the former insurance executive found his calling in education. After graduating from the University of Connecticut in 1965 and earning his MBA at Harvard University, Brown spent the next 25 years in the business world.
By age 37, he was the CEO of the Covenant Group, an insurance company in Hartford, and already concerned with issues of social responsibility.
"When I was 50, I made a decision to create another career where the core mission was about people," he said. "When I thought about the accomplishments that were fulfilling to me in my career, they always centered on organizational leadership not on insurance or the financial markets.
"I came to Duke in the spring of 1993 to teach one course, and it was the most thrilling thing I'd ever done. So, I never left," Brown said. Over the next decade, Brown became a respected teacher, winning the Howard Johnson Distinguished Teaching Award for undergraduate teaching excellence in 1997.
He pioneered the Enterprising Leadership Initiative (ELI), a program that allows students to get hands-on experience in social innovation.
"Many students don't move from theory to action in the learning process, they move from action to theory. These students become intellectually inspired after they've been in action mode and many write an honors thesis based on their project experiences," Brown said of his teaching philosophy. "The classroom is a laboratory. It's not as if we have all the answers we want to use the students to help us ask the questions and answer them."
Brown's influence can be traced all over campus and the City of Durham. The Center for Race Relations, Common Ground, The Durham Giving Project, Rival Magazine, Crayons2Calculators, The Girls Club, and Student U all emerged from Brown's courses.
"He was able to help me take my wild dreams and turn them into something practical, giving me and my team some real support, some real knowledge," said Dan Kimberg, Trinity'07, co-founder and executive director of Student U. "He enabled us to get to where we are."
Brown's effect on his students extends far beyond the classroom. The e-mails he receives from a network of 1,500 alumni are a testament to that fact. When he teaches, he also sends out three to four newsletters a year and plans events across the country where former students can meet and network.
"I teach as I would lead an organization," he said. "As one would do in assuming the leadership responsibility for an organization, I communicate the depth of my commitment to my students' education (and the importance of this to me personally) and I challenge them to make this the best course in their college experience."
"Over the years, Tony has been an inspirational teacher, an exceptional mentor and a cherished colleague," said Bruce Kuniholm, dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy. "We are excited about the innovative ideas for undergraduate teaching that he has begun to think about while overseeing the Robertson Scholars."
"Tony cares so much about people," Kimberg said. "No matter what is happening, no matter what else is going on in his life, he always puts people first. That's not only what makes him a great professor, that's what makes him a great person."