Michael Reid Trice, Ph.D., EMBA
MICHAEL REID TRICE, PH.D., EMBA
- Founding Director, Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement and Spehar-Halligan Professor
- Director and Professorship | A Brief Annotation by a Public Constructive Theologian
In July 2021, I accepted the appointment from Provost Dr. Shane Martin as the Founding Director and Spehar-Halligan Professor of the Seattle University Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement (CEIE).
I hold a doctorate in my field within the humanities as well as an Executive MBA degree through the Albers School of Business and Economics at Seattle University.
Today I serve as a Faculty-Administrator who is a professionally trained constructive theologian with over three decades of demonstrated experience in organizational development, comparative religious studies, ecumenical dialogue, cultural and religious pluralism, and a commitment to interdisciplinary constructive approaches within team-based leadership. As a professional rooted in disciplines that include philosophy, literature, theology, history and entrepreneurial-organizational advancement, I revel in seeking collaboration across disciplines, and I value utilizing creative and innovative methodologies and technologies for creating viable responses to the challenges in our communities and world today.
I serve on local to international boards and participate in dialogue tables in my guilds, including at The Parliament of the World’s Religions (2016-present), on the United Nations Environmental Program Religion-Science Consortium, and within the Vatican Covid-19 Commission Ecology Working Group, as part of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development in the Holy See.
I served as the Associate Executive for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in the Office of Ecumenical and Inter-religious Relations from 2004-2011 and represented Bishop Mark Hanson as President of the Lutheran World Federation on United States President Barach Obama’s Advisory Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. My organizational strengths include capacity for efficiently scaling ideas into operational capacities, and for creating high-capacity teams to successfully reach operational benchmarks. I pursue the entrepreneurial use of technology across disciplines, with a professional and vocational commitment to egalitarian strengths-based leadership; and I seek to infuse teams with the keystone values of discernment, action, and transformation that advances individual needs that transcends each to the good of the collective as well.
I lead a longstanding (13-year-old) robust interreligious and international Advisory Council, now aligned to CEIE; I publish regularly in my fields. I am currently editing five volumes, including: a) an international effort of scholars and practitioners titled: Gratitude, Injury and Repair in a Pandemic Age (Georgetown U. Press, 2024); b) a multi-chapter volume of nationally recognized business professors and practitioners addressing the challenges of leadership in our time through an Ignatian model titled: Discerning Leadership (Georgetown U. Press, 2026); and, c) a volume focused on the present and future challenges of religious leadership in commemoration of the 1700th anniversary of an international council first convened by emperor Constantine in 325 A.D. (Friendship Press, 2026).
As the Founding Director at CEIE, soft-money grant funding and donor relations are also an essential part of my interest for curating and funding new growth initiatives. I recently directed CEIE through the conclusion of a US$500,000 grant by the Henry Luce Foundation, with a focus upon democracy, theology, and the next generation of leaders. Success in this and other grants, as with the long-standing support in our interreligious engagement of the Tillie & Alfred Shemanski Testamentary Trust, positions CEIE in current work with our partners, including alignment with the Templeton Religion Trust and the Templeton Foundation, among other creative, watchful, and reputable allies.
The leadership core of CEIE is aligned to Seattle University’s Strategic Vision (2022-2027); the Society of Jesus General Congregation 34 (with its emphasis upon ecumenism, religious literacy, technology and education), and the Apostolic Preferences of the Society of Jesus. These alignments allowed me to lead CEIE in the creation of the Religica Laboratory as a place of perpetual discovery for new modes of communicating content (podcasts, webinars, free public educational offerings), and The Interfaith Observer, which is a global online non-peer reviewed journal of first-hand accounts by this emerging generation of leaders. All these resources are poured into new courses and certificate programs at CEIE, available through the emerging CEIE Leadership Academy, which the CEIE team is currently growing together in academic years 2025 and 2026.
In the years ahead, students, staff, faculty, non-profit partners and private industry colleagues, will continue to grow CEIE as a vibrant, integrated center at Seattle University.
Throughout, the spine of my professional life is being an educator. Teaching is a signature joy, whether in asynchronous, hybrid, or in-person synchronous contexts. In the pages that follow, I hope the reader experiences an integrated professional and vocational life, steeped and thriving in teaching, service, and research, and most alive through the gratitude I experience in the immense capacities and talents of a team of colleagues around me.