Spehar-Halligan Professorship
At the heart of CEIE’s intellectual life, the Spehar-Halligan Professorship integrates scholarship, leadership formation, and public engagement, cultivating moral imagination and leadership capable of meeting the complexities of our time.
Michael Reid Trice, Ph.D, EMBA
Executive Director | Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement | Spehar-Halligan Professor
Appointed in 2021 as Founding and now Executive Director and Spehar-Halligan Professor, Rev. Dr. Michael Reid Trice serves as a faculty-administrator whose work integrates constructive theology, leadership formation, and public engagement at the heart of Seattle University’s mission. A professionally trained theologian with an Executive MBA and over three decades of experience across higher education, religious institutions, and global civic networks, Dr. Trice brings interdisciplinary depth to the study and practice of leadership in plural contexts.
His work spans organizational development, comparative religious studies, ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, and team-based leadership, shaping CEIE as a center grounded in rigorous scholarship, shared values, and a sustained commitment to the common good.
Professor Michael Reid Trice, PhD, EMBA ThM MTS
Three Pillars of Engagement
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Engage Education
The Spehar-Halligan Professorship deepens CEIE’s mission by providing strong academic grounding while advancing interdisciplinary dialogue and public scholarship. Teaching and learning are oriented outward—toward communities, institutions, and the common good—connecting intellectual formation with real-world ethical and civic responsibility.
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A Leadership Philosophy
The Professorship generates visibility and momentum across CEIE, cultivating a culture where scholarship, creativity, and professional growth are actively supported. Faculty, staff, collaborators, and students move together as a team, while individuals are given space to develop distinctive portfolios, deepen expertise, and evolve in leadership.
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Emerging Scholarship
The Spehar-Halligan Professorship advances leadership through a commitment to Building the Commons. Scholarship is understood as a lived, dialogical practice—expressed through publications, courses, lectures, and multimedia resources—that forms leaders capable of thoughtful engagement in complex, plural contexts.