Kent R. Hill, Ph.D.
Vice President for Character Development
Kent R. Hill is Vice President for Character Development at the John Templeton Foundation. He is responsible for creating large-scale programmatic initiatives that engage fundamental questions regarding the nature, development, and benefits of the virtues and character strengths. These questions emerge from Sir John Templeton's passion for his Foundation to be a philanthropic catalyst for helping all of humanity to practice the virtues of love, honesty, generosity, gratitude, forgiveness, reliability, entrepreneurship, diligence, thrift, joy, future-mindedness, beneficial purpose, creativity, curiosity, humility, and awe.
Before joining the Foundation in early 2009, Dr. Hill served for seven and a half years in two Senate-confirmed senior administrative positions at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Washington D.C. As Assistant Administrator of the Bureau for Global Health, he was responsible for international health programs which in 2008 totaled $2.6 billion. As Assistant Administrator of the Bureau for Europe and Eurasia, he administered economic, democratic, and social transition assistance in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe with annual budgets averaging $1 billion. A particular focus of Dr. Hill's development leadership at USAID focused on nurturing the values necessary for democracy, free markets, and human health to take root and grow. He was USAID's senior interagency liaison for matters involving Trafficking in Persons.
Dr. Hill's previous career includes nine years as president of Eastern Nazarene College (Quincy, MA), six years as president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy (Washington, D.C.), and six years as a tenured history faculty member at Seattle Pacific University. An authority on religion in communist countries, he is the author of The Soviet Union on the Brink (1991) and has written and spoken widely on many topics, including democracy, human rights, religious freedom, Marxism, conflict resolution, G.K. Chesterton, John Henry Newman, church/state relations, education, interreligious dialogue, and international development assistance.
Dr. Hill received his B.A. in history from Northwest Nazarene College and an M.A. in Russian studies from the University of Washington (Seattle), where he also received his Ph.D. in history, with specialties in European intellectual history, Russian history, and East European history. He served in the United States Army as a Russian translator.
He is married to Janice, a reading specialist, and they have two adult children and one grandchild. He loves to travel, read theology and church history, hike, and play tennis.
