A book edited by a group of Campbellsville University faculty and administrators received a positive review from an internationally recognized scholar and leader in higher education servant leadership.
CU’s Dr. Rocky Wallace, professor of education; CU President Dr. Joseph Hopkins; Dr. Joseph Michelli, visiting professor of service excellence; and Dr. Bill Budai, professor of piano and associate dean for the School of Music, came together as editors for “Service Excellence in Higher Education: True Stories of Servant-Leadership.”
CU’s new Service Excellence Institute recently coordinated with Kendall Hunt Publishing to publish “Service Excellence in Higher Education: True Stories of Servant-Leadership,” a book containing true stories of servant leadership and customer service.
Wallace and Budai serve as co-chairs for the Service Excellence Institute.
Wallace noted that the book and its collection of inspirational examples speak to the heart of the Service Excellence Institute’s focus.
“The final product is such a powerful collection of true story definitions of servant leadership – a calling for every author who contributed to the project,” Wallace said. “The Service Excellence Institute is such an example of what CU is about.
“We want to equip all faculty, staff, and students with tools to better serve each other and our customers. This gold standard is what great organizations do.”
Budai, meanwhile, shared the creation of the Service Excellence Institute is “truly groundbreaking” for CU.
“No other university is quite doing what we envision: the complete and seamless integration of service excellence and servant leadership across every facet of the institution – from administrative processes and student life to faculty teaching and staff-student interactions,” Budai shared.
Larry C. Spears, CEO of the Spears Servant-Leadership Center and former CEO of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, is recognized internationally for his scholarship in higher education servant leadership.
Writing on the book, Spears said the book is “a warm and engaging collection of stories of servant-leadership in action.”
Spears added, “Serving others has long been at the heart of Kentucky’s Campbellsville University, and this book contains inspiring true stories written by many of its educational leaders.”
Contributing authors for the book include faculty from CU and outside CU.
Spears and Wallace first met around 2008 at the Servant-Leadership Research Roundtable held at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va.
“Each chapter is grounded in first-hand servant-leadership experiences and concludes with thoughtful questions for further reflection,” Spears noted. “Service Excellence in Higher Education is a beautiful example of the head, hands, and heart of servant-leadership working together, for the benefit of all. It deserves to be read by servant-leaders everywhere.”