He co-edited, with Larry Spears, On Becoming a Servant Leader (1996) and authored chapters for other books, including: Positively M.A.D.: 365 Ways to Make A Difference (2004), Reflections on Leadership (1996), and Insights on Leadership (1994), and has contributed numerous articles to The Servant Leader newsletter and other publications.

Preparation
Don holds a B.S. in Speech and Communications from Eastern Illinois University, a
Master of Divinity degree from Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis and, in February, 2006, completed all work for a Ph.D. in Organizational and Leadership Studies from The Union Institute and University in Cincinnati. Before all that, he was a preacher’s kid who moved around a lot, spending his early years in Last Chance, Colorado. There, he pondered a lot of rocks, rattlesnakes, antelope and sheep. Here’s the picture to prove it.

Don’s studies and varied career roles prepared him for work in servant leadership. They include: university and seminary teacher, program evaluator for foundations, on-air host of radio and television programs, award-winning writer and media producer (including a program for The History Channel), director of departments at a museum of art and a university, and strategic communications consultant to some of America’s top organizations like Eli Lilly & Co., and Group W Cable. He authored a series of nationally-distributed continuing education courses for insurance professionals, including a book about ethics, and worked on award-winning training programs for Allison Transmission and CITGO Petroleum, among others.

Spreading the Message
As part of his commitment to inform more people and organizations about Greenleaf’s writings, Don has presented interactive workshops and speeches on servant leadership to audiences that include non-profit and for-profit corporations, community leadership groups, chambers of commerce, universities, and attendees at the International Conference on Servant Leadership. He continues to look for opportunities to write and teach about Robert Greenleaf and servant leadership principles. Don’s wide exposure to large and small organizations has taught him that his friends Jeff Pauley and James Sipes of Magellan Executive Resources are right; there is no one path to servant leadership: servant leadership is the path. Organizations that align to this timeless principle are on the right side of history.

Today, Don lives in Northfield, Minnesota. His two grown sons, Dan and Matt, are amazingly creative and far smarter than their old man, as you see in this picture.

Don likes to read, garden, tinker with old cars (he’d love to own a 1953 Hudson Hollywood Hornet Twin-H Power with a continental kit), write, and talk shop about servant leadership.