News

Dr. Jerry Gladson joined the full-time faculty of the Psychological Studies Institute(now Richmont Graduate University) in 1987 and served as the Dean of Academic Affairs from 1987-1992. Dr. Gladson has served as a faculty member at Richmont for a total of 30 years. Richmont is grateful for his service and is excited to honor him as Professor Emeritus. Well done, Dr. Gladson!

“I have watched with great pride as Richmont has grown from a partner institution with Georgia State University to become its own accredited University and a member of the academic core of institutions devoted to the integration of psychology, counseling, and theology… I haven’t the words to say how much this honor means to me. I cherish my years at Richmont and even now miss the students and the classes. I will wear this title proudly.”

-Dr. Jerry Gladson, Professor Emeritus

When Resilience Comes to Church: Contagious Fortitude for Life & Leadership
September 14, 2024
9:00 AM – 3:00 PM EDT

Richmont Graduate University is partnering with Lilly Endowment, Inc. to host a conference at The Mission Chattanooga featuring keynote speakers Chuck DeGroat, PhD, Kelly Kapic, PhD, Anna Downer Youngs, MA, LPC-MHSP, and Preston McDaniel Hill, PhD. Registration is free, and lunch will be provided! To learn more about the speakers and secure your tickets, click here.

President Timothy Quinnan was honored by receiving the inaugural Sharp Leadership Award at the 2024 Commencement ceremony. Trustee Tom Decosimo of Chattanooga and Board Chair Ann Keller of Atlanta jointly sponsored this new award to recognize extraordinary leadership contributions which “leave an indelible mark in the Parade of Providence that defines Richmont.”

The title of this new award, Sharp, refers to the multi-generational impact of both the Sharp and Gillespie families who have been instrumental to the University’s longevity and success. Given their legacy, it is only fitting that the Sharp name was used to celebrate today’s leaders whose “…determination and ability to accomplish the seemingly impossible” enable Richmont to flourish.

In acknowledging the award, Dr. Quinnan stated that “Serving at Richmont these last seven years has been the most exhilarating of my career. It’s a privilege I never take for granted and thank the Lord for every day.” He arrived in 2017 and has led the University to record levels of enrollment, fund-raising, external grant awards, governmental recognition, and academic excellence. Dr. Quinnan also authored the University’s strategic plans, launched a thriving online degree program, added the first doctoral program in school history, and secured gold-standard recognition for Richmont by both state, accreditation agency, and profession-specific licensing boards.

“All theology should be clinical theology.” That is the phrase Dallas Willard spoke at a conference back in the early 1990s. And it is the phrase that is inspiring the creation of the clinical theology section of Conversatio Divina.

Dr. Preston Hill published an essay, “Therapeutic Theology: Doctrines that Catalyze Human Flourishing,” making a compelling case that, ultimately, “theology should actively be shaped by lived experience and aimed at experiences of flourishing in sacred friendship.” And he makes the bold claim that Jesus was the first therapeutic theologian.

In another essay, “Two Sides of Psychology’s Normal Curve: Love and Fear,” Dr. Gary Moon takes inspiration from Bono’s autobiography, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, and the poet Michael Leunig, to suggest that the primary two human states are love and fear. He then discusses some of the implications of these two “notes”—so divergent that they cannot be played at the same time—to human flourishing.

Richmont’s Dr. Stanley Hoover and Liberty University’s Dr. Jama Davis coauthored a chapter in the newly published textbook Christian Integration in Counselor Education. Hoover & Davis’s chapter focuses on Christian integration in helping relationships. The textbook is comprised of the perspectives of 55 contributing authors committed to the integration of faith in the counseling profession and is designed to be utilized in faith-based CACREP-accredited counseling programs.

Learn more about the textbook here.

Richmont Graduate University has achieved another remarkable record enrollment this Spring of three hundred and sixty-nine students.

As students and faculty began the 2024 Spring semester, Richmont welcomed its largest number of students engaged in courses at both Atlanta and Chattanooga campuses, a thriving online campus, and a newly established doctoral cohort.

At a time when many graduate institutions have struggled to maintain sustainable enrollment numbers, Richmont’s semester-to-semester retention rates are at 96%. Roxie Shellabarger, Vice President of Administration, attributes this to “the incredible investment of Richmont staff and faculty into students, as well as Richmont’s emphasis on community and self-care.”

“Only God could write a story so touching as this” – Courtney Force, author of Soul Dancer

On January 22, Richmont hosted a gathering honoring President Timothy Quinnan’s new book, Call Me Jonah. The event included active audience participation during a Q&A group discussion, readings by attendees of favorite passages, and closed with a book signing of the fastest-selling debut novel in his publisher’s history. The sizable turnout included many Richmont faculty, staff, and current and former students.

When asked, Dr. Quinnan said that his goal with Call Me Jonah was to write a story that anyone could be uplifted by, regardless of age, personal faith, or worldview. Evidence of success in this aim was reflected in the diverse crowd that gathered to discuss what the book meant to them and how they felt a resonance with its themes. In addition to the title’s main spiritual and psychological themes, its overarching message is that “love is eternal and transcends everything in the universe, even our notions of time and space, reality, and life and death.”

For those who missed this event, a highlights video is posted below. Call Me Jonah is available for purchase at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Ozark Mountain Publishing.