Spehar-Halligan Professorship
The Spehar-Halligan Professorship stands at the heart of CEIE's intellectual life through anchoring scholarship, leadership formation, and public engagement. The Spehar-Halligan Professorship is a living commitment to moral imagination, enabling opportunities for all, and to cultivating leadership that responds thoughtfully to the complexities of our time.
Michael Reid Trice, Ph.D, EMBA
Executive Director | Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement | Spehar-Halligan Professor
In July 2021, Rev. Dr. Michael Reid Trice accepted the appointment from Provost Dr. Shane Martin as the Founding and Executive Director and Spehar-Halligan Professor of the Seattle University Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement (CEIE).
The Spehar-Halligan Professorship reflects both continuity and possibility. While grounded in the leadership of its current Professor, it ultimately tells a larger story of a Center shaped by shared values, sustained scholarship, and a collective commitment to the common good.
Dr. Trice serves as a Faculty-Administrator who is a professionally trained constructive theologian with over three decades of demonstrated experience in organizational development, comparative religious studies, ecumenical dialogue, cultural and religious pluralism, and a commitment to interdisciplinary constructive approaches within team-based leadership.
Rev. Dr. Michael Reid Trice, Ph.D.., EMBA
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Three Pillars of Engagement
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Values and Purpose
The Spehar-Halligan Professorship deepens CEIE's mission. It provides academic grounding while encouraging interdisciplinary dialogue, public scholarship, and forms of leadership that move outward—toward communities, institutions, and the common good.
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A Living Constellation
The Professorship creates visibility and momentum for all of CEIE. It supports a culture where scholarship, creativity, and professional growth are shared, across staff, faculty collaborators, and student affiliates alike. The result is a team moving together with space for individual portfolios to deepen and evolve.
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Emerging Scholarship
The Spehar-Halligan Professorship advances leadership in a mission to Building the Commons. Scholarship is seen as lived practice shaped by dialogue. Through publications, courses, lectures, and multimedia resources, the Professorship helps translate complex ideas into forms that inform leaders across sectors.