BIOGRAPHY

RABBI JUSTUS N. BAIRD

Rabbi Justus N. Baird has served as the Director of the Center for Multifaith Education at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City since 2007.  He oversees the seminary's multifaith programming which strives to prepare religious leaders for a religiously diverse world.  In addition to his work at Auburn, he serves as the spiritual leader of the Reform Jewish Community of Barnegat, NJ.

Rabbi Baird was ordained at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion where he studied as a Wexner Graduate Fellow.  He received a B.S. from Rice University and holds a certificate in Strategic Human Resource Management from Harvard Business School.  He brings an entrepreneurial approach to his work; before entering rabbinical school he co-founded Questia.com, a successful and far-reaching academic online library.

He has taught, preached in, and consulted with seminaries, churches, synagogues, mosques, and interfaith organizations.  He teaches the Multifaith Seminar in the Multifaith Doctor of Ministry Program (a partnership between Auburn and New York Theological Seminary).  His chapter "Multifaith Continuing Education: Leading Faithfully in a Religiously Diverse World" will be published in early 2009 in the revised edition of A Lifelong Call to Learn: Approaches to Continuing Education for Christian Leaders (Reber and Roberts, eds.).

Raised in Texas, Rabbi Baird lives in Princeton, NJ, with his wife Rabbi Julie Roth (Director of the Center for Jewish Life at Princeton University) and their two sons.

About the Center for Multifaith Education

The Center for Multifaith Education at Auburn Theological Seminary has three strategic goals: to prepare religious leaders for ministry in a multifaith context, to promote interfaith learning and action around pressing issues, and to offer multifaith programs of excellence for youth.  The center's flagship programs include an annual seminar for faculty at American seminaries and rabbinical schools, a Doctor of Ministry degree in Ministry in a Multifaith Context in partnership with New York Theological Seminary, interfaith seminarian programs, and Face to Face / Faith to Faith, an international youth leadership program for high school teens from South Africa, Northern Ireland, Israel/Palestine, and the U.S.