Mr. Adam Kissel, the Honorable Deputy Assistant Secretary for Higher Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C., has been invited to be the guest speaker for Jarvis Christian College’s 2
018 Spring Lecture on Education.
The Lecture will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2018, in the Smith-Howard Chapel on the College campus.
Mr. Kissel graduated from Harvard University and from the University of Chicago, where he served as Student Liaison to the Board of Trustees and earned a master’s degree from the Committee on Social Thought. His academic interests include the history and theory of liberal education, academic freedom and rhetoric and rhetoric’s relationship with philosophy.
In his role as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Higher Education Programs, Mr. Kissel leads the unit that administers programs that broaden access to higher education and strengthen the capacity of colleges and universities. He also oversees the Federal TRIO programs, which aim to help students from disadvantaged backgrounds as they work toward college degrees.
Prior to his role with the U.S. Department of Education, Mr. Kissel served as Director of the Individual Rights Defense Program and Vice President of Programs for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE). FIRE’s mission is to defend and sustain individual rights at America’s colleges and universities. These rights include freedom of speech, legal equality, due process, religious liberty and sanctity of conscience — the essential qualities of individual liberty and dignity. FIRE’s programs protect the unprotected and educate the public and communities of concerned Americans about the threats to these rights on campuses and about the means to preserve them.
Mr. Kissel also served as senior program officer for the Charles Koch Foundation.