Professor Tony Brown, former co-director of the Hart Leadership Program, has been chosen as one of the individual recipients of the 2020 Duke Presidential Awards. The Presidential Awards recognize those individuals and teams who best demonstrate the values that define and shape Duke as an institution.

Since 1993, Brown has helped shape the culture of the Sanford School of Public Policy by creating programs that energize students, faculty and alumni. But it’s the way he inspires the thinking of the students in his classes that has earned him a reputation as one of the school’s most important leaders and mentors. In 2010, Brown was named co-director of the Hart Leadership Program. Professor Brown has taught leadership courses in enterprising organizational change, social entrepreneurship, moral development, socially responsible businesses, and public-private collaboration. He founded and also directs the Hart Leadership Program’s Enterprising Leadership Initiative, a program intended to engage, educate, and empower Duke students to pursue innovative solutions to University, community and global problems. Brown was the recipient of the Howard Johnson Distinguished Teaching Award for undergraduate teaching excellence in 1997 and the Ashoka U – Cordes Foundation Innovation Award for his course Social Entrepreneurship in Action in 2012.

Professor Brown’s current teaching and research interests focus on the leadership development of young adults during college and as young alumni. His courses include Social Entrepreneurship in Action, Leadership Development & Organizations, Moral Courage & Leadership, and Enterprising Leadership & Civic Engagement. His students all participate in producing “real-results” leadership projects based on a pedagogy of action-based, integrated learning experiences.

“Tony epitomizes Duke’s values: Respect, Trust, Inclusion, Discovery, and Excellence,” wrote Sanford School Dean Judith Kelley. “In fact, Tony’s entire teaching philosophy is centered on values. He encourages his students to learn about their values and how values inform their leadership potential.”

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