Dr. Jay Gary, one of America’s leading foresight educators, comes to Oral Roberts
with more than two decades of entrepreneurial experience in higher education, business
consulting and Christian ministry. He serves as ORU’s Executive Director of Online
Programs, responsible for online adjunct faculty and online degree program development.
“We live in a time of accelerating change. There is no better place to be than ORU,
and standing behind our faculty to develop our whole-person empowered learning,” Dr.
Gary states. “My passion is to fulfill the promise of the ‘college of everywhere’
and maintain quality, affordability and flexibility for today’s students.”
For more than a decade Dr. Gary has served as a professor of foresight and innovation
to mid-career professionals, based on his work as a strategy consultant to non-profit,
public and private enterprises. He has supervised over 80 students in doctoral projects,
including recent projects on “Disruptive Innovation in Christian Higher Education”
and the “The Future of Latinos 2030: U.S. Workforce and Education Forecasts.”
Dr. Gary’s own research has focused on defining credentials and professional development
pathways for futurists, entrepreneurs and innovators. His latest published paper,
“The future of foresight professionals: Results from a global Delphi study,” considers
how institutions might adapt to develop future focused analysts, managers and consultants.
Other papers have focused on “Outlook for 2020: Results from a real-time Delphi survey
of global Pentecostal leaders,” or “The future according to Jesus: A Galilean model
of foresight,” which was selected by Emerald Management as one of 50 best articles
of 15,000 in 2008.
In 2003, Dr. Gary was a founding member of the Association of Professional Futurists
and recently joined their international board. He is also the co-founder of the Christian
Futures Network and serves on an auxiliary board for the Center for the Study of Global
Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Seminary. He is best known among Christian audiences
as the lead developer of the AD 2000 Movement, as well as Perspectives on the World
Christian Movement that has enrolled 100,000 adults since its start.
He and his wife live in Tulsa and have two grown children. They enjoy Cuban food,
great books and science fiction movies.
