Bethlehem College and Seminary has appointed Zachary A. Howard, M.Div. ’16, to the position of Academic Dean. “Professor Howard is a graduate of our seminary, a leader, gifted teacher, scholar, and active member of Bethlehem Baptist Church,” said President Brian J. Tabb. “He enjoys my full confidence as well as that of our faculty colleagues, many of our alumni, and our students. I regard Zach Howard as the ideal person to take up these important responsibilities,” he added. Howard succeeds Tabb who himself held the position of Academic Dean prior to assuming the presidency earlier this year.
Howard has served most recently as the school’s Dean of College Programs and as Assistant Professor of Theology and Humanities. He is credited with being among the architects of the college’s unique Classical Christian approach that emphasizes Great Books studies in light of the Bible’s teaching. As Academic Dean, Howard will be the school’s highest ranking academic official, next only to the president and chancellor, and responsible for recruiting and retention of faculty, curriculum, academic policies and procedures, and student life.
“Serving with a team of faculty colleagues who are excellent at their craft, find their deepest joy in God, and honor him in their scholarship has been an immense privilege for me,” Howard said. “Now, with gratitude to God and hope in his grace, I am eager to lead such a distinct faculty in fulfilling our shared mission,” he added.
Professor Howard is a graduate of Hillsdale College where he earned a B.A. in History. He and his wife, Betsy, then spent two years teaching in a Classical Christian K-12 school in Cincinnati, Ohio. He received his M.Div. from Bethlehem College and Seminary in 2016, serving as the school’s Admissions Director while a seminary student. He joined the Bethlehem College faculty after seminary and continued as a student at the University of St. Thomas where he received an M.A. in 2019. He is currently preparing to defend his doctoral dissertation on the preaching of Saint Augustine as a student at Durham University, U.K.
He and his wife, Dr. Betsy Howard, who is also a member of the Bethlehem College faculty, live in a triplex home in the Phillips neighborhood that adjoins the school’s church-based campus in downtown Minneapolis with their four daughters and several college student tenants.