Dr. Gary David Stratton’s lifelong mission to foster spiritual formation for the common good has propelled him to an unusual career of developing educational and cultural leaders from Hollywood to the Ivy League. He has served as a board member, vice-president, dean, director, and professor in eleven universities in the U.S. and China, including Twin City-based Bethel University, Crown College, and Bethany Global University. He is currently Dean of School of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Worldview, Spiritual Formation and Cultural Engagement at Johnson University, with campuses in Knoxville, TN and Kissimmee, FL.  Gary is author/contributor to over fifty books and articles, including his forthcoming: Educated unto the Knowledge of Christ: Jonathan Edwards’ Theology of Spiritual Awakening and Spiritual Formation Leadership in American Higher Education.

Gary and his wife, Sue, an Old Testament professor at Johnson, have helped plant five churches and co-founded the award-winning blog, TwoHandedWarriors.com, committed to serving leaders working for global spiritual awakening and society-wide cultural engagement. The latter grew out of their seven-year “missionary journey” to Hollywood, where they led three non-profits training and supporting Christians in mainstream film and television, including Academy award and Emmy award-winning producers, as well as writers for numerous feature films and television shows appearing on CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, USA, TNT, NetFlix, Amazon, and HBO.

Gary has served on the steering committees of city-wide multiracial pastoral prayer gatherings in both Los Angeles and Boston, and currently chairs the board of Future of Hope, a Youth Theology and Service Institute devoted to Knoxville African-American high school student leaders, funded by a $600,000 grant from the Lilly Endowment. Notable speaking engagements include: Princeton and Gordon Theological Seminaries, the Association of Biblical Higher Education (ABHE), Christian Higher Education Canada (CHEC), the Columbia University Film Festival, and the Institute for Campus Revival and Awakening sponsored by Yale’s Jonathan Edwards Center, as well as numerous Christian colleges and universities, such as: Gordon, Messiah, Geneva, Tabor, Nyack, Pacific Rim, Emmaus, Bethany, Bethel, Biola, and Regent. The Association of Biblical Higher Education named him a Senior Fellow in 2007.

Gary and Sue have four grown children. They live on a riverside in the woods outside of Knoxville, TN, where they enjoy fostering healthy spiritual community, taking long hikes with their two rescue dogs, and rescuing box turtles from roadside disaster.