Lifetime Achievement Awardee

Richard Couto

Richard Couto (PhD, University of Kentucky) had a background of practice and scholarship in community leadership. At Vanderbilt University from 1975 to 1988, he pioneered campus and community collaborative programs that connected the student movement of the 1960s; community leadership in Appalachia and in rural, predominantly African American counties of western Tennessee; and the current programs of civic engagement in higher education. He won several national awards for this work including a Kellogg National Fellowship. He was a founding faculty member of undergraduate and PhD programs in leadership and a senior fellow at several programs, including the James MacGregor Burns Academy at the University of Maryland. Five of his 14 authored or edited books have won national awards. This includes his edited work, the two-volume Political and Civic Leadership Reference Handbook (SAGE).

Richard Couto Awarded the Marist College Distinguished Alumnus Medal.

Oral history is an excellent method for collecting and interpreting memories and fostering new knowledge. Dr. Phil Scarpino, past president of the National Council for Public History and Professor of History at IU, exhaustively researches each recipient prior to conducting his interviews and uses the highest standards prescribed by the American Oral History Association.

The Tobias Leadership Center focuses on research and programs related to the study of leadership across all sectors – including corporate, public service, education, religion, medicine, and non-profit organizations. Its focus on multiple sectors and on both the practice and theory of leadership distinguishes its agenda among leadership programs nationwide. Through ongoing research in a variety of sectors, it generates knowledge about leadership and disseminates this knowledge through a variety of programs.

Oral History with Richard Couto
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