Robert M. Franklin, Jr., the James T. and Berta R. Laney Professor in Moral Leadership at Candler School of Theology and senior advisor to Emory University’s president, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Founded in 1780, the Academy is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies and a leading center for independent policy research. Franklin is one of nearly 250 individuals elected to the Academy’s class of 2025.
“These new members’ accomplishments speak volumes about the human capacity for discovery, creativity, leadership, and persistence. They are a stellar testament to the power of knowledge to broaden our horizons and deepen our understanding,” says Laurie L. Patton, president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. “We invite every new member to celebrate their achievement and join the Academy in our work to promote the common good.”
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences honors excellence across a wide range of disciplines and professions. Franklin was elected in the Educational and Academic Leadership category, a classification well-suited to his almost 50-year career.
As one nominator wrote, “Dr. Franklin has focused his entire life’s work on the practice, advocacy and teaching of ethical leadership. His ideas on the topic run through every aspect of his career. They are reflected in his scholarship, pedagogical philosophy, public speaking and the several leadership positions he has assumed in academia and the public sector.”
Franklin double-majored in political science and religious studies at Morehouse College and pursued international studies during his junior year as a Union Scholar at the University of Durham in the United Kingdom. He then earned a master of divinity from Harvard Divinity School and a PhD in ethics and psychology from the University of Chicago Divinity School.
Ordained in both the American Baptist Churches USA and the Church of God in Christ, Franklin has crafted a career that blends religion, social justice and leadership in a variety of contexts. He has held faculty, chief administrator or visiting scholar positions at eight academic institutions, among them, Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, Candler and Emory, Harvard Divinity School, and Stanford University.
He was president of Interdenominational Theological Center from 1997-2002, and president of his alma mater, Morehouse, from 2007-2012. Prior to his current term at Emory, Franklin served the university as a Presidential Distinguished Professor of Social Ethics, a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion, a leader in the 2005-2007 strategic planning process, and the founding director of Candler’s Black Church Studies program.
He has held leadership roles in organizations in the civic, cultural and philanthropic spheres as well. He directed the religion department at The Chautauqua Institution from 2013-2017 and was named in 2016 to the Human Rights Campaign’s advisory board on expanding LGBTQ inclusion efforts at Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Other past experience includes program officer at the Ford Foundation, president of Atlanta’s Regional Council of Churches, partner to Delta Air Lines, Coca-Cola and Chick-fil-A in community economic development projects, presidential fellow at Morehouse College’s Andrew Young Center for Global Leadership, and board member of Dēmos, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Public Broadcasting Atlanta.
One of the nation’s foremost public theologians, Franklin has authored four books: “Moral Leadership: Integrity, Courage, Imagination” (Orbis, 2020); “Crisis in the Village: Restoring Hope in African American Communities” (Fortress, 2007); “Another Day’s Journey: Black Churches Confronting the American Crisis” (Fortress, 1997); and “Liberating Visions: Human Fulfillment and Social Justice in African American Thought” (Fortress, 1990).
He is a sought-after speaker and columnist who has provided commentary for National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered,” CNN, the BBC, Die Zeit and The New York Times, among others.
Honorees will be inducted into the Academy at a ceremony in October 2025 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The full list of new members is on the Academy’s website.