Robert Osburn Jr

Robert Osburn was the founder (2009) and Executive Director of the Wilberforce International Institute until September 2020 when he became Senior Fellow. Wilberforce International Institute is an organization whose mission is to train college students, especially international students, to be redemptive change agents in their home societies and workplaces. Under the auspices of the Institute, he has personally mentored 30 students from 17 different countries, most of them graduate students or visiting scholars, and has organized many conferences for students and academics. Over the past 26 years, he has traveled to 29 countries, primarily to meet and advise mentees.

Previously, he was the Executive Director of The MacLaurin Institute, a Christian study center serving the University of Minnesota campus community, from 1996 until 2009. Prior to that, he served as Director of International Programs from 1993 to 1996. Under his leadership, he organized three international conferences: World View for World Healing Conference (1998), Mini-World View for World Healing Conference (1999), and African Nation-Builders Workshop (2000), and invited over 40 Christian scholars to lecture at the University of Minnesota. He speaks on comparative worldviews, Christians and academia, bribery and corruption, and nation-building from a Christian perspective. He has taught courses as an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development at the University of Minnesota, including a course on religion, ethics, and educational policy (2008-2014) and another on religion and international development (2010-2011). He was also an adjunct faculty member at William Carey International University where he served as a PhD adviser. He teaches online courses on comparative worldviews and Christian political theory.

From 1985 to 1990, he served as a campus minister with International Students, Inc. in the Twin Cities, and from 1990 to 1993 as Twin Cities Director.

Based on his research on the religious experiences of Buddhist, Muslim and Christian international students, he received his PhD in comparative and international development education at the University of Minnesota in November 2005. He holds a BA (1973) from the University of Michigan and a Master’s in Theology (ThM) (1978) from Dallas Theological Seminary. He has been published in The Minnesota Daily, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, University of St Thomas Journal of Law and Public Policy, Mission Frontiers, American Experiment Quarterly, and Journal of Church and State. In May 2016, his book on bribery and corruption, Taming the Beast: Can We Bridle the Culture of Corruption? was published. More recently, his research “Religious, Frustrated, and a Long Way from Home: Religiously-Active International Students and Academicians’ Responses to Religion” was published in the 2017 edited volume Christianity and the Secular Border Patrol: The Loss of Judeo-Christian Knowledge. His areas of research include religion and educational policy, intellectual diversity in higher education, poverty and international higher education, corruption and bribery, and religion and international development. He blogs regularly at www.wilberforceacademy.org.

He has served as a board member with the Association of Christians Ministering to Internationals (1994-1996, 2006-2012), where he served as Vice Chair (2010-11); with the International Council for Education Development (as a board member, 2003-2014, and as Chair, 2003-2007); with the Consortium of Christian Study Centers (2008-present), for which he is also a founding board member and secretary; and with Trinity Education Global (board member 2014-present). He has served in numerous volunteer positions at Grace Church of Roseville (1989 - 2018) and NAFSA: Association of International Educators (1993-2008). He has been an Advisor to Truth in Business, a student organization at the U of Minnesota (2006-2013), and has been a member of the Council of Religious Advisors (1987-1999) and of the University Christian Ministers Association (2000-2010). He has also served as a board member of the latter organization (2005-2008), the last year of which he served as the president. He served on the planning committee for the November 12-14, 2012 International Student Ministry Global Consultation in Chicago. He is a member of the Comparative and International Education Society (2013- present), the International Association for the Promotion of Christian Higher Education (2001-present), the Society of Christian Scholars (2018 – present), and the Association of Christians Ministering among Internationals (1989 – present).

He is the father of four sons, grandfather to eleven, and has been married to Susan for 46 years. Bob and Susan reside in Roseville, Minnesota.

Darrow Miller, author of many books including Discipling Nations (1996) and Emancipating the World (2012), has offered this unsolicited testimonial: “Dr. Osburn’s life and vision is a gift from God to so many international students studying in the United States.”