Rabbi Justus Baird is Senior Vice President, National Programs at Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, where he shapes strategy around both existing and new national initiatives, develops innovative program models and strategies, and serves as senior leadership.
Prior to joining Hartman, Justus was the Dean at Auburn Seminary, joining in 2007 to build its multi-faith education work and becoming Dean in 2011. As Dean at Auburn, he oversaw and built programs to identify and equip faith-rooted justice leaders across the U.S., including the Auburn Senior Fellows. Justus has a reputation among his colleagues for being calm, thoughtful, and an educator-builder.
Justus co-founded a major online library (Questia.com, 1999) and an experimental Jewish supplementary school (Yerusha, 2009). He was ordained at HUC-JIR and is an alumnus of both the Wexner Graduate Fellowship and the Hartman Rabbinic Leadership Initiative (RLI).