Dr. Pat Ford serves as the Chair for the Undergraduate Transformational Leadership Program at the College of Athens. He is also the founding Executive Leadership Coach/Consultant at Pat Ford Coaching and Consulting and an Advisory Board Chairman at Convene.
Pat previously served as a Consultant for thirteen years with Lifeway Publishing where he served as a leadership specialist in Texas and Louisiana coaching leaders and consulting churches. He also served as the Team Leader for other Lifeway Consultants across a 13-state region and was a departmental team leader directing a national sales strategy. In those roles he conducted over 15,000 conversations with leaders giving him an in-depth understanding of the opportunities and challenges faced by a diversity of leaders and organizations. Prior to that Pat served in executive leadership roles for twenty years in megachurches with responsibilities for programing, personnel, finance, and facilities. He supervised professional staff teams and coordinated hundreds of volunteers focusing on vision casting, organizational change, professional leadership development, and volunteer training. His work expanded to involve training leaders at the local, state, and national levels. In addition, Pat has served as an Adjunct Professor of Christian Education and Leadership at Grand Canyon and Wayland Baptist Universities and as a Field Supervisor/Project Director for master and doctoral students at Southwestern, Southeastern, Golden Gate, and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminaries as well as Rockbridge Seminary. He has also authored numerous publications and is a frequent conference leader.
Pat attended Paris Junior College and then Baylor University where he received a Bachelor of Science degree. He then studied at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary completing a Master of Religious Education degree followed by additional Master of Divinity studies. He did Doctor of Philosophy studies in Higher Education at the University of North Texas and earned a Doctor of Education degree from Southwestern Seminary in Church and Education Administration. He has also earned certifications as a Certified Professional Leadership Coach from Professional Christian Coaching Institute and as a Strengths Champion Certified Coach from Strengths Champion Solutions. Pat and his wife, Jeanie, are both native Texans and have two adult daughters and two grandchildren. He is an active member of Grace Covenant Church in Austin, Texas. And he enjoys hunting, fishing, baseball, tennis, tropical fish, photography, and vintage Volkswagens.