Rev. Dr. Linda Silver Coley

Executive Director

Rev. Linda Silver Coley, PhD, is the Executive Director of the Ormond Center, which inspires church leaders to seek innovative ways to address barriers to thriving among clergy, congregations and the communities that they share. She leads the research, planning, and development work of the Ormond Center, which is driven by a theory of change that embraces co-creation of value among academy-church-community networks through an iterative process of research, evaluation, and continuous innovation. The strategic intent is to create translational research and resources primarily for positive social impact in local and rural communities, and secondarily to establish international reach and relevance, consistent with a research one university. The Ormond Center’s work is communicated and distributed to clergy and lay leaders through publication in journals with global access, case studies, curricular programs, customized processes, and social media.

Towards communicating local solutions to both local and global audiences, during 2023 Linda led her team in co-authoring “Faith-based community-academic partnerships: An asset-based community development strategy for social change” which was published in a community development practitioner journal, Gateways: International Journal of Community Research and Engagement (Vol. 16, No. 2 December 2023). The article highlights missional innovation and Christian social innovation outcomes among local church leaders in Duke Divinity School’s catchment areas.

The Ormond Center also helps clergy and lay leaders in the process of driving Christian social innovation in their local contexts. Towards this end, Linda’s leadership translational research transfers knowledge, gained while studying the practical effects of leadership competency on brand innovation in a business context, to study the practical effects of Christlike leadership competency on Christian social innovation, at the intersection of community orientation and entrepreneurial proclivity. As a first step towards measuring the effects of Christian leadership on innovation, Linda developed a three-dimensional Christian leadership model, which was published in the Journal of Biblical Perspectives in Leadership titled "Operationalizing A Christlike Leadership Competency Model: Being and Doing What is Right and Just.” This peer reviewed article was informed by Christian practitioners who publish books on Christian leadership.

Linda is a fourth generation ordained elder among five generations of family ministers. She serves on the ministerial staff at Word of Truth Christian Fellowship in Goldsboro, NC. She has over 30 years’ experience in corporate marketing, technical brand management and brand innovation with Fortune 500 companies. Prior to joining the Duke Divinity School community as a student in 2018, Linda was a tenured Associate Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Marketing, Transportation, and Supply Chain at North Carolina, Agricultural & Technical State University. Before joining the academy, she was an entrepreneur, serving as owner and CEO of Coley Marketing Management Company (CMMC). Under contract with the United States Government’s Small Business Administration, CMMC developed fact-based strategies to grow small businesses in Michigan and Ohio. Linda also co-owned both McDonalds and UPS Ohio-based franchises. She has taught at several universities, including the University of Cincinnati; the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; and Miami University, Ohio.

Linda’s experience as a multidisciplinary research scholar, corporate brand manager, tenured professor, academic chairperson, entrepreneur, and business executive positions her well to lead the transformative work of the Ormond Center.