Dr. J. Cody Nielsen serves as Director of the Center for Spirituality and Social Justice in the Office of Equity and Inclusivity at Dickinson College. He is as well the founder and Executive Director of Convergence Strategies (formerly Convergence on Campus), which seeks to dismantle long-standing issues of religious, secular, and spiritual identity-based discrimination as a part of larger intersectional frameworks of anti-racism and decolonialism.
A scholar and researcher as well as frequent speaker on systems-related areas of higher education and nonprofit work, Dr. Nielsen adjunct instructs at a variety of institutions around the country and is known for his passionate presentation style. He is as well the co-founder and lead planner of the new Conference on Higher Education Values, Identities, Belonging, and Purpose. He also serves as Associate Editor of the Journal of Student Affairs on Campus.
Dr. Nielsen’s research focuses on two core area of consideration within higher education and societal systems: First, areas of concern related to religious, secular, and spiritual equity within campus and organizational climates through a lens of policies and practices. Second, a focus on larger questions of institutional climate, organizational structures, and systems work is a current topic.