Armes Summit Breakout Sessions
During the Summit, we are thrilled to offer you four opportunities to enjoy insightful breakout sessions at the Armes Family Christian Leadership in Business Summit, during which attendees can connect with and learn from world-class professors. Please note, each of these 11 faculty sessions are offered during each of the breakout session slots on the Summit program.
| Breakout Session Title | Speaker | Room |
| Stewardship as Strategy: Discerning the Purpose and Practice of Business | Matt Douglas, Ph.D. | 214 |
| Cultivating Cross-Cultural Wisdom: Navigating Biblical Worldview Beyond Borders | Christina Iluzada, Ph.D. | 226 |
| Business Insights from Gospel Parables: The (Rich) Fool | Blaine McCormick, Ph.D. | 228 |
| God and Mammon: a Biblical Christian Entrepreneurship Perspective | Tyler Self | 302 |
| Do I Love My Neighbor? How Mild Preferences Among Workers Can Build Silos | Charles North, Ph.D. | 303 |
| Why Perceived Fairness is so Important to Global Supply Chains | Ade Oyedijo, Ph.D. | 314 |
| Between Sanctuary and Sovereignty: Toward a Faithful Framework on Immigration | Van Pham, Ph.D. | 316 |
| From Boardroom to Bethlehem: Christ-Centered B2B Strategies | Andrea L. Dixon, Ph.D. | 318 |
| Building Things That Matter - Encouragement for Christ-Following Leaders | David Reid, J.D. | 329 |
| Legacy Leadership: The Leadership Wisdom of the Apostle Paul | J. Lee Whittington, Ph.D. | 332 |
| Christian Leadership and Moral Responsibility in the AI Era | Yulia Sullivan, Ph.D. | 404 |
From Boardroom to Bethlehem: Christ-Centered B2B Strategies
Featuring Andrea L. Dixon, Ph.D., Executive Director, Center for Professional Selling; Frank M. and Floy Smith Holloway Professor
In this breakout session, Andrea Dixon explores how Christians can faithfully integrate their beliefs into the world of business to business selling and leadership. Drawing on biblical principles and the example of Jesus as the ultimate relationship builder, we will examine how Christ centered values (humility, integrity, service, and spiritual intentionality) can transform workplace culture. Participants will examine practical ways to build authentic relationships, lead with a servant’s heart, navigate ethical decisions, and view their daily work as an expression of worship.
ROOM 318
Stewardship as Strategy: Discerning the Purpose and Practice of Business
Featuring Matt Douglas, Ph.D., Assistant Director, Center for Christian Leadership and Ethics
In this breakout session, Matt Douglas, invites Christian leaders to consider stewardship not as an ethical add-on to strategy, but as the foundation that guides decision-making when competing pressures arise. Drawing on research in supply chain integrity and ethical decision processes, we will examine why leaders may recognize what is right yet still face strong incentives to choose otherwise—and how stewardship reframes those moments of tension. Participants will explore practical ways to align purpose, integrity, and responsibility in the everyday practice of business.
ROOM 214
Cultivating Cross-Cultural Wisdom: Navigating Biblical Worldview Beyond Borders
Featuring Christina Iluzada, Ph.D., Assistant Director, McBride Center for International Business
In this breakout session, Christina Iluzada, clinical associate professor and assistant director of the McBride Center, explores how engaging in business across cultures offers Christian leaders a unique opportunity to deepen their understanding of a biblical worldview beyond American cultural norms. Discover how interactions with believers from diverse backgrounds enrich perspectives on people, ministry, and the church, shedding light on aspects crucial to a holistic biblical worldview. Furthermore, uncover how embracing cultural diversity fosters more profound empathy, compassion, and love for neighbors.
ROOM 226
Business Insights from Gospel Parables: The (Rich) Fool
Featuring Blaine McCormick, Ph.D., Associate Professor
When Jesus wanted to teach a lesson about his new Kingdom, he often told a story about business. This session, lead by Dr. Blaine McCormick, takes a new look at Jesus’s Parable of the Fool in Luke 12. If you think you know how this story plays out, this session might offer you a few new surprises as you work to change this Fool into a Wise Steward.
ROOM 228
Do I Love My Neighbor? How Mild Preferences Among Workers Can Build Silos
Featuring Charles North, Ph.D., Director, Baylor Business Fellows
In this breakout session, discover how stark separation of groups of people can result from mild preferences to be with people with whom you have things in common, and think about how to bridge those gaps.
ROOM 303
Why Perceived Fairness is so Important to Global Supply Chains
Featuring Ade Oyedijo, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
In this breakout session, Ade Oyedijo, Assistant Professor of Supply Chain Management, explores why perceived fairness is essential for building trust, cooperation, and long-term sustainability in global supply chains. Drawing on his published research and real-world examples, Ade will explain how differences in power, distance, and communication across supply chain networks shape experiences of fairness for businesses, supply chain actors, and workers. Grounded in biblical principles of justice, stewardship, and care for others, the session will highlight practical ways for Christian leaders to promote fair decision-making, transparent relationships, and ethical governance in today’s complex global demand-and-supply systems.
ROOM 314
Between Sanctuary and Sovereignty: Toward a Faithful Framework on Immigration
Featuring Van Pham, Ph.D., Chair and Professor of Economics
American immigration debate is loud, but rarely constructive. This breakout session steps back from the turmoil to ask what a faithful U.S. immigration policy might look like going forward — one that holds together Scripture's call to compassion and stewardship, the sovereignty that borders protect, and the economic realities of labor shortages and a falling fertility rate. The hope is simply to think more carefully together about one of the defining questions of our generation.
ROOM 316
Building Things That Matter - Encouragement for Christ-Following Leaders
Featuring David Reid, J.D., Clinical Associate Professor
Every day, leaders are building. Sometimes the results of our building are obvious, and other times the outcomes are invisible. Usually the building is intentional, but not always. In this breakout session, David Reid will facilitate a discussion designed to encourage and challenge Christ-following leaders who are seeking to measure - and build - things that truly matter. Building on a foundation of Biblical principles, together we will challenge ourselves as leaders to more fully operationalize our faith, measure what matters, and build things that last.
ROOM 329
God and Mammon: a Biblical Christian Entrepreneurship Perspective
Featuring Tyler Self, Clinical Associate Professor
Jesus promised: “You cannot serve God and Mammon.” In this breakout session, we will collaborate together to inquire about the temptations behind money, the joy of generosity, and the responsibilities entrepreneurs and business leaders carry into the workplace. We will discover together our underlying motives as well as practical frameworks for our families and our businesses.
ROOM 302
Christian Leadership and Moral Responsibility in the AI Era
Featuring Yulia Sullivan, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Undergraduate Program Director
In this breakout session, participants will get to grow in their use of AI while also participating in active research being conducted here at Baylor. Yulia Sullivan, an Associate Professor of Information Systems and Business Analytics, will facilitate an interactive series of experiential exercises designed to help Christian leaders think deeply about AI and its consequences. Together, we will explore what moral responsibility looks like when decisions are assisted or even made by AI. You will be invited to consider how AI may subtly shift our assumptions about agency, truth, and moral values. Our goal is to equip leaders to make decisions that align innovation with faithfulness, ensuring that technological progress serves human flourishing rather than undermining it.
ROOM 404
Legacy Leadership: The Leadership Wisdom of the Apostle Paul
Featuring J. Lee Whittington, Ph.D., Dean & Professor of Management, Gupta College of Business, University of Dallas
The Apostle Paul was the greatest Christian missionary and theologian who ever lived. More than any other individual, he was responsible for the spread of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire. If the expansion of Christianity and its enduring impact on civilization are measures of effectiveness, then Paul must be recognized as one of the most influential figures in history. In this breakout session, led by J. Lee Whittington, Dean of the Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business, we will explore the life and letters of the Apostle Paul. Together, we will see how Paul lived a life that established a legacy still shaping the world today—and how each of us can likewise lead a life that leaves a legacy.
ROOM 332
For more information on the Armes Family Christian Leadership in Business Summit, explore event details.