Rick Axtell is Emeritus H. W. Stodghill, Jr. and Adele H. Stodghill Professor of Religion and College Chaplain at Centre College. Axtell initially taught at Centre during 1992-93 and returned to the college in 1995. He was named a Centre Scholar in 2003 and 2008, and received the Kirk Award for excellence in teaching in 2000 and 2015. In 2012, he was included in The Princeton Review’s The Best 300 Professors.  Axtell received the Presidential Award for Excellence in 2022.

Concerned about issues of hunger and homelessness, he has served as director of Louisville United Against Hunger and also was a case manager working with homeless men through the St. Vincent DePaul Society. He was a founder of the Natchez Stewpot soup kitchen in Natchez, MS where he served in a congregation for three years. 

STUDY AND TEACHING ABROAD

Axtell’s travels in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Colombia, Cuba, Egypt, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Ireland, Mexico, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Serbia, and Thailand have informed his teaching on issues of hunger, human trafficking, sustainable development, and peacemaking. In 2006, he taught in the UNESCO International M.A. Program in Peace and Development Studies at Universitat Jaume I in Castellon, Spain.  At Centre, he was instrumental in the development of Centre’s Shepherd Poverty Internship Program and its Social Justice minor.

Rick took eleven groups of students to Cuba, England, Ireland, Mexico, and Nicaragua, and accompanied other groups to China and Guatemala.  

From Centre College Web Site