Davidson College Selects Leaders to Head Public Good Programs
July 16, 2026
- Author
- Mary Elizabeth DeAngelis
Davidson College has named five educators to head new programs aimed at turning out engaged, ethical leaders and citizens who will tackle society’s biggest problems and work to bridge the divisions that dominate public life today.
They fall under the purview of the college’s D.G. and Harriett Wall Martin Institute for Public Good, which serves as an umbrella for five endowed program areas, each designed to tackle a different facet of public life.
The leaders’ expertise ranges from international politics to free expression of speech to ethical leadership, civic engagement, and the role of the arts and humanities in public life. They are:
Ken Menkhaus, Franco Director of the Allison S. and Thomas C. Franco Program on Public Policy and Research.
A political science professor, he’s taught at Davidson since 1991 and is an expert on the politics of the Horn of Africa. He has frequently served as an advisor and consultant for the U.S. government, the United Nations, The World Bank, NGO’s, research and advocacy groups and the private sector. In such roles, his work includes risk analysis, conflict and political economy assessments and project monitoring and evaluation.
Marcus Pyle, Franco professor of humanities and assistant professor of music and symphony violinist, is director of the Grier Martin, Class of 1932, and Louise McMichael Martin Program on Arts & Public Life.
Pyle is also the founder and CEO of ChamberWorks Summer Institute in Dallas, Texas, which provides high-quality music education for low-income and underrepresented music students. He performs with Charlotte Strings Collective, Charlotte Symphony, Opera Carolina and Chamber Music for All.
Shireen Campbell, Beacon Director of The Beacon Program on Deliberation & Free Expression.
Campbell is an English professor and founder of Davidson’s Writing Center. Her areas of study include the upsurge of book censorship in schools, and the challenges that poses to students’ right to receive information in conjunction with first amendment rights. Other research interests include writing center theory and practice, second language writing, digital writing, and information fluency.
Hugh Lee ’89, Boone Family Director of the Neely and Jack Purcell Program on Ethics, Honor and Leadership.
A longtime litigator, he taught legal writing, directed several clinical programs and taught doctrinal courses at the University of Alabama School of Law for nearly 20 years. He taught ethics and health policy in the medical school and pre-law courses in the political science department at East Carolina University before coming to Davidson in 2026, where he’s also an adjunct professor of ethics, law, and policy.
Stacey Riemer, Dr. Samuel Burney Hay, Class of 1916, Managing Director of the Martin Institute for Public Good & Director of the Mulliss Center for Civic Engagement.
At Davidson, she’s provided direction, supervision and management to the Center for Civic Engagement, the Alvarez College Union, leadership development, and the Lula Bell Houston Resource Center. That includes cultivating relationships with community leaders for learning opportunities and supporting the college’s role as an anchor institution in the community.
The Martin Institute embodies the truth that Davidson College, as a private institution grounded in the Reformed Tradition as well as in a student-driven Honor Code, shapes and serves the public good. The college engages the greater Charlotte region through collaboration and service, delivers a half-billion- dollar economic impact in the state each year and sends curious and courageous graduates across the nation and around the world to navigate the unfamiliar and to steer practical solutions.
The college long has developed in its students many of the capacities the Martin Institute cultivates. That education transpired across the college. Now, the institute brings together existing and new programs that will prepare graduates to build common purpose and solve public problems.
