This semester will conclude Professor of Politics David Bobb’s tenure as the executive director of citizen education for the Allan P. Kirby Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship. His next venture sits one state away as president of the Bill of Rights Institute in Arlington, Va.
In 1996, Bobb graduated from Hillsdale College as a politics major. He continued his education at Boston College where he received his Ph.D in political philosophy. After school, Bobb was as an education policy analyst at the Pioneer Institute in Massachusetts until he was asked to teach on the Hillsdale College main campus.
In 2008, Bobb returned to the East Coast to oversee the Washington-Hillsdale Internship Program and carry out the vision of the Kirby Center on behalf of Hillsdale College.
“David is one of the first people I hired when I came here,” President Larry Arnn said. “He has served faithfully and effectively for more than a decade. He helped get the Kirby Center underway. He has contributed to our teacher training programs and the building of our charter school efforts. We will miss him, and we wish him every good thing in his new post.”
Bobb’s passion for instructing young people in Constitutional studies will remain in his job description. The Bill of Rights Institute has a network of nearly 20,000 teachers nationwide and reaches out to high school students.
Andy Gillette, director or program development at the Bill of Rights Institute, met Bobb at the conference about teaching civic virtue to young people.
“I was struck by his eloquence and clarity of thought around the idea of the importance of teaching the principles that America was founded upon to today’s students,” Gillette said. “It’s evident he deeply cares about these issues, and has devoted his life to advancing the ideas that are central to the Bill of Rights Institute’s mission of creating a constitutional culture in the United States.”
His job will entail reaching more teachers and students with the words and ideas of the Founders and identifying donors who can help develop outreach strategy.
“I am excited about this new opportunity,” Bobb said. “After 12 years of working for my alma mater, I will miss all of my wonderful colleagues at the college, as well as the students. I look forward, however, to continuing to work side-by-side with Hillsdale to improve liberal learning and civil education throughout the country.”