Meet Russell E. Willis, Ph.D

The Long Arc

Russell Willis's professional life began as an engineer at Texas Instruments, working with military-grade semiconductors deployed by Bell Labs and NASA — early building blocks of the digital world we now inhabit. That experience raised questions that would shape everything that followed: not just what technology makes possible, but who remains responsible once power scales beyond individual control.

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Those questions led him out of industry and into scholarship. He earned a PhD in Social Ethics at Emory University, with a dissertation focused on the ethics of technology, accountability, and responsibility for future consequences. Over the next several decades, he lived those ideas in practice — as a professor, provost, instructional-technology pioneer, and entrepreneur helping institutions navigate change without losing their moral bearings.

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Along the way, he helped launch early online degree programs, built AI-supported learning platforms, developed strategic plans for colleges and nonprofits, and guided organizations through moments of institutional reinvention. He has taught thousands of students, delivered hundreds of talks and presentations, and facilitated strategic planning for universities, arts organizations, churches, and mission-driven nonprofits.

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What unites all of it is a single preoccupation: who is responsible, and how do we make that question answerable in practice?

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What This Means for Your Organization

That preoccupation is now more urgent than ever. AI systems are making consequential decisions inside organizations whose leaders often don't fully understand what those systems are doing, who authorized them, or who will be held accountable when something goes wrong.

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Dr. Willis brings something rare to this challenge: not just fluency with AI tools, but a fifty-year intellectual formation in the ethics of technological systems — combined with hands-on executive experience leading institutions through technological transformation. He is the author of AI and the Crisis of Control: How Leaders Can Reclaim Responsibility in the Age of AI (Archway Publishing), which provides the conceptual foundation for the governance frameworks he deploys with clients.

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His work with organizations focuses on three interlocking questions:

• What is AI actually doing inside your systems — and is anyone watching with adequate authority and understanding?

• Who remains accountable when decisions are distributed across automated systems, vendors, and algorithmic processes?

• How do you translate ethical concern into operational practice — so that governance is built into how your organization works, not bolted on as compliance theater?

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Credentials

Education

• PhD, Social Ethics — Emory University (1990) Dissertation: "Toward a Theological Ethics of Technology" — focused on Jacques Ellul, James Gustafson, and contemporary philosophy of technology

• MTh, Perkins School of Theology— Southern Methodist University (1982)

• MS, Engineering Management — Southern Methodist University (1979)

• BSEE, Electrical Engineering — Southern Methodist University (1977)

• BS, Management Systems — Southern Methodist University (1976)

Selected Experience

• Principal Consultant, Got Vision Consulting / Willis Strategic Management (2006–Present)

• Vice President, Product Development, Global Classroom, Inc. (2009–Present)

• Provost and Chief Academic Officer, Champlain College (2003–2006)

• Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dakota Wesleyan University (2000–2003)

• Engineer, Texas Instruments Military Products / Semiconductor Division

Published Work

• AI and the Crisis of Control: How Leaders Can Reclaim Responsibility in the Age of AI (Archway Publishing)

• Essays and articles on AI governance, technology ethics, and organizational leadership, visit REWillisWrites

• For Russell's poetry, creative essays, and writing services, visit REWillisWrites