President of World Vision to speak at Messiah College
October 15th, 2009
GRANTHAM, Pa. (Oct. 15, 2009) — Richard Stearns, president of World Vision, will speak at Messiah College on Nov. 5. The lecture begins at 7:30 p.m. in Alexander Auditorium, located in Frey Hall on the college’s Grantham campus. World Vision is one of the largest non-profit relief and development organizations in the United States dedicated to working throughout the world with children, families and communities struck by poverty and injustice.
Stearns holds degrees from Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania. His 1998 appointment to World Vision culminated nearly 25 years of corporate experience, during which he held positions as president of Parker Brothers and of Lenox Inc., and as vice president of The Franklin Mint. Since Stearns began at World Vision, donations to the organization have tripled from $358 million in 1998 to over $1 billion in 2008, and overhead has been reduced by almost one-third. As one of his first initiatives at World Vision, Stearns empowered senior leadership to increase awareness and funding for AIDS programs. In March, Stearns released his first book “The Hole in Our Gospel: What Does God Expect from Us?”
Messiah College, a private Christian college of the liberal and applied arts and sciences, enrolls 2,800 undergraduate students in 55 majors. Established in 1909, the primary campus is located in Grantham, Pa., near the state capital of Harrisburg. A satellite campus affiliated with Temple University is located in Philadelphia.