Dr. Randall Capps became an instructor in the Department of English at Western Kentucky University in 1962 after teaching at Bardstown High School for two years. He has served the university in many capacities and today is a scholar in residence and professor of management. He is also a visiting professor of the University of Lyon, France, and president of Leadership Strategies.
Dr. Capps was the first department head of the Department of Communications, formed in 1968, and the departments of theatre, broadcasting and communication disorders were founded while he was chair. He served as assistant to the president under Donald Zacharias and later served as interim head of the Department of Psychology.
Through an educational grant from the General Motors Educational Foundation, Dr. Capps studied management and communication practices among General Motors executives in 1982.
He has been a faculty member in the Gordon Ford College of Business, teaching in the MBA and organizational leadership doctoral programs since 1994. He has also developed several majors and the doctoral program in educational leadership.
Dr. Capps has received many university awards and has been recognized by the Chamber of Commerce for his work as an outstanding global advocate. He was honored by Kentucky Wesleyan with the Outstanding Alumnus Award in 1985.
He has served on numerous boards, including those of Kentucky Wesleyan College and River Valley Behavioral Health, which he has chaired for 15 years. He was also the national president of Sigma Nu and served on the board four years. He has been president of the Bowling Green Rotary Club and has served the United Methodist Church at the state and national levels.
Dr. Capps is the author of nine books, most of them on communication and leadership.
In 1994, he founded Leadership Strategies, a management consulting group which works with corporate and non-profit organizations in strategy and leadership development. His clients include The Ohio State University, Brown University, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Whirlpool Corporation, General Electric, the New York Times, Toyota and many others.
Dr. Capps earned his doctorate from the University of Virginia and did postdoctoral work at Vanderbilt University.
His wife, Joan, is a graduate of 1960 Kentucky Wesleyan College. They have a daughter, Jill.
Dr. Capps was one of Lydia Dorman’s professors when she pursued her master’s degree at Western Kentucky University in the 1980s.