Over the course of his professional career, James L. Waits has served as a minister, university administrator, executive of the principal association for theological education in North America, and President of The Fund for Theological Education, a national scholarship program for candidates for the ministry and doctoral teachers of theology. He is an ordained minister of the Mississippi Conference of the United Methodist Church.
Prior to his selection as President of the FTE in 1998, Waits was Executive Director of The Association of Theological Schools. From 1978 to 1991, he served as Dean of the Candler School of Theology of Emory University, the largest United Methodist seminary in the United States. While Dean of the School of Theology, he also served as the first Director of the Carter Center, working directly with former President Carter in the establishment of a new institute to address issues of international and domestic policy. In addition to his administrative roles, he held a faculty appointment at Emory University as the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Divinity. Waits is a graduate of Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, and holds advanced degrees from Yale University Divinity School, and the University of Chicago in political science. He is the recipient of four honorary degrees.
As Executive Director of ATS, he led the Association in the first comprehensive review of the standards of accreditation in its history. Programs of faculty support, including the establishment of a new Faculty Resource Center and the Henry Luce III and Lilly Theological Research Fellowships, characterized his administration. New initiatives focusing on the needs of racial and ethnic minorities, the impact of technology on theological curricula, and the public character and obligations of theological schools also were undertaken.
Waits is a former member of the visiting committee of the Harvard Divinity School and a former trustee of the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, New Jersey. In 1999, he was awarded the distinguished service award by Yale University Divinity School for his contributions to theological education. He is a former trustee of LaGrange College in LaGrange, Georgia, and of Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Florida. Until 2002, he served as a member of the Board of In Trust, a publication for trustees and administrators of theological schools in North America, and until 2007 served as a member of the Advisory Board of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA. He is a former trustee of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions, and is now Chair Emeritus of the Board of the Society for the Arts in Religious and Theological Studies (ARTS).
In 1998, Waits resigned as Executive Director of the ATS to undertake new responsibilities as President of the Fund for Theological Education, Inc., a fifty year-old national fellowship program that promotes excellence and diversity among candidates for the Christian ministry. The FTE, with offices in Atlanta, supports a series of initiatives to encourage young people in their exploration of religious vocations and to increase the supply of racial and ethnic minority persons for careers of teaching and research in theological education. He retired from the position of President in December, 2003, and was elected President Emeritus. In 2008, he was appointed Asa G. Candler Emeritus Professor of Candler Professor of Divinity of Emory University.
Locally, Waits serves as Chair of the Georgia Prison Ministries Project, a member of the Board of Directors of the Olmsted Linear Park Alliance, a member of the Georgia Regional Commission on Homelessness and as advisor to a number of non-profit agencies.
He is married to Fentress Boone Waits, who is a freelance writer and community volunteer. They have two children, Anne Lauren and Jonathan, and three grandchildren.