Bio
Aaron D. Cobb is Senior Scholar of Character for the Educating Character Initiative. Through the ECI, Aaron will collaborate with faculty, staff, and administrators around the country in developing character-focused programs aligned with their distinctive institutional contexts; create professional development opportunities and resources that equip faculty and staff for their work in educating character; and contribute to scholarly efforts to infuse character education within the broader culture of higher education.
Between 2010-2024, Aaron served as a faculty member at Auburn University at Montgomery (AUM), where he most recently held the role of professor of philosophy and chair of the Department of English and Philosophy. During his time at AUM, he also served as coordinator of the Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies Program and as a co-director of grants from the John Templeton Foundation and Wake Forest University. He earned a B.A. in Philosophy and Psychology from Greenville University, a M.A. in Philosophy from Western Michigan University, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Saint Louis University. He has published research on moral and intellectual virtues, with a focus on traits such as hope, humility, compassion, hospitality, and solidarity. His current research focuses on social forms of exemplarity, the social dynamics crucial to the development and exercise of virtues, civic virtues and character education. He is the author of A Virtue-Based Defense of Perinatal Hospice (Routledge) and Loving Samuel: Suffering, Dependence, and the Calling of Love, a philosophical and theological memoir on the life and death of his son. He lives in Pike Road, Alabama with his wife and son.