Dr. Lisa Toland

Dr. Lisa Toland is the Honors Program Director at Montreat College, where she has served since 2016. She is also Professor of History. Previously she served as the Associate Director of the John Wesley Honors College at Indiana Wesleyan University. She has dedicated her career to honors education in the Christian Liberal Arts tradition and believes that reading good texts and practicing good habits are critical pieces in attaining wisdom. She regularly teaches honors freshman Integration of Faith and Learning seminars, Ancient and Medieval Honors World Civilizations courses and honors upper-electives such as Dante’s, Comedy. She often reviews and creates new courses alongside her fellow professors in the honors program. In 2021 she was awarded the David L. Parks Distinguished Professor Award by her colleagues at Montreat College.

Dr. Toland’s favorite part of the professorship is leading guided conversation with her seminar students. She delights in them bringing their own disciplinary knowledge as students of various majors to a single conversation with a long-dead author. Dr. Toland invests in students on a regular basis through direct oversight of the honors admissions process, academic advising, teaching, and supervision of the honors program initiatives including an honors residential Living Learning Community.

Dr. Toland’s commitment to learning within and outside the classroom is mirrored in her love of gardening with her philosopher/theologian husband at their Asheville, North Carolina home. Together, with their two dachshunds Origen and Didymus the Blind, they host their students for meals and conversations. Currently she is working on a writing project, “Gardening, Polymaths and the Good Life.” Through seven wide-ranging case studies covering individuals from Hildegard of Bingen to Anne Spencer, Dr. Toland argues for the value of gardening (both in design and practice) in the pursuit of wisdom through a liberal arts education.

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