Kimon Howland Sargeant is Vice President of Human Sciences at the John Templeton Foundation. His responsibilities include developing new research initiatives in the areas of religion and spirituality in the human sciences, character education, and the role of free enterprise solutions to alleviating poverty. In addition, Dr. Sargeant is responsible for overseeing the Foundation’s proposal review process in the Human Sciences. He serves as Executive Editor of In Character: A Journal of Everyday Virtues.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Dr. Sargeant was Director for Research and Programs in the Human Sciences at the Metanexus Institute on Religion and Science, where his responsibilities included conceiving and launching interdisciplinary social science research programs for the John Templeton Foundation. He developed the Spiritual Capital Research Program, a nearly $4 million request-for-proposals competition to spur new research on the economic and social consequences of religion. In addition, he helped launch in partnership with The Atlantic Philanthropies a new $9 million purpose in retirement prize program that will promote a new vision for “giving back” in retirement.

Dr. Sargeant also served as a program officer at The Pew Charitable Trusts, where he was responsible for a $20 million portfolio in the area of Religion and Public Life. He initiated new research programs on religion’s role in the incorporation of new immigrants in major gateway cities and on the role of faith-based organizations in social welfare provision.

Dr. Sargeant received his doctorate in sociology from the University of Virginia and his B.A. in history from Yale University. He is the author of Seeker Churches: Promoting Traditional Religion in a Nontraditional Way, published by Rutgers University Press in 2000. Married with four children, including a recently adopted daughter from China, he enjoys coaching little league baseball and youth soccer.