Dean Borgman

About Us

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Dean Borgman
Founder and Executive Director of the
Center for Youth Studies

Professor Borgman is the Culpepper Chair of Youth Ministries at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary's urban campus in Boston, Massachusetts. He is also founder and director of the Center for Youth Studies, a national and global network of those interested in the research of adolescence and the youth culture. His areas of expertise include urban and cross-cultural youth ministry, the changing youth culture and counseling adolescents.

Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Professor Borgman earned a Bachelor of Arts at Wheaton College and a Master of Arts degree in education at Fairfield University. He did extensive doctoral studies in history, education, and philosophy at Columbia University. From Northeastern University, Professor Borgman received the Certificate of Advanced Graduate Standing in clinical counseling and community psychology. He has taught history and social sciences in New Canaan High School and New York City Community College and was instructor of history and chairman of the social sciences division at Cuttington College in Liberia, Africa. For one year he served as the educational director of street academies for the New York Urban League.

Professor Borgman is best known for his leadership in the area of youth work. He was co-leader of a large youth group in Connecticut and established Young Life in New England before serving several years as a streetworker on Manhattan's Lower East Side. There, he established Young Life's Urban Training Institute and became a regional director of Young Life's Metro-East Region. For eight summers during this period, he was a director and speaker for two of Young Life's camps. With his wife, Gail, a clinical social worker, he serves as an international consultant and workshop leader. Every other year, he is professor of record for a team-taught month-long course at Daystar University in Nairobi, Kenya.

Dean Borgman wrote "A History of American Youth Ministry" for Benson's and Senter's The Complete Book of Youth Ministries. For fifteen years, he has written for the Encyclopedia of Youth Studies (also published as Youthworker's Encyclopedia). He also produced "Implications" the Center for Youth Studies' journal or practical research. His texts, When Kumbaya is not Enough: A Practical Theology for Youth Ministry (Hendrickson, 1997) and Hear My Story: Understanding the Cries of Troubled Youth (Hendrickson, 2003) are being used in many colleges and seminaries. Besides articles on youth culture and youth work in several magazines, he has contributed to Disorganized Religion (Kujawa, ed., 1998) and co-edited with Christine Cook Agenda for Youth Ministry (SPCK, 1998). His chapter "The Code of the Streets" appears in Scott Larson's (ed.) City Lights: Ministry Essentials for Reaching Urban Youth (Group, 2003)

Professor Borgman and his wife Gail have four children: John, Debbie, Matthew, and Christen; five grandchildren; and reside in Rockport, Massachusetts.