Marilyn Anderson Rhames, Ph.D., is a lecturer at Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business, where she teaches business communication. An educator for nearly 25 years, Marilyn has taught students from kindergarten through college seniors, bringing a rare breadth of classroom experience to her work preparing students to read, write, and lead effectively in professional settings.

An author, speaker, and education scholar, Marilyn works at the intersection of race, faith, and education. Her “sweet spot” is leveraging the tenets of Christianity to advocate for policies and practices that advance educational justice for children and families living in fragile communities.

Marilyn founded Teachers Who Pray, a nonprofit organization that, under her leadership, had more than 140 school-based chapters across America. She has been a leading voice on religious liberty in education, including speaking in the Oval Office at the White House about constitutional prayer in public schools after successfully urging the U.S. Department of Education to update its guidelines on religious liberties in schools. She has delivered two TEDx talks, including “Why Faith Will Fix Education.”

As an education consultant, Marilyn has advised leaders and organizations across the philanthropy, government, and nonprofit sectors. She served on the design team for Harvard University’s Leadership Institute of Faith and Education, and her book, The Master Teacher: 12 Spiritual Lessons That Can Transform Schools and Revolutionize Public Education, has been used as the curriculum for a course at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Before entering education, Marilyn was a New York City reporter for PEOPLE, TIME, New York Newsday, and The Journal-News. She later spent 14 years teaching in Chicago Public Schools and became an award-winning education blogger whose work appeared in The New York Times, Education Week, Education Post, Huffington Post, and other national publications.

Marilyn holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Dominican University, a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and a master’s degree in education from National Louis University. She earned her Ph.D. in education policy from the University of Arkansas in 2023.