Elaine Howard Ecklund is a sociologist, author, and leader who explores how individuals and groups bring their deepest values—especially religious and ethical commitments—into their work, leadership, and public lives. She holds a Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences at Rice University, where she is a Professor of Sociology and directs the Boniuk Institute for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance.
Elaine has published nine books, over 150 academic articles, and led nearly twenty national and international research projects on religion, science, institutional culture, and workplace religious diversity. Her work is widely recognized for revealing how pluralism—when understood and supported—can be an asset rather than a liability in professional life.
Known for building interdisciplinary teams and convening global gatherings, Elaine brings clarity to topics often burdened by division rather than dialogue.
Her current work focuses on religious diversity in the workplace, mentoring as a model of institutional leadership, and how faith and science intersect in public life.
Her latest books include Religion in a Changing Workplace (OUP, 2024) and Working for Better (IVP, 2025) as well as Varieties of Atheism in Science (OUP, 2021) and Why Science and Faith Need Each Other (Brazos, 2020). Working for Better: A New Approach to Faith at Work, has received the 2026 Outstanding Applied Research Award of the Religious Research Association.
She received a Ph.D. from Cornell University, where she was the recipient of the Graduate Student Baccalaureate Award for Academic Excellence and Community Service. In 2018 she gave the Gifford Lecture at The University of Edinburgh in Scotland. She received the Faculty Award for Excellence in Professional Service and Leadership in 2026 from Rice University.
Ecklund is interested in university leadership and in new approaches to mentoring. She is privileged to have worked with multiple postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and undergraduate students in research, and she is interested in supporting institutional growth, both at Rice University and of academic organizations more broadly. To that end she served nine years as Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Sociology at Rice, founded the Religion and Public Life Program at Rice in 2010 and served as director for 12 years, was president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR), president of the Religious Research Association (RRA), and has served on various university evaluation and research committees. Find out more at elainehowardecklund.com