Faculty Profiles

Dr. Reynolds’ research focuses primarily on issues of economic globalization and the influence of religion and culture within markets. She has a particular interest on Central America, having spent time with World Relief in El Salvador analyzing the coffee sector. She has conducted research throughout Canada, the United States, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and El Salvador. Before coming to Wheaton, she was a Visiting Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Her book, "Free Trade and Faithful Globalization"(2014, Cambridge) addresses the ways Christian leaders in Canada, the US, and Costa Rica have engaged in trade policies debates.

Her current research addresses questions of development. In particular, she studies changes within the international development sector, and examines the different ways that actors might be involved in economic advocacy and challenging current economic dynamics. Dr. Reynolds also studies the importance of having a gender lens in approaching issues of development, and works with Christian NGOs to bring this gender lens into their internal programming and external work.  She is the director of The Wheaton Network Initiative on Gender, Development and Christianity.

Amy Reynolds is married to Dr. Stephen Offutt, a development studies professor at Asbury Theological Seminary. They have three children, Adrianna, Emily, and Gabriella.

Princeton University
Ph.D., Sociology, 2010

Princeton University
M.A., Sociology, 2006

Georgetown University
M.P.P., Public Policy, 2005

Harvard University
A.B., Sociology, 1999

• Sociology
• Gender Studies
• Central America
• Globalization
• Globalization & Trade
• Economic Sociology

• American Sociological Association
• Society for the Scientific Study of Religion
• International Studies Association

White Male Leadership Persists at Evangelical Ministries
Sojourners
“Some groups are talking about greater gender diversity, while others talk about racial diversity,” says Amy Reynolds, an associate professor of sociology at Wheaton College in Illinois, a leading evangelical institution that recently appointed its first female provost in its 156-year history. “The question is, what are they willing to do to get there?”
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Leadership diversity a challenge for Colorado Springs evangelical organizations
Colorado Springs Gazette
Reynolds also works with the Women in Leadership National Study at Gordon College. The study surveyed hundreds of evangelical organizations, finding that nearly a quarter have no women on their boards and more than half have no women in top positions. "Many evangelical ministries are led by one dominant demographic, so women may seek careers in the broader nonprofit world where they can grow," says Reynolds.

What the Largest Study of Women Leaders at Evangelical Nonprofits Has Learned So Far
Christianity Today
Women represent, on average, 23 percent of paid evangelical leaders, 21 percent of boards, and 16 percent of top leaders. This lags the broader nonprofit world, where women comprise 43 percent of boards and 40 percent of CEOs. "While this is not surprising, it is important to address," Reynolds wrote on Patheos's Black, White, and Gray. "This isn't just about the people in top leadership positions—this is about those who are the top paid leaders, and it's true about the board."
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Poverty and Power: How Christian NGDOs Address Inequality in Development International Studies Association, March 2019

Christian International Development Organizations and Gendered Realities Association for the Sociology of Religion, August 2018

Women in Leadership (with Richard Stearns, Dr. Jo Anne Lyon, Linda Lader, and Michael Lindsay)
Gordon College, Convocation, September 2015

Women’s Rights and Religious Rights
United Nations NGO Committee on Freedom of Religion and Belief. Meeting for the Commission on the Status of the Women, March 2015

Results of Women in Leadership National Study
Religious Newswriters Association, September 2014

Additional Presentations
See CV Linked Above

• Sociology of religion
• Economic sociology
• International political economy
• Gender & inequality
• Central American studies

Evaluating Trade Policies: The Political Engagement of Religious Actors in Costa Rica, Canada, and the United States, Review of the International Political Economy, 26(6): 1293-1310, Amy Reynolds, 2019

Evangelical Feminism in Brazil and the USA, Brazilian Evangelicalism in the Twenty-First Century, Amy Reynolds, 2019

Spheres of Gendered Inequality: Family, Religious Life, and the Workplace, The International Review of Modern Sociology, Amy Reynolds, 2017

Networks, Ethics, and Economic Values, Latin American Research Review, Amy Reynolds, 2013

Evangelical Action and Global Poverty, The New Evangelical Social Engagement, Amy Reynolds and Stephen Offutt, 2013

• Free Trade and Faithful Globalization: Saving the Market (Cambridge Studies in Social Theory, Religion and Politics)