Robert McDermott, Ph.D. was president of CIIS from 1990 to 1999 and is currently CIIS professor of philosophy and religion. Except for eleven years as a higher education administrator he has been teaching philosophy and comparative religion since 1964. He has published extensively modern religious thought, especially on Sri Aurobindo, Rudolf Steiner. His latest book is Steiner and Kindred Spirits (2015). He was secretary of the American Academy of Religion, Senior Fulbright Lecturer at the Open University, and director of a National Endowment for the Humanities Project for the Study of Hinduism and Buddhism. For 14 years he was chair of the board of Sophia Project (two homes in Oakland for mothers and children at risk of homelessness). He has been president and board chair of many other institutions.