Jim Anderson is the founder of Trampled Under Boot, a project devoted to the right use of authority in the ordinary life of institutions. He currently serves as Dean of Work Education at College of the Ozarks, where he leads a student work program involving approximately 1,400 student workers across 130 campus workstations and supporting over 200 work educators.

His work in Christian higher education, student labor, service-learning, and leadership formation has sharpened his concern for how authority is actually exercised in real workplaces and communities. As an ordained minister, a researcher, and an educator, he approaches authority not only as an organizational problem but as a moral and pastoral one: the way we use power over time either develops or diminishes the people entrusted to us.

Jim holds a Ph.D. in Lifespan Developmental Psychology from Oklahoma State University, along with master’s degrees in higher education administration, psychology, and counseling. He has taught numerous psychology, research methods, and statistics courses at multiple institutions, including College of the Ozarks, Southeastern University, Oklahoma State University, Regent University, Colorado Christian University, and the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary.

Before coming to College of the Ozarks, Jim served as Dean of the College of Education at Southeastern University, leading faculty, curriculum, budgeting, accreditation, and international partnerships. He also brought his expertise to the Department of the Army—as a research advisor at Army Headquarters (G‑1) at the Pentagon and as a research psychologist with the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and U.S. Special Operations Command—providing evidence-based guidance on resilience, organizational culture, leadership engagement, and behavioral health.

Through essays, teaching, ministry, and his book project Measured Means, Jim explores how authority, discipline, and work can be practiced with wisdom, restraint, and care for the people we lead—developing the treasure in them rather than trampling it.