Dr. Brian Chad Starks Book Dr. Starks

Dr. Brian Chad Starks

Speaking, training, consulting, and scholarship

Helping individuals, leaders, and institutions examine identity, culture, diversity, respect, and organizational change across professional environments. He has taken that work into school districts, universities, NASA Space Grant consortia, a police department, city government, hospice care, and companies like Edward Jones.

He holds a PhD in criminology and created the Be The Messenger Framework. Criminologist, scholar, author, speaker, and trainer, with more than 30 years of combined lived, professional, and scholarly experience.

Book Dr. Starks to speak Find your industry
Dr. Brian Chad Starks in a tan houndstooth blazer, standing against a concrete wall under a blue sky and looking upward Watch him on stageSpring Convocation, Lynchburg City Schools

Organizations he has worked with

  • Lynchburg City Schools
  • Orangeburg County School District
  • Red Clay Consolidated School District
  • Wake Technical Community College
  • Purdue University
  • AAC&U
  • Virginia Space Grant Consortium

Industries we serve

One Framework. What changes from one field to the next is how it is applied. Pick the field closest to yours to see the work Dr. Starks has done there.

Dr. Starks in profile against a red brick wall

I wasn't supposed to be here.

Born the youngest of five to a father who was a high school dropout and a mother who picked cotton as a child, I grew up in a world where survival mattered more than education. By 17, I had moved seven times. At 14, I was told: "Real men work with their hands. Anybody can read a book."

But I chose differently. Sports and education became my lifeline. That choice led me to a scholarship, a Master's, and ultimately a PhD in Criminology. Along the way, I built the Be The Messenger Framework, proof that healing and justice must walk hand in hand.

Read the full story

Bring Dr. Starks to your school, campus, or organization

Every engagement is shaped around your people and what you need them to leave with.

Keynotes

Storytelling and research from the stage, on leadership, identity, organizational culture, trust, accountability, justice, and institutional change. Three of the keynotes he is asked for most:

  • Be The MessengerThe four constructs, Identity, Culture, Diversity, and Respect, and how each one shapes the way people lead, teach, serve, and decide.
  • From Survival to The Messenger: Turning Pain Into PurposeHis own story, from seven moves by age 17 to a PhD in criminology, and what it says about the students who aren't supposed to make it either.
  • Transform 4Ever: A New Paradigm for Social ChangeHealing First. Justice Always. Reform 4Ever. Why the work on yourself comes before the work on the system, and what changes when leaders do it in that order.
See the keynotes

Training and facilitation

Every training takes the people in the room through the Framework's four constructs:

Identity, Culture, Diversity, and Respect

Participants leave with a self-reflection they completed and strategies they can use the next day. In schools, that is the full-day Education Edition.

Districts that want to keep the work going can certify their own facilitators.

How the training works

In the room

Spring Convocation keynote for Lynchburg City Schools, March 30, 2015.

More photos and video

What the people who hired him say

"Dr. Starks' approach and instructional style allows the participants to talk about very difficult subject-matter and problems in a way that is inclusive and productive."

Chris CarterDeputy Director, Virginia Space Grant Consortium

"The way he masterfully threaded criminal sociology with the culture of undergraduate STEM education fundamentally changed how I view my work."

Kelly Mack, PhDVice President for Undergraduate STEM Education and Executive Director, Project Kaleidoscope, American Association of Colleges & Universities

"Based on conversations you lead, we were able to implement a START (STEM Academic Research & Training) Ambassador program."

Jackie Swanik, PhDAssociate Dean, Mathematics, Sciences, and Engineering, Wake Technical Community College
Dr. Starks standing outdoors in a tan blazer, hands folded

Consulting and advising for senior leaders

For executives, senior leaders, and institutional decision-makers who are navigating pressure to lead authentically in a politically and culturally complex environment while maintaining credibility, performance, and trust.

"He helped me develop frameworks for decision-making that honor both organizational needs and personal values, a balance that feels increasingly elusive in modern leadership."

M. Brandon JonesPresident, AGU
Talk with Dr. Starks
Cover of Courageous Hearts by Dr. Brian Chad Starks

Courageous Hearts: A 52‑Week Devotional Guide

This devotional brings the Be The Messenger Framework into your daily life. With weekly reflections, journaling prompts, and grounding practices, Courageous Hearts helps readers connect inner healing with outer justice, one week at a time.

Available in paperback, hardcover, and a fillable digital version.

Order the book

Want to carry this work yourself?

Be The Messenger is the home of the Framework, the research behind it, and the path to becoming a certified facilitator.

Become a facilitator
Dr. Starks seen from behind beside a brick column, looking to the side

The Be The Messenger podcast

Guest conversations with leaders on Tuesdays. Solo Messenger Memos on Thursdays.

Episodes Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube

The Messenger Dispatch

The publication home for Dr. Starks' original essays, scholarship, research-informed analysis, and Messenger Memos.

Read on Substack

"There are two types of education: the one life forces on you, and the one you choose for yourself. The first teaches you to survive. The second teaches you to live, heal, and lead."

Dr. Brian Chad Starks
Book Dr. Starks to speak info@brianchadstarks.com