Alumni Achievement Award

honors alumni who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in their chosen career or area of professional life.

Gregory D. Alles earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Valparaiso University in Greek and Latin.  He also earned a Master of Divinity degree in 1984 from the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago and a Ph.D. in the history of religions from The Divinity School, The University of Chicago in 1986.  After serving as a visiting instructor in classics and theology at Valparaiso University and a visiting instructor in religious studies at Southwest Missouri State University, he joined the department of philosophy and religious studies at McDaniel College, where he is now a professor.  Alles has twice been a Fulbright research scholar in India, where he works with adivasi (“tribal”) people, and he has been a visiting professor at the University of Munich, Germany.  A past president of the North American Association for the Study of Religion and editor of Religious Studies: A Global View (Routledge), he has served on the editorial boards of various journals in the academic study of religions.  He is currently the co-executive editor of Numen, the journal of the International Association for the History of Religions. Alles and his wife, Sarah (Matern ’79) have many family members who are Valpo graduates, including two of their four children.