Wills was named the tenth dean of the School of Theology in 2013. He was appointed to the faculty of Southern Seminary in 1997 after having previously served as archives and special collections librarian with the seminary’s James P. Boyce Centennial Library since 1994. Wills’ dissertation, Democratic Religion: Freedom, Authority, and Church Discipline in the Baptist South, 1785-1900, was published by Oxford University Press. Besides contributions to theological journals, Wills has also written Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1859-2009, also published by Oxford.