Presenter Biographies

Andrew Darius Abdool is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Educational Sciences of the North-west University in South Africa. He has being a teacher at a secondary school for 12 years and his field of teaching was Biblical Studies and was also a School Guidance counselor. Since 2003 he teaches in the undergraduate B.Ed program, Religion Studies and in the Post Graduate Certificate program, Biblical Studies Subject Didactics. Currently he is the Subject Chairperson for the subject group Religion Studies and Philosophy of Education. He is also involved in development of new syllabi for both subject fields in the B.Ed and PGCE program. He obtained his Ph.D in 2005 and his focus during that period of research was and is still on values in education.

Ken Badley teaches in the educational foundations department at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon.  He came to George Fox via stints of teaching secondary social studies in Edmonton, Alberta and philosophy of education at the Institute of Christian Studies in Toronto.  Ken's academic interests include the teaching vocation, the components of great teaching, and faith-learning integration.  He is currently attempting to understand how to apply architectural and design principles to course planning.  Ken lives in Tacoma, Washington with his wife Jo-Ann Badley.

Gail Gunst Heffner is the Director of Community Engagement and Claudia DeVries Beversluis is the Provost at Calvin College.  They are currently leading a Teagle Foundation grant on Liberal Arts and Place, and have collaborated on the volume Community and Commitment, Service Learning and Christian Higher Education.

Albert Boerema is Associate Professor of Education at Calvin College.  His research interests are educational leadership, leadership development, and school structure.  Before coming to Calvin College he was the principal of Fraser Valley Christian High School in British Columbia.

Brian Bolt is a professor in the department of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, Dance, and Sport at Calvin College.  He teaches courses in physical education pedagogy, motor learning and development, and philosophy of PE and sport.  His research interests include technology in skill acquisition, physical education pedagogy, and sport philosophy.

Joy Bonnema is an associate professor of biology at Calvin College. She received her Ph.D. in immunology from the Mayo Clinic and Foundation where she studied signal transduction pathways in natural killer cells. In her 10 years at Calvin College she has collaborated with David H. DeHeer in investigating the molecular mechanisms underlying the failure of joint implants, and has engaged her students in service-learning by partnering with local chapters of the MS Society, Lupus Society and AIDS Care Network. She has taught courses ranging from introductory cell biology to upper level immunology.

Deborah Bowen is Associate Professor and Chair of English at Redeemer University College in S.W. Ontario. She teaches courses in contemporary literary theory, contemporary fiction, the British novel, British modernism, postcolonial literature, and sundry other things as they come along. She is presently working on a book manuscript entitled Stories of the Middle Space: Postmodern Realisms Face to Face with the World. Her edited collection, The Strategic Smorgasbord of Postmodernity: Literature and the Christian Critic, came out with Cambridge Scholars Press in June of this year. She is particularly interested at present in the interface of literature and ecological issues, and also in the “religious turn” in the contemporary academy.

Darlene G. Bressler is a Professor of Education and Associate Academic Dean at Houghton College where she teaches courses in the language arts and serves as a college mentor to pre-service teachers during their elementary student teaching experiences.  Her research interests include assessment, family literacy, and teacher education.  Having served as a language arts consultant to school districts in western New York and as coordinator of a parent involvement program in a partnership between the college and an area school district, she has also been a part of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers partnership with Allegany-Cattaraugus Board of Cooperative Educational Services. 

Randall Buursma teaches in the Communication Arts and Sciences Department of Calvin College. His interests include exploring the connections between the moral dimension of teaching and the role of the communication arts in the learning process.

Carolyne Call was born in Ithaca, New York and grew up there, attending Cornell University and graduating with her BS in Rural Sociology in 1986. During the summer prior to her senior year she experienced a call to the ministry while working on her extended family’s farm in western New York State. During 1986-87 she served as a seminary intern at the Ladue Chapel Presbyterian church in Saint Louis, MO. In the fall of 1987 she returned to New York and enrolled at Colgate-Rochester Divinity School for the next three years. She graduated in 1990 with a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) with a concentration in Systematic Theology (with honors). After graduation from CRDS she began a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. In 1994 she left Princeton to go into parish ministry, serving a historic protestant church on the New Jersey shore for five years. She was ordained by the United Church of Christ in November of 1994. In 1997 she returned to Ithaca to pursue a MS in Development Sociology at Cornell (’00) and a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology (’04). In 2002 she moved west to join her new husband (Randall Zachman, theology faculty at Notre Dame) in South Bend and began teaching for Saint Mary’s in the Psychology department that fall. The following year she was awarded a Fellowship in Psychology through the Center for Women’s Intercultural Leadership and taught for the 2003-2004 year in that department. In 2004 she became the Director of the Office for Civic and Social Engagement, the office on campus responsible for service-learning, community service, and social action projects. Carolyne also still teaches in the psychology department, focusing on Psychology across the Lifespan. Her current research projects include Identity issues in Immigrant Muslim Women, Identity and Photography in College-Aged Women, and Intellectual Safety in the College Classroom.

Thomas C. Chesnes (PhD, University of Florida, Environmental Engineering Sciences) is trained in systems ecology, with an emphasis on the interactions between social, economic, and ecological systems.  He has performed research, presented, and published on species ranging from algae to vertebrates, as well as sustainability in higher education. He currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Biology at Palm Beach Atlantic University, West Palm Beach, Florida.

Henry A. Corcoran is a graduate of Christian institutions of higher learning (B.A., Concordia University;  M.Div., Concordia Theological Seminary;  M.Ed., Marquette University), in my doctoral work at the University of Denver, I became interested in resolving a tension I felt within myself between the conflicting demands of the academic culture and of my faith.  This essay issues from a bridge over the conflict that Bruce Kimball’s analysis of the history of two different traditions of scholarship granted me.  After completing a study of young adult faith development in the crucible of a secular university, my current project centers in the way that Christians use the narrative resources of the Holy Scriptures to restory their lives.

Janel Curry is Dean for Research and Scholarship and Professor of Geography at Calvin College.  She obtained her Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Minnesota.  Prior to coming to Calvin College she taught at Central College in Pella, Iowa.  She has published in major geography journals such as the The Geographical Review and the Annals of the Association of American Geographers in the area of natural resource management and religious worldviews and attitudes toward nature.

Don DeGraaf is professor of Recreation and chair of the Department of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, Dance and Sport at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI.  He is the 2007 J.B. Nash Award winner from the American Association for Physical Activity and Recreation for his professional commitment, leadership, service, research and publication in Recreation.  His interest areas include civic engagement, youth leadership, and urban renewal.

Dennis deGroot is principal at Fraser Valley Christian High School where he has located himself for almost 30 years.  Five years ago he and his wife taught in their sister school in South Africa.  That experience and others have nudged him toward a greater global consciousness to meet the challenges and joys of partnering in the developing world. Fraser Valley Christian High School is partnered with Christian Extension Services and the new CRC of Sierra Leone in an exciting Christian School venture.

David H. DeHeer, Ph.D. – David earned a bachelor’s degree in zoology in 1968 and a Ph.D. in immunology in 1972, both from the University of Arizona.  In a postdoctoral fellowship in the Departments of Experimental Pathology and Molecular Immunology at Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in La Jolla, CA, he investigated B lymphocyte regulation and autoantibody production.  He remained at Scripps as a faculty in Molecular Immunology until 1985 when he accepted a position in the Biology Department at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  There he teaches courses in Cell Biology, Immunology, Cell Culture, and Investigations in Inflammation.  DeHeer has been program director for two grants from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and principal investigator on several National Science Foundation and other grants that funded equipment, curricular enhancements, or research.  His interests include establishing summer and extracurricular research opportunities for undergraduates as well as integrating the use of technology and sophisticated equipment in the curriculum.  For 10 years DeHeer was Director of Research for the Grand Rapids Orthopaedic Surgery Residency Program.  He presently is collaborating with bone-marrow transplant physicians at Spectrum Health to investigate the remedial effects of adult stem cells on episodes of graft rejection.  He is an adjunct Professor of Surgery at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.  He is a trustee of the West Michigan Regional Laboratory, an animal care facility that serves the greater Grand Rapids area, and of the Grand Rapids Area Medical Education Center’s Research Foundation, an organization that promotes multi-institutional education and research in the health sciences.  Currently he is the Chair of the Biology Department at Calvin College.

Jennifer Discher was until recently the Campus Minister and Director of Service Learning for Mercy College in Toledo, Ohio.  She is currently the Director of Mission and Values Integration for Mercy Health Partners.  Jennifer has a Master’s degree in Divinity from the University of Notre Dame, and a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from Wayne State University.  She is currently working on her PhD in Higher Education Administration at the University of Toledo.  Jennifer has taught Christian Leadership, Social Analysis of Education, Homelessness, and Service Learning.  Jennifer has also been involved in mentoring, community/migrant outreach, and multiple social justice projects.

Jack Du Mez teaches a specialized sequence of written rhetoric at Calvin College. He has a B.A. from Dordt College, where he studied English literature, and an M.A. from Marquette University, where he taught freshman composition.  He has worked at The LaSalle School for Boys in Albany, New York; Penn High School in Mishawaka, Indiana; and Hope College in Holland, Michigan. He is a member of the Council of Writing Program Administrators, the Michigan Writing Program Administrators, and National Council of Teachers of English. His research interests include basic writing program development, and the integration of faith and written rhetoric.

Margaret Sampson Edgell is an Associate Professor of Business at Calvin College, where she teaches Management.  Her research includes work as a Lilly Faculty Scholar in student spiritual development, qualitative study in the role of Afrocentric worldview in Christian spiritual development, and research in the importance of the higher education sector in international development.

Karen Elliott is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Mercy College in Toledo, Ohio.  Karen has a Master’s degree in Theology from St. Michael’s College in Vermont and a Doctorate of Divinity from Barry University in Miami, Florida.  Dr. Elliott teaches Moral Values and Spiritual Growth, World Religions, The New Testament, Medical Ethics, and Foundations of Faith and Religion. Dr. Elliott has also acted as a faculty presenter for a lay ministry program, and spiritual director for spiritual formation programs.  Dr. Elliott has previously published and served as a guest speaker on the topic of spiritual formation in adolescent populations.

Joshua Firestone is a junior Applied Finance and Accounting major at Palm Beach Atlantic University. He is also a student in the Suppers Honors Program.  In 2006, he was selected to be among Who’s Who in America.     

Alexandre Brasil Fonseca, Doctor in Sociology, University of São Paulo, Brazil Assistant Professor, Center of Educational Technologies for Health Sciences, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Member of the National Youth Council (Federal Republic of Brazil). Board Member, International Association for the Promotion of Christian Higher Education (IAPCHE). Advisor, “Faith, Economy and Society” Comission, Latin American Council of Churches. Author of “Evangelicals and Media in Brazil”, Edusf, Brazil, 2003. Editor of “Education and Justice”, ABU Editora, 2006. Contributor to FRESTON, Paul. (Ed.):”Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in Latin America”. Oxford:OUP, 2006. Winner, “Currents in World Christianity” Young Researcher Scholarship-2000, Cambridge University, UK.

Cathy Freytag, Associate Professor of Education, has served as a faculty member in the Education Department at Houghton College for the past four years.  Her expertise is in the area of special education, with an emphasis on the collaborative delivery of effective inclusive paradigms.  During her years at Houghton, she has developed a dual-certification program in childhood education and special education, instituted a collaborative, service-learning/literacy project in Zambia, and proposed special education courses at the master’s level.  She is currently serving as Inclusive Childhood Education program coordinator and is fostering deliberate partnerships with area schools that exemplify effective inclusive practices.

Blanche Jackson Glimps is an associate professor of special education at Tennessee State University (TSU).  Prior to joining TSU, Dr. Glimps was Vice President for Academic Affairs at Kentucky Christian College.  She also served as chairperson of the education department at Marygrove College in Detroit.  She received her doctoral degree from The University of Michigan and taught for several years for the Detroit Public School System.

Matthew Halteman is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Calvin College. His areas of interest include 20th Century European Philosophy and Animal Ethics. His writing has appeared, among other places, in Continental Philosophy Review, Philosophical Review, and Books and Culture. He consults for the Humane Society of the United States and is a member of the advisory board of their "Food, Farming and Faith" campaign. He is especially excited about his post as faculty sponsor of the Students for Compassionate Living, Calvin's very own animal advocacy organization.

Susan Schneider Hasseler received her Ph.D. from the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She is the Associate Dean of Teacher Education and a professor in the Education Department at Calvin College. Her research interests include teaching for social justice, reformed perspectives on race and reconciliation, culturally responsive instruction, and educational leadership. She recently spent a month in South Africa as a visiting lecturer at the University of the North-West in Potchefstroom and as a consultant for the Association of Christian Schools of Southern Africa. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the teacher education program. Susan Schneider Hasseler's joint presentation with Andrew Abdool and Juliet Rens is entitled "Excellence and Justice: New Visions for Teacher Education in South Africa and the United States."

Gail Gunst Heffner is the Director of Academic Community Engagement in the office of the Provost at Calvin College. She has also served as the Associate Director of the Calvin Center for Social Research and the Director of Academically Based Service-Learning, where she helped launch the Calvin Environmental Assessment Program.  Her Ph.D. is in Urban Studies and Resource Development from Michigan State University and she holds a masters degree in Economic and Social Development from the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. Her doctoral dissertation was a study of institutional racism in congregations and she has published articles on community-based research, engaged scholarship, social capital and community development.  She is a co-author of Commitment and Connection: Service-Learning and Christian Higher Education.

Mary S. Hulst is assistant professor of preaching at Calvin Theological Seminary. Previously, she had the privilege of serving as the pastor of the Eastern Avenue Christian Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan, for eight years. Dr. Hulst is a graduate of Holland Christian High School, Calvin College, Calvin Theological Seminary, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Denise A. Isom is currently an assistant professor in the education department at Calvin College and holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology of Education from Loyola University, Chicago. Her current research projects include a continuing investigation of racialized gender identity in African American children and a joint study on race and congregational life. Her research has been presented at various conferences (from UPenn ethnography conference to the American Educational Research Association) and has been accepted for publication in numerous journals including, Th e Urban Review and Race, Equality and Teaching.

Samuel Joeckel is an Assistant Professor of English at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Florida. His articles on a host of subjects—disability studies; Samuel Johnson and happiness; William Cowper and the problem of evil; Christianity and postmodernism; C.S. Lewis and Platonism; and Christianity and humor—appear in Christian Scholar’s Review, Christianity and Literature, The Kentucky Review, Quodlibet, Mythlore, and Humor: International Journal of Humor Research (forthcoming).

Clarence W. Joldersma is Professor of Education at Calvin College in Grand Rapids (USA), where he teaches philosophy of education. He earned an M.Phil. from the Institute for Christian Studies (Toronto, Canada) and a Ph.D. from University of Toronto (OISE), in philosophy of mind. He has edited, with Gloria Stronks, two sets of essays in philosophy of education by Nicholas Wolterstorff, Educating for Life (Baker, 2002) and Educating for Shalom (Eerdmans, 2004). He has also published numerous essays in periodicals such as Philosophy of Education Yearbook, Interchange, Studies in Philosophy and Education, and Journal of Educational Thought. His current research focuses on the intersections of continental philosophy, philosophy of science, environmental sustainability, and education.

Charles Justins has been a teacher for 31 years and for 30 of these has worked in Christian schooling. His teaching areas have been secondary Mathematics, Economics and Studies of Religion. He has been the Deputy Principal at Tyndale Christian School since 1991 and lectures part-time for the National Institute for Christian Education, the tertiary training agency of Christian Parent Controlled Schools which offers Masters Degrees and Post-graduate Diplomas, primarily for teachers in Christian schools. He is married to Pam who is a therapist with the Salvation Army Counselling Service in Sydney and has three children, two step-children and seven grand-children. Charlie is a lay-preacher and serves as Chair of the Uniting Church Congregation of Blacktown (Sydney). He is a keen supporter of the Parramatta Eels Rugby League team. In 2002 Charlie completed doctoral studies through the Australian Catholic University on the topic Christian Parent Controlled Schools in Australia – Foundational Values and Prevailing Practices.

Terry King is Chaplain of a multi-denominational Christian school on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia with an enrolment of 1300 students from Prep to Year 12. Previously he was the founding principal of 12 years of a Christian school in Sydney, Australia. He holds a Doctor’s degree in Education, a Master’s degree in Educational Administration and a degree in Primary education. He has presented conference papers to the Australian Council of Educators, The Stapleford Centre (U.K.) and Christian educators in Australia. He has been involved in developing Christian education in Australia for over 20 years at local and national levels.

David Koeller has a Ph.D. in History from the University of California at Berkeley.  He teaches at North Park University where he is currently Director of the Campus Dialogue Program.  He has served as Faculty Coordinator for Service Learning and Director of the North Park Dialogue and has chaired the Curriculum and Instruction Committee that developed the Dialogue Program.  He has worked extensively in computer assisted instruction, having developed the WebChron chronology project for the web and written chapters on World History for the History Highway series.  He is currently completing a Master’s Degree in Higher Education Administration.

David S. Koetje is an associate professor of biology at Calvin College.  He received his Ph.D. in plant physiology and molecular biology from Purdue University where he conducted research in tissue culture and genetic engineering of rice.  A postdoctoral research stint at Washington State University launched his research in plant responses to environmental stress.  Reflecting his long-term interests in creation care and sustainability, he is the editor of a recent book, Living the Good Life on God’s Good Earth.  David's other scholarly interests include place-based agricultural biotechnology, curricular/pedagogical innovations in biology, and socially responsible science and education.  He teaches a range of courses in cell/molecular biology and biotechnology.

Irene Brouwer Konyndyk has been teaching foreign languages (German, Dutch and French) at Calvin College since 1977, where she is an Assistant Professor of French. Born in the Netherlands, she grew up in Canada, and did her undergraduate and graduate studies in the U.S.  She has done work in cross-cultural issues, foreign language pedagogy, and foreign language teacher education.  Her current research interest is foreign language learning and learning disabilities.  She is currently on sabbatical to begin a book on this topic.  In 2001 she began a French program for students with learning disabilities; it is the only such program in French in the nation.  

Carolyn Kristjánsson has lived and worked in Brazil, Iceland, and Canada.  She currently resides in Canada where she is Assistant Professor of Linguistics in the School of Graduate Studies at Trinity Western University in British Columbia.  She teaches a range of courses pertaining to language education in both on-campus and online contexts.  Her research interests include perceptions of identity and constructions of the same through language, the influence of spiritual beliefs and values in the teaching and learning of English as an additional language, and the interpersonal dimensions of learning communities evidenced in the discourse of those communities.

Recently appointed to the faculty of education at Calvin College,
Jo Kuyvenhoven brings diverse abilities and credentials to bear on helping new classroom teachers best teach reading.  She is a well known storyteller in Canada and literacy researcher-trainer in Sierra Leone.  Her work concerns the vital and complementary relationship between spoken and written language in the work of learning. 

Mark LaCelle-Peterson is Professor of Education and Chair of the Education Department at Houghton College where he teaches courses in the historical, philosophical, and cultural foundations of education.  His research interests include curriculum studies, democratic theory in education, and the reception of medieval history and literature on the part of contemporary learners.  He has worked in faculty development in higher education and program evaluation for schools serving English language learners.  He participated in the 2004 NEH Summer Institute on Anglo Saxon England.

Theresa F. Latini, Ph.D. is the Assistant Professor of Pastoral and Congregational Care at Western Theological Seminary.  Theresa is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA).  Before teaching, she served as both an associate pastor and a spiritual care coordinator for an agency serving developmentally disabled adults.  She is currently co-authoring a book with Deborah van Deusen Hunsinger, Princeton Theological Seminary, entitled Compassionate Communication as a Spiritual Practice of the Church. Theresa has received over 100 hours of training in nonviolent communication.  She lives in Holland, MI with her husband, Tom van Deusen, and their labradoodle, Sandy.

Heidi Oberholtzer Lee is assistant professor of English at Messiah College and specializes in colonial American literature. She has edited for Religion & Literature a special issue on “Pilgrimage in Literature of the Americas.”  She also recently published “Turtle Tears and Captive Appetites: The Problem of White Desire in the Caribbean” in The Journal of Narrative Theory and “‘The Hungry Soul’: Sacramental Appetite and the Transformation of Taste in Early American Travel Writing” in Early American Studies.  She is currently working on a project on faith and food in early American literature.

William E. Marsh, Ph.D., teaches theology, history, and philosophy at Westminster Christian High School in Elgin, Illinois. Author of two books and numerous articles on spirituality and the interchange between religion and culture, he has contributed to many seminars examining the direction of Christian education in America today.

Laurie Matthias graduated in May 2007 from Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia with an Ed.D. in higher education with an emphasis in teaching. She currently teaches both undergraduate and graduate students at Trinity International University. Her research interests include professorial integration of faith and learning and international partnerships with Christian colleges and universities.

Joseph McDonald was born and raised by missionary parents in Argentina, and did my graduate work in Drexel University from whom I received my library science credential and a PhD in Information Studies. I served as libraries’ director in Pepperdine and Long Island universities and in small liberal arts colleges, where I also had administrative responsibilities for institutional assessment, learning support, and computer services. Most recently, I served as professor and library and information technology director in Sheldon Jackson College, Sitka, Alaska, where I live with my wife and four children, but not with sled dogs or in an igloo.

Ryan O’Dowd is Assistant Professor of Old Testament at Briercrest College in Canada.  His graduate work involved a philosophical and hermeneutical study of Deuteronomy and Old Testament Wisdom Literature.  He has published several articles on Deuteronomy and the wisdom literature and is currently writing an introduction to Old Testament Wisdom and Poetry.  He and his wife Amy have three children and live in Caronport, Saskatchewan – the cold but beautiful prairie land of western Canada.

Kurt Peterson is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of History at North Park University in Chicago.  His dissertation, entitled "Constructing the Covenant:  The Evangelical Covenant Church and American Religious Culture, 1920-1970," was written under George Marsden at the University of Notre Dame, and is currently being considered for publication.  Recent articles include "American Idol:  David Barton's Dream of a Christian Nation," The Christian Century (31 October 2006):20-23; and "Internationalizing American Religious History," The Council of Societies for the Study of Religion Bulletin, September, 2005. 

John Pisciotta is an Associate Professor of Economics in Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business.  Before joining the Baylor faculty, Pisciotta served on the economics department of Colorado State University at Pueblo. Dr. Pisciotta has specialized in innovative approaches to teaching economics.  Prior to 1987, he was Associate Director of the Center for Private Enterprise at Baylor. His research interests include K-12 education reform and the economic role of government.  John Pisciotta is co-director of Pro-Life Waco and is actively involved in the pro-life activities of the Catholic Diocese of Austin.

David Purpel grew up in the Boston area and received his training at Tufts College and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in foundations of education, curriculum, supervision, and moral education. Among his publications are The Moral and Spiritual Crisis in Education; Moral Outrage and Education; and Reflections on the Moral and Spiritual Crisis in Education. He is currently Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Jennifer Reitz is the Director of Student Services and a Sociology instructor at Mercy College in Toledo, Ohio.  Jennifer has a Master’s degree in Sociology from The University of Texas, El Paso and is currently working on her PhD in Higher Education Administration at The University of Toledo. Jennifer has taught Introduction to Peace Studies, Cultural Diversity, and Homelessness and Service Learning. In her role as Director of Student Services, Jennifer also oversees Counseling, Academic Enrichment, Campus Ministry, Student Activities, and Freshman Seminar.  Jennifer has been a guest speaker on the topics of service learning, student development, and pedagogy.

Julialet Rens are a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Educational Sciences of the North-west University in South Africa after being a teacher in 2 secondary schools during the eighties. She has been at the Faculty since 1992 and teaches in the Post Graduate Certificate program since 1994. Currently she is the program leader of the PGCE-program which underwent a mayor evaluation process this year from the Higher Education Quality Committee. She is also involved in development of new programs in the B.Ed program. Her research focus has been values in education and completed her Ph.D in 2005 in this field.

James Rooks is a graduate of Calvin College and the University of Toronto.  He taught for ten years at Redeemer University College and currently teaches undergraduate and graduate literacy education classes at Calvin College.  He has written two successful Title II  professional development grants involving the teachers in urban Grand Rapids area schools.

Glenn E. Sanders (Ph.D., Brown, 1989) is Professor of History and Chair of the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Oklahoma Baptist University.  His scholarly interests include the history of Christian-Muslim relations and the application of developmental theory to spiritual growth in the college classroom.  He has also participated in faculty development programs with the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.  He currently works closely with a regional CCCU interdisciplinary colloquium of Christian colleges in Oklahoma and western Arkansas.

John Thomas Scott, Professor of History at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, received his degrees in history from Vanderbilt University (B.A.), the University of Georgia (M.A.), and the College of William and Mary in Virginia (Ph.D.).  Since 1991, he as worked as a full-time faculty member at Mercer and served as chair of the Department of History from 1997 to 2002.  He has published articles relating to American Revolutionary ideology, Presbyterian revivalism in early National America, and religion in Georgia in the 18th century, and has presented papers to the Society for the History of the Early American Republic, the Conference on Faith and History, and the Southern Historical Association.

Christopher R. Smit is an assistant professor for the Communication Arts and Sciences Department at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  His edited collection Screening Disability: Essays on Cinema and Disability was published in 2001 by the University Press of America.  Smit’s essays on disability, media, popular music, and culture can be found in Disability Studies Quarterly, Studies in Popular Culture, Journal of Popular Culture, and several edited collections. When not professing or writing, Smit is a singer/songwriter.  His latest CD The New Midwest (2007) was nominated for record of the year by local radio station WYCE.

David I. Smith is Director of the Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching and Learning and Associate Professor of German at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is coeditor of the Journal of Education and Christian Belief and the Journal of Christianity and Foreign Languages. He has published widely on Christian education, including the recent books The Gift of the Stranger: Faith, Hospitality and Foreign Language Learning (with Barbara Carvill, Eerdmans, 2000) and The Bible and the Task of Teaching (with John Shortt, The Stapleford Centre, 2002). David I. Smith's presentation is entitled "Reading Practices, Virtues, and the Excellences of the Literature Course."

RJ Snell (Ph.D., Marquette University) is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Honors Program at North Park University. He is the author of Through a Glass Darkly: Bernard Lonergan and Richard Rorty on Knowing Without a God's-eye View (Marquette University Press, 2006).

Robert Sweetman presently holds the H. Evan Runner Chair in the History of Philosophy at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto, Canada.  He was trained as a medievalist at The Pontifical Institute for Mediaeval Studies (M.S.L., 1984) and the Centre for Medieval Studies of the University of Toronto (Ph.D. 1989) to feel equally at home (and at sea) in the study of medieval history, philosophy and theology.  He has ignored his speciality in his most ambitious publication to date, In the Phrygian Mode: Neo-Calvinism, Antiquity and the Lamentations of Reformational Philosophy (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2007) and in a book-length manuscript he is peddling to publishers tentatively entitle “Delineations: Re-Imagining the Adventure of Integral Christian Scholarship.”  He is currently finishing up a second book-length manuscript in his field tentatively entitled “Exemplary Care: Stoic Therapy, Dominican Pastoral Narrative and the Transformation of the Human Person, 1225-1275”

James Timmer is professor of Sport Management and Men’s Athletic Director at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI.  His interest areas include sport ethics and sport history.

Joonna Trapp is an Associate Professor of English at Northwestern College in Iowa.  She is nearing completion of a book on popular oratory in the antebellum South.  Her other interests include the Gothic and Christianity, as well as the intersections of rhetoric and literature in nineteenth century America.

Harro Van Brummelen is Professor of Education at Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia. His best-known books include Walking with God in the Classroom and Steppingstones to Curriculum, both of which have been translated into a number of languages. He has been involved in professional development activities for teachers throughout the world.

Susan VanZanten Gallagher earned her B.A. at Westmont College in 1978 and her Ph.D. from Emory University in 1982.  She taught at Covenant College, Baylor University, and Calvin College, before taking her present position as Professor of English and the Director of the Center for Scholarship and Faculty Development at Seattle Pacific University.  She has published extensively in Christian higher education, South African literature, and nineteenth-century American literature, including Literature Through the Eyes of Faith (Harper 1989), A Story of South Africa (Harvard 1991) and Truth and Reconciliation: The Confessional Mode in South African Literature (Heinemann 2002).

Rick Vander Kam has been a follower of Jesus Christ for thirty-four years and with twenty-five years of experience in small group dynamics and applied experiential education theory, Rick brings a deep knowledge transformational learning to his thought provoking academic education programs associated with The Van Arend Company. A doctoral student at Fielding Graduate University, Rick is studying leadership and change dynamics as related to education.  He is a student of our culture’s responses to unprecedented magnitudes of change, and how organizational learning processes construct stability and growth. Rick is on the Chapman University’s Extended Education Advisory Board, a faculty member of Chapman’s Leadership Services Group, and a member of American Educational Research Association. He is a founding faculty member of Wheatstone Academy. Rick has helped to create and deliver programs aimed at societies most persistent problems.  These included gang intervention with Choices Youth Programs, young adult education programs for Rising Tide Transitional Housing Program (Orangewood Foundation), staff coaching for Girls and Boys Town, and moral and ethical and spiritual development for many faith-based organizations locally and internationally.

Julie Walton is associate professor of Exercise Science at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI.  She is an ACSM certified Exercise Specialist with interests in sport nutrition, the philosophy of sport, and exercise and aging.

Dan Wessner is professor of international and political studies at Eastern Mennonite University.  His interests include inter-cultural pedagogies that link learning communities around the world, faith- and community-based human rights development, and the history of the American-Vietnam War and its aftermath.  Professor Wessner is also an ordained Mennonite minister and practitioner of international law.

Herma B. Williams, Ph.D., joined Fresno Pacific University, a Mennonite Brethren Institution, as provost and academic vice president August 1, 2006.  FPU is home to over 1,800 undergrad students, 900 grad students and thousands of continuing education students from across the US.  Dr. Williams' current goals include strengthening the university's commitment to teaching and research, and reaching out to Fresno and the surrounding communities.

Williams came to FPU from Gordon College, Wenham, Massachusetts.  While at Gordon, the college grew from 1,270 students to over 1,700 and became more diverse, while raising its entrance standards.

As associate provost at Gordon, Williams helped build enrollments of under-represented students, recruit a more diverse faculty and engage students to address Boston’s problems.  These efforts helped Gordon College earn the Council of Christian Colleges and University’s Racial Harmony Award.

The author of one book and numerous articles and papers, Williams is committed to faculty scholarship and student research.  As a Fullbright Scholar, she directed a program to strengthen academic excellence at two universities in South Africa.

Williams earned her B.A. and M.A. from Southern Illinois University and her Ph.D. from Iowa State University.  She also completed post-doctoral studies at Harvard University and was named a Kellogg Foundation and Ford Foundation fellow.  She is married to Eric Williams, Ph.D., a professor of education at Howard University.  They have two grown children.