Stan Maclin GC ’01 (ministry studies), the community organizer, pastor, educator, and tireless advocate for racial and social justice in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and beyond, died Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2021, at age 67. 

Today [Sunday] and Monday, 91����Ƶ honors Martin Luther King Jr. Day, an that Maclin played an influential role in helping to create and sustain.

“He was one of the giants whose shoulders we stand upon in this struggle for Justice and Truth,” said planning committee chair Celeste Thomas, director of multicultural student services and senior advisor to the president on diversity and inclusion, who worked with Maclin on several events over the years. “To loosely quote Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he was definitely ‘a drum major for change.’ He will be sorely missed especially during this time of the year. He would be with us on Monday if he were still among us.”

Maclin’s many achievements include , creating the People’s Equality Commission of the Shenandoah Valley, and leading the charge to . He was dedicated to preserving . This summer, he organized , and to facilitate dialogue between local residents and authorities in the criminal justice system. Just last month, he spoke of in Harrisonburg.

Maclin was a well-known and respected community leader: His passing has been covered in the and .

He was also a great friend to 91����Ƶ. To local media, he mentioned moving to the area to attend the seminary. Professor Lonnie Yoder recalls that shortly after his arrival, Maclin requested a tour to help him get to know the community. The two men spent some hours driving around Harrisonburg, with Yoder “telling stories, pointing out key institutions and landmarks, sharing my take on the historical, cultural, and religious dynamics of this community.”

Yoder calls the experience a “holy moment” for him, and it’s a story that is particularly poignant because it captures a moment of deep witness of who Stan Maclin was, how he valued learning and knowing a community, seeing with clear eyes and an open heart, and moved toward change with a deep devotion to involving and sharing with others in that radical work.

In the years since, Maclin helped to provide the same experience to 91����Ƶ students. He helped to start the first Martin Luther King Day Celebration on campus in 2013, and continued to open the minds of students and other 91����Ƶ community members in attendance at  MLK Day talks and tours each year. 

In 2018 and 2019, Maclin worked with second-year graduate students at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding on their “Community Grounding Day” orientation for new students. He hosted a day-long tour that explored the social, historical, economic, cultural and environmental realities of the city from a social justice perspective, said Amy Knorr, practice director at CJP.

He invited many graduate students to connect to and join organizations, movements and gatherings for social justice. In his leadership positions with Faith in Action and Virginia Organizing, particularly, Knorr says Maclin encouraged and opened doors to CJP student engagement and collaboration.

“A hero for justice has fallen,” said Professor Carl Stauffer, who first met Maclin in 1991 when they pastored and worked together in Richmond. Stauffer later worked with Maclin in the Martin Luther King Jr. Way Coalition and spoke at a number of local peace rallies Maclin organized. 

“As I often say, it was Stan who raised me up in the ministry of the Church, and the work of racial justice, reconciliation, and community development,” Stauffer said. “He was a brother, mentor and friend. He will be sorely missed by so many people around the world, in the Church nationally, and right here in the City of Harrisonburg. Stan was always focused on the local — he was a man of action, committed to social justice and community organizing wherever he found himself. Stan was determined to work for, and live into a better world. He made Harrisonburg a better place. He has left us an important legacy of justice, reconciliation, and bridge-building across all divisions in our society. May we carry on his mantle with grace and integrity.”

Below, we’ve collected a few memories from other 91����Ƶ faculty and staff who worked with Maclin over the years. 

I first got to know Stan when he invited me to contribute to the advocacy for the street renaming effort and I served gladly under his leadership. He invited my contributions toward this effort out of his deep respect for what he experienced at 91����Ƶ. I, in turn, invited his involvement with planning and facilitating MLK Day of Service and Learning at 91����Ƶ. It was a good partnership for many years. 

– Brian Martin Burkholder, campus pastor

Stan was not only a community activist but I would count him as a friend. He was a member of the MLK Jr. Committee and unselfishly gave of his time and talent to the students, myself and 91����Ƶ. He conducted tours of the Harriet Tubman museum and co-lead the Barbershop Talks during the MLK Jr. Celebration. He was dedicated to and passionate about making sure that the next generation was aware of the activists from slavery through civil rights and present day that paved the way for us to have the liberties that we have in this country. He was one of the giants whose shoulders we stand upon in this struggle for Justice and Truth. To loosely quote Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “He was definitely a drum major for change.” He will be sorely missed especially during this time of the year. He would be with us on Monday if he were still among us.

– Celeste Thomas, director of multicultural student services and senior adviser to the president for diversity and inclusion

When he moved to Harrisonburg many years ago, he expressed a need to be introduced to the Harrisonburg community. I remember taking an entire afternoon to literally drive Stan around the city of Harrisonburg telling stories, pointing out key institutions and landmarks, sharing my take on the historical, cultural, and religious dynamics of this community, etc. It was a holy moment for me and I hope it was as well for Stan.

– Professor Lonnie Yoder, Eastern Mennonite Seminary

Stan was committed to and especially active in being a bridge builder between the so-called campus and community, more broadly. He not only engaged students, but has also invited faculty and staff in various community events and initiatives as well – including the King street renaming taskforce, annual celebrations of Dr. King, and other community events. I benefited from his outreach, hospitality and bridge building within six months of my move to Harrisonburg, and know that there are others of us for whom he served as a mentor in many respects, and who have connections that predate their time in/at Harrrisonburg, 91����Ƶ and CJP.

– Professor Johonna Turner, co-director of the Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice

More MLK Day media coverage

—.

—

For a more streamlined read, note the following:

–links to each CJP program are omitted. To learn more about the specific programs named here, please visit the .

— a faculty or staff member’s title is listed once, on first reference. To learn more about individual faculty and staff members, visit the .

Our alumni are accomplished people and a wonderful resource, which is why we include a link to each personal profile on the . This information is provided and updated voluntarily.

September 2019

• A class of 22 new graduate students begin their first semester of studies.
• The new graduate students participate in CJP’s Grounding Day: an opportunity to begin to ground students in the history and current social, political, economic and environmental justice realities in Harrisonburg.
• Fidele Ayu Lumeya MA ’00 returns to the Democratic Republic of Congo to direct the Congo Ubuntu Peacebuilding Center.
• Talibah Aquil MA ’19 performs “Ghana, remember me…,” a multimedia production that sprung from her 2019 travels in Ghana as part of her capstone project on the themes of identity, race, trauma and healing.
• Twenty-one participants join STAR 1 on campus with Lead Trainer Katie Mansfield and Ayman Kerols MA ’16.

October 2019

• CJP’s 25th anniversary year kicks off with a “TenTalks” event at ���ѱ�’s Homecoming and Family Weekend featuring Tammy Krause MA ‘99, Darsheel Kaur MA ‘17, and John E. Sharp, father of Michael J. Sharp ’05.
• Donna Minter, founder and executive director of the Minnesota Peacebuilding Leadership Institute and STAR Trainer, is honored with the Melanie Greenberg U.S. Peacebuilding Award of Excellence.
• Professor Johonna Turner, co-director of the Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice, gives the keynote address at a symposium on restorative justice hosted by the University of Richmond Public Interest Law Review. Attorney Brenda Waugh MA ’09 provides a talk on restorative lawyering and Suzanne Praill MA ’10, director of restorative justice at the Fairfield Center, contributes to a panel discussion.
• In collaboration with , CJP hosts Community Criminal Justice Days conference, bringing together community stakeholders for discussions and planning around reducing incarceration and recidivism in the local area.
• Howard Zehr, distinguished professor of restorative justice, is the featured speaker at the 2019 Vernon M. and Minnie I. Lynch Lecture at George Mason University.

November 2019

• CJP co-sponsors a conference in Mexico City on the intersection of gender and peacebuilding: “Construcción de Paz con Perspectiva de Género” at the University Iberoamericana, a Jesuit-affiliated institution. Alena Yoder, CJP’s program development associate, was a panel moderator. Vernon Jantzi, emeritus professor, and Jayne Docherty, CJP executive director, presented papers. 
• STAR trainers facilitate a workshop for the Grand Canyon National Park’s Public Lands for all Inclusion Summit to explore principles of restorative justice, trauma awareness, resilience, and truth and reconciliation and how those principles might be applied in the organizations and the workplaces. Read about STAR’s ongoing relationship with the National Park Service.
• Kajungu Mturi MA ‘18 facilitates a day of trauma and resilience training for ���ѱ�’s Intensive English Program staff and instructors.
• Gilberto Pérez Jr. ’94 GC ’99, vice president for student life at Goshen College, wins his bid for a city council seat in Goshen, Indiana. He will be the first Latino council member in a city that is 33-34% Latino.
• A Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice features multiple speakers on engaging communities of faith in promoting restorative justice, along with specific avenues and resources for collaborating with Catholic parishes and ministries.
• Eighteen people participate in STAR 2 with Katie Mansfield and Lisa Collins.

December 2019

• Katie Mansfield and Jon Swartz MA ‘14 facilitate three days of STAR-based training for the Department of the Interior’s Office of Collaborative Action and Dispute Resolution, including Sigal Shoham MA ’13.
• 91����Ƶ recognizes Dawn Curtis-Thames MA ’20 and David Nyiringabo MA ’20, then second-year CJP students,  for their outstanding contributions to CJP and the larger university community. Read about their practicum studies.

January 2020

• Wayne Marriott MA ’18, a conflict coach and mediator based in Christchurch, New Zealand, receives the Resolution Institute’s 2019 Michael Klug Award for his support to the local community after the mosque shootings there last year.
• The 10-episode Peacebuilder podcast launches, featuring faculty and staff members reflecting on the program’s history and their own peacebuilding work.
• Twenty-two people, including 11 CJP MA students, participate in STAR 1 on campus with Katie Mansfield and Johonna Turner.

February 2020

• The fifth annual SPI Community Day welcomes about 100 participants to get a taste of Summer Peacebuilding Institute classes and hear from speakers on racial justice, including Chief Kenneth Branham of the Monacan nation and Frank Dukes, a professor at the University of Virginia.
• Professor Emeritus Barry Hart is the keynote speaker at a seminar organized by Initiatives of Change Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka, discussing the role restorative justice could play in restoring and healing wounded people to create a more just society.
• The Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice hosts a webinar on Equal Justice USA’s approach to the relationship between community and police in Newark, N.J., and how trauma-informed responses to violence that are community-driven can reduce harm for those most vulnerable and marginalized.
• Ten people join Kajungu Mturi MA ‘18 and Katie Mansfield at a STAR 1 training on campus.
• Katie Mansfield presents on a panel titled “Healing and Resilience: Taking a trauma-informed approach to delivering assistance” sponsored by the Peace and Security Workgroup of the Society for International Development-Washington Chapter. 

March 2020

• CJP staff and faculty start working remotely and moving academic classes online due to COVID-19.
• STAR provides three days of training for the George Washington Memorial Parkway.
• The 25th Anniversary Celebration, planned for the summer, is postponed for a year. The new dates are June 4-6, 2021. Alicia Garza, John Paul Lederach and sujatha baliga are among the scheduled speakers who plan to attend.
• Katie Mansfield launches the virtual community Dancing Resilience, through which participants all over the world meet via video conference multiple times a day to dance together. 
• The Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice hosts a virtual book launch for (Skyhorse Publishing, 2020), by Lindsey Pointer, Kathleen McGoey, and Haley Farrar.

April 2020

• SPI announces its move to an all-online format.
• Donors help to meet two $35,000 matching grants set up by two couples and gave generously during Lov91����Ƶ Day in honor of CJP’s 25th anniversary.
• Cole Parke MA ’12 and Emmanuel Bombande MA ’02 are named as 2020 Peacebuilder of the Year honorees.
• STAR releases the Care “Together” video series: conversations between Katie Mansfield, STAR trainers and practitioners. 

May 2020

• SPI 2020 marks the 26th year of gathering peacebuilders for mutual learning and support – online this year using video conferencing and other digital tools. Eleven courses are offered to more than 180 people across 60% of the world’s time zones. Read general news coverage here, and more specific articles about creating community online and the digital peacebuilding class.                       
• Sixteen CJP graduates representing nine countries receive their degrees. 
• Johonna Turner is one of the three faculty presented with 91����Ƶ’s annual Excellence in Teaching Awards.
• Christine Kindler MA ’17 receives the Berlin Fellowship from Humanity in Action.
• The new Master of Arts in Transformational Leadership is launched earlier than expected as CJP moves online. The degree with online, hybrid and residential options for working professionals includes courses in business and leadership and will continue to add courses from other programs at 91����Ƶ as electives.

June 2020

• SkyHorse Publishing releases a new edition of Carolyn Yoder‘s Little Book of Trauma Healing.
• STAR provides a webinar for Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency’s Service Coordinators and Case Managers on trauma and resilience.

July 2020

• STAR trains campus ministry professionals at the National Association of Campus Ministers virtual conference.
• An advisory group of STAR trainers and practitioners work with Katie Mansfield to recreate STAR for online delivery. The group includes Donna Minter, Crixell Shell, Ram Bhagat GC ’19, Lisa Collins, Meenakshi Chhabra, and Johonna Turner. Elaine Zook Barge MA ’03, Vernon Jantzi, and Carolyn Yoder provide additional input and insight.
• STAR announces registration for STAR online.
• Johonna Turner contributes a chapter to Colorizing Restorative Justice: Voicing Our Realities (Living Justice Press, 2020), a collection of 18 essays penned by practitioners and scholars of color.

August  2020

• STAR wraps up four webinars for National Park Service staff.
• CJP welcomes 30 new students for orientation. This includes nine students in the new MA in Transformational Leadership program, with online, hybrid and residential options.
• Planning continues for the CJP “25+1” anniversary celebration.

is a collection of 18 essays penned by various authors of color: practitioners and scholars of restorative justice who “explore the issues of racism and colonization within the field,” according to publisher Living Justice Press’s website. It is available to order : a timely addition to the nation-wide outcry for racial justice and an end to police brutality in America. 

Johonna Turner is one of the book’s 20 contributors. She integrates theory and practice as professor of restorative justice and peacebuilding and co-director of the Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice at 91����Ƶ.

An outgrowth of the was an organization Turner helped found called  . The grantmaking circle – primarily composed of people of color with experience in restorative justice, transformative justice, and indigenous peacemaking – is helping fund upcoming author events to promote this groundbreaking new book that centers their perspectives.

Turner’s contribution, a chapter titled “Creating Safety for Ourselves,” details the formation and principles of the transformative justice and community accountability movement. It begins with invocations that have echoed through the streets of Harrisonburg and cities across the U.S. and the world as of late.

 “#SayHerName. #SayHisName. #SayTheirNames. The spirits of Black and Brown people killed by police officers bear witness to police as a common source of danger rather than a prevailing source of protection within many of our communities. In some situations, calling the police even when we need help can result in greater violence—for example, the police murder of a loved one experiencing a mental health crisis or the deportation of an un-documented immigrant family. And our #MeToo stories attest that we, too, experience sexual violence and other kinds of abuses. How can we secure our own safety given that White government institutions for ‘keeping the peace’ have never functioned for our safety, freedom, and self-determination?”

The transformative justice movement grew out of a network of activists working simultaneously in movements for prison abolition, anti-police brutality, racial justice, and feminism, who saw a need to challenge and prevent various forms of violence – for example, intimate partner violence – in their communities without resorting to the criminal legal system.

“I think it’s very much about understanding the intersections of violence. So for example, how much sexual violence happens within the criminal legal system that is sanctioned,” Turner said. “It’s impossible, when we actually consider how this violence is happening and to whom it happens most disproportionately, to divide it into these distinct forms that are completely disconnected from one another. The transformative justice movement has fostered an understanding that, in order to effectively address any of these forms of violence, you have to understand their intersections with other forms. You also need to understand and center the people and communities who experience these forms of violence at their intersections.”

Turner learned about this movement in the mid-2000s, when she joined the D.C. chapter of , “an organization that both gave expression to a movement already taking place and worked to advance the movement,” Turner writes.

While working under a – a program of the Open Society Foundations that funds lawyers, advocates, organizers, and researchers to work on criminal justice reform projects, Turner traveled to Oakland, Chicago, and New York to learn from practitioners such as Creative Interventions in the California Bay area.

She went to “sit at their feet, so to speak.”

One example of this work in action, Turner writes, was implemented by the organization Creative Interventions in the California Bay area, which “partnered with local Asian immigrant anti-violence organizations as a resource for anyone who was in an abusive relationship but did not want to involve the police or leave their home.” Creative Interventions would facilitate meetings: bringing together those who came to them for help with others who that person trusted.

“They asked the group questions and provided them with tools to help figure out what was going on, what their goals were, how safety would be established, how accountability could be provided, who would follow up, and so on,” Turner writes. 

Order the book online at , and mark your calendars for a on September 16 at 4:30 p.m. for a writers’ round table with Turner and other contributing authors, including editor Edward Valandra. Melody Pannell ‘97, GC ‘19 (restorative justice), a former faculty member at 91����Ƶ, will moderate the webinar.

You can also listen to Turner’s Peacebuilder podcast episode by the same title here.

What will a post-pandemic world look like? How is COVID-19 affecting each of us differently, and what are our responsibilities to one another in the face of those disparities? What do we know about the biology of the virus? And are there things that are changing for the better because of this crisis?

A free seven-week online course offered at 91����Ƶ this summer will delve into those questions and more. Community members are welcome. Students can opt for a pass/fail grade and will have online access to readings, videos, and other materials before each class. 

The course meets each Tuesday evening, beginning June 30, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. for seven weeks, with a different pair or trio of faculty and staff from different academic fields leading each class.

The lectures and Q and A will be recorded and available for viewing later.

The course is co-led by language and literature professor Kevin Seidel and chemistry professor Laurie Yoder.

“What pulled me in at first was the possibility of teaching with faculty from all three schools – sciences, social sciences, and humanities – talking together and learning from one another about the virus,” Seidel said. When the pandemic hit, he started fervently gathering information and perspective: from scientists, from fictive literature, and from poetry, trying to make sense of “this strange new world.” 

Week 1 | June 30, Tuesday, 6:30–8:30 p.m.

Treating COVID-19

What do we know about the biology of COVID-19? What’s next in vaccine development? What public health measures are working to slow the spread of COVID-19?

Kristopher Schmidt, Associate Professor of Biology

Kate Clark, Assistant Professor of Nursing

Week 2 | July 7, Tuesday, 6:30–8:30 p.m.

Pandemic History and Data

What can we learn from past pandemics about life after this one? What can we learn from visual presentations of data about the pandemic? 

Mary Sprunger, Professor of History

Daniel Showalter, Associate Professor of Mathematics

Week 3 | July 14, Tuesday, 6:30–8:30 p.m.

Politics and Collective Trauma

Why has the U.S. response to COVID-19 been so contentious and uneven? What is collective trauma and what might it have to do with that response?

Mark Metzler Sawin, Professor of History

Ryan Thompson, Assistant Professor of Psychology

Trina Trotter Nussbaum, Associate Director, Center for Interfaith Engagement

Week 4 | July 21, Tuesday, 6:30–8:30 p.m.

Zoonotic Viruses, Wet Markets, and the Economics of COVID-19

Where do coronaviruses come from? What are the links between environmental degradation and pandemics? What does COVID-19 have to teach us about how our economy is connected to the natural world? What are the economic impacts from a pandemic?

Jim Yoder, Professor of Biology

Jim Leaman, Associate Professor of Business and Leadership

Week 5 | July 28, Tuesday, 6:30–8:30 p.m.

Our Life with Animals, Our Life with God

Why are so many people taking refuge in nature during the pandemic? Why is that refuge harder to come by for some people? What do the scriptures say about how our life with God is related to our life with animals? 

Steven Johnson, Professor of Visual and Communication Arts 

Andrea Saner, Associate Professor of Old Testament

Week 6 | August 4, Tuesday, 6:30–8:30 p.m.

Systemic Racism in the U.S. before and after COVID-19

Why has COVID-19 hit African-Americans harder than other groups? Why does rural Navajo Nation have the highest infection rates in the country?

Jenni Holsinger, Associate Professor of Sociology 

Matt Tibbles, Teaching Fellow, Applied Social Sciences

Jim Yoder, Professor of Biology

Week 7 | August 11, Tuesday, 6:30–8:30 p.m.

Resilience, Repair, and Transformation after COVID-19

How do we carry forward what we’ve learned about COVID-19, trauma, and restorative justice? 

Johonna Turner, Assistant Professor of Restorative Justice and Peacebuilding

Katie Mansfield, Lead Trainer, Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR)

• in the Tenured Faculty category, Daniel Showalter PhD, associate professor of mathematics; 
• in the Pre-tenure Faculty category, Johonna Turner PhD, assistant professor at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding; and
• in the Non-tenure Faculty category, Bonnie Yoder, adjunct instructor in ���ѱ�’s Teacher Preparation Program.

The award honors the gifts of faculty across all the positional categories of employment. Criteria include impact on students, effective teaching practices, subject knowledge and continual growth, including a commitment to professional and pedagogical development.

The selection process began with nominations from the campus community. A committee appointed by Faculty Senate reviewed the nominations and selected the honorees.  

Tenured Faculty: Daniel Showalter, PhD

Since summer 2015, Showalter has taught a range of classes in computer science, mathematics, statistics, and education. He has also advised thesis projects for the MS in Biomedicine program and teaches an online Biostatistics course for the Doctor of Nursing Practice program.

“The variety is one of the reasons I absolutely love teaching at 91����Ƶ,” he said. “Of course, the main reasons I love it here are the students–who constantly challenge each other and myself with their insights during our discussions–and our supportive community of colleagues.”

Showalter “clearly loves his content, respects and aims to help empower his students, and delights in coming up with new ways to engage them. He also takes faith integration seriously,” wrote one nominator. “Students have spoken to me about the ways in which he communicates his appreciation for Scripture and the Christian tradition in natural, gentle, and inviting ways. He serves also as a public intellectual, engaging in policy conversations that extend his teaching role far beyond our campus.”

A second nominator praised Showalter’s capabilities and interest in developing practical application of math and statistics principles to real-world problems, 

Read more about Showalter’s contributions on his personnel page and in recent news coverage about his leadership of a national study on rural students and schools.

Showalter earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Urbana University, an MS in mathematics from Ohio University, and a PhD in mathematics education from Ohio University.

Pre-tenure Faculty: Johonna Turner, PhD

Turner is assistant professor of restorative justice and peacebuilding at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding and in the applied social science department. She joined 91����Ƶ as an instructor at CJP’s Summer Peacebuilding Institute in 2014 and joined the full-time faculty in fall 2015. She is also co-director of the .

She regularly teaches graduate courses in restorative justice, as well as joins in co-teaching the core 6-unit “Foundations of Justice and Peacebuilding Level II” for all CJP MA students. Additionally, she has taught graduate courses in social movements and formation for peacebuilding practice, as well as undergraduate courses in restorative justice and trauma awareness and facilitation and group dynamics. 

Next semester, Turner will teach a new course titled “Ending Violence, Shifting Power,” which will introduce students to “the rich body of thinking and practice emerging from feminist, antiracist and LGBTQ anti-violence movements,” she says.

Turner’s innovation is also highlighted in other courses she has designed and taught at 91����Ƶ,  Eastern Mennonite Seminary and CJP’s Summer Peacebuilding Institute, including “Peacebuilding through Biblical Narrative,” Christian spirituality for social action; and “Justice, Peace and the Biblical Story,” cross-listed with the seminary.

Turner often invites graduate students who show an interest in facilitation and teaching in and out of academia to join her as a course co-designer and co-instructor: “My practice of teaching is enmeshed with my mentoring practice,” she explains. 

Nominators cited Turner’s contributions to integrating faith into coursework and university faculty/staff events; she is a member of CJP’s Faith Integration Taskforce but has actively influenced the broader university on this topic as well. She received several nominations from students, who shared that her compassion, sensitivity and method of inquiry sparked not only excellent discussion but helped to engender self-confidence on their own journeys of discovery.

Turner “graces the world with an incorrigible spirit of joy, a curious intellect, and a deep compassion for all whose liberation has been shackled by the injustices of violence and oppression … She is keenly aware that her emancipation is all wrapped up in the freedom of those around her,” wrote one colleague.

In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Turner is also a sought-after speaker and a widely published scholar. Learn more about her journey at her personnel page and in this Peacebuilder podcast episode.

Turner earned her PhD in American studies at the University of Maryland. She holds bachelor’s degrees in journalism and interdisciplinary studies from the University of Missouri, and two graduate certificates: in Women’s Studies from the University of Maryland, and in Urban Youth Ministry from Fuller Theological Seminary. 

Non-tenure Faculty: Bonnie Yoder, Adjunct Faculty

Yoder has taught at 91����Ƶ since 2010, working with teacher education students in the beginning of their professional preparation and then supervising many during their culminating student teaching experience. She has also taught courses in management and organization in early education, content area reading and writing, and foundations of curriculum development, at the graduate level.

Nominators cited Yoder for her commitment to the program, her openness and flexibility in working with various groups of students, her care and compassion for students, and her teaching and facilitation strategies, which emphasize critical reflection.

She brings vast experiential knowledge and relationships from her 17-year career as a teacher and administrator in the local school system. This enables 91����Ƶ students to begin this important pre-service experience with beneficial, positive relationships with other mentoring supervising teachers.

“I feel blessed to serve 91����Ƶ and the wider community through the meaningful work of guiding students as they discover the call to teach,” she said. “���ѱ�’s education department has a strong reputation and high goals in preparing pre-service teachers to impact the world. The collaboration and camaraderie within the department makes this possible. What a joy to watch our students develop into confident teachers.”

Yoder earned her BA degree from 91����Ƶ and an MEd at James Madison University. Among other accomplishments, she is a former National Economics Teacher of the Year.

. 

The consultation brought together peace theologians and peacebuilding scholars from different Anabaptist institutions for a daylong conversation about the state of their respective fields and to brainstorm how they might cooperate in an interdisciplinary way toward developing a theologically robust theory and practice of peacebuilding.

In the morning sessions, six scholars presented their proposals, with each presentation followed by an invited respondent and time for feedback from the group. In the afternoon sessions, invited guests led open-ended discussions about how to move forward in light of what was presented in the morning sessions.

After a welcome by , Ed.D., vice president and academic dean at AMBS, , D.Min., associate professor of congregational formation at AMBS, began the first morning panel, on peace theology, by presenting a paper titled “At-one-ing ordinary harm,” in which she drew attention to the role of forgiveness and reconciliation in response to ordinary, nonmoral harms in contrast to the typical focus in theology and peacebuilding on how to respond to extraordinary moral harms. , M.A.T.S., Intercultural Competence and Undoing Racism coordinator at AMBS, offered an appreciative response in which she noted how Jacobs’ analysis can helpfully deescalate conversations about racism and other unacknowledged biases.

, Ph.D., associate professor of theology and ethics at AMBS, then presented “‘Let Us Make Them in Our Image’: Gender and the Methodological Considerations of Shalom Political Theology,” in which she asked the question, “How do I draw men as readers into women-centered theological work that’s intended for every-body?” , Ph.D. student in religious studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, responded by highlighting the ways Berry’s work helpfully resists “disassociation” between one’s life and scholarship.

To conclude the peace theology panel, Andrew Suderman, Ph.D., assistant professor in theology, peace and mission at 91����Ƶ, presented “Re-Claiming Our Power: Assuming Political Agency in the Quest for Peace,” drawing on his work as a Mennonite Church Canada Witness Worker in South Africa, where he and his wife, Karen, helped coordinate the Anabaptist Network in South Africa. In response, , Ph.D., associate professor of Anabaptist studies at AMBS, pressed Suderman to develop his account of power and politics further so as to better account for the ways in which the aims of church and state have often overlapped, despite the avowed “division of labor” between church and state that Suderman attributed to the legacy of Constantinianism.

Timothy Seidel, Ph.D., who teaches politics, development and peacebuilding in the department of applied social sciences and the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at 91����Ƶ, kicked off the second morning panel with his paper “Exploring Religion and the Post-Secular in the Borderlands of Theology and Peacebuilding.” Seidel expressed misgivings about the secular bias in North American and European-centric models of peacebuilding and asked what possibilities have been closed off because of this bias. He argued for breaking down the binary between the religious and the secular in order to better listen to the voices and experiences of marginalized communities. Respondent , Ph.D., director of the Point of View International Research and Retreat Center at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, affirmed Seidel’s post-secular, decolonial line of thought as it applies to religion and peacebuilding theory and practice.

Johonna Turner, Ph.D., assistant professor of restorative justice and peacebuilding at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at 91����Ƶ, then presented “Womanist Peacebuilding Ethics: In the Time of #Black Lives Matter and #MeToo Movements.” Turner called attention to what she called “holistic anti-violence organizing” as a contemporary tradition of peacebuilding. She offered a post-colonial, womanist, anti-violence theology, with which she found resonance in the Anabaptist foci of community, nonviolence and radical discipleship. By focusing on black women’s experiences of self-determination, self-agency and storytelling, Turner offered what she called a “radical, Anabaptist womanist” theology. Respondent , M.S.W., M.Div., independent scholar, social work practitioner, and founder of Destiny’s Daughters, described Turner’s approach to peacebuilding as a process of weaving or braiding a number of strands of hair together. She noted that the process might look messy, but the end result comes together beautifully.

In the final presentation of the morning, , Ph.D., assistant professor of peace studies and Christian social ethics at AMBS, presented “Witnessing Peace: Becoming Agents Under Duress in Colombia,” in which she drew on her experiences with communities in Colombia to offer an account of constructive agency under duress. Her account juxtaposed what she called messianic “now time” with gradual time, both of which inform the other in the process of creating what John Paul Lederach calls “just peace.” In response, Peter Dula, Ph.D., associate professor of religion and culture at 91����Ƶ, commended Hunter-Bowman for allowing the voices and experiences of Colombian communities to speak into and challenge peacebuilding theories rather than imposing the theories onto the experiences of the people.

In the first afternoon session, , Ph.D., professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, reflected on the voices that were still missing in the discussion. While he commended the presenters for centering marginalized voices, he raised the question of whether marginalized voices were being selectively appropriated and asked whether there were other voices that might challenge some of the perspectives of the presenters further. In addition to voices from the majority world, Schlabach mentioned traditional Amish communities as another resource for peacebuilding.

Nekeisha Alayna Alexis discussed the need to expand theologies of peacebuilding to include the wellbeing of non-human animals and creation more holistically. She also challenged presenters to consider how their own eating practices might align with their peace theology.

To close the consultation, , Ph.D., managing editor of the and sessional faculty in theology and ethics at AMBS, offered concluding remarks, in which he synthesized the presentations into what he called an “ordinary, organic theology of anti-violence peacebuilding.”

Participants and attendees were energized by the lively discussions throughout the day. One peace studies professor in attendance said that this was the kind of discussion he had been waiting on for decades. AMBS and Goshen College students in attendance were likewise enthused by the exchange of ideas among their professors. Participants left optimistic about the possibilities of ongoing collaboration between peace theologians and peacebuilding scholars at AMBS, 91����Ƶ and beyond. By the end of the day, there was discussion about planning a subsequent consultation to continue the momentum.

The consultation was organized by Janna Hunter-Bowman, Peter Dula and Salomé Haldemann, an M.A.: Theology and Peace Studies student at AMBS, and was generously sponsored by the .

Johonna Turner, assistant professor of restorative justice and peacebuilding at the (CJP), is the featured guest of episode six of the Peacebuilder podcast. Turner speaks about her history of community organizing, activism, and youth development work in Washington, D.C.; the Faith Integration Task Force she helped form at 91����Ƶ; and her vision for CJP’s role in transnational movement-building.

The podcast is just one of the ways the center is celebrating its 25-year anniversary. Hosted by CJP executive assistant and anniversary celebration committee chair Patience Kamau MA ‘17, the 10-episode series features faculty and staff members reflecting on the history of CJP and their own peacebuilding work. A new episode drops every other week on the Peacebuilder website.

Turner first came to CJP in 2010 as a participant in the Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience program. She had been doing a variety of organizing and arts-based activism in Washington, D.C., and “was looking for a place where I could get some more skills to supplement and to really support me in the work that I was doing … the youth identified trauma healing as an approach that was especially important for breaking cycles of violence that depend upon repressive, state-sponsored punitive measures.” 

She joined the CJP faculty in the fall of 2015, and became the co-director of the in 2018.

91����Ƶ three years ago, Turner found herself in a number of conversations with faculty and students who wanted “to be more intentional about creating spaces for deliberate reflection on faith in the classroom, and spirituality writ large.” She banded together with Carl Stauffer, Tim Seidel, and Amy Knorr to create the Faith Integration Task Force to facilitate 91����Ƶ as a “multi-faith space in a Christian university,” that both welcomes perspectives from other faiths while honoring its roots in Christian theology and spirituality.

Out of those conversations, Turner has created classes such as “Peacebuilding Through Biblical Narrative” and “Justice, Peace, and the Biblical Story.” One of Turner’s goals through these courses is to understand the injustice, oppression, and violence “that are preventing abundant life for all people,” and find ways to discuss these issues in the church – a space she says is “often depoliticized.”

While Turner says that CJP’s sense of community is a great strength, she also sees “the need for more intentional integration of critical theory within the curriculum, particularly feminist perspecitves, critial race perspectives … queer perspectives in our curriculum and pedagogy as well, attention to racial and gender justice, attention at large to how systems of oppression are at the root of violence.”

And her vision for CJP at 50? 

“A crucible, an incubator, of peacebuilders, organizers, artists, and activists who are not only able to connect their work to what’s happening in their own local contexts, but also able to see the linkages between what’s happening at their own places and what’s happening at other places. Who are able to challenge the systemic roots of oppression that give rise to acts of direct cultural and structural violence. And who are able to more deeply work at challenging all systems of oppression, including heterosexism.”

4/1/2020

A time capsule of 91����Ƶ’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP) is in the works – not to be buried, but uploaded. The artifact in question is a podcast, which will feature ten CJP faculty and staff members reflecting on the history of CJP and their own peacebuilding work. The 10-episode series is set to launch on Wednesday Jan. 22, 2020, with a new episode dropping every other week on the Peacebuilder website.

The podcast is the creation of Patience Kamau, a 2017 graduate of the program and also chair of CJP’s 25th anniversary committee, who wanted to give students, alumni, friends and supporters of the graduate program an in-depth look at where CJP has been, where it is now, and where it hopes to go.

“For the sake of posterity, this is emerging as a gem,” Kamau said. “These voices are here right now, many of them were here 25 years ago, and given the simple trajectory of life, are unlikely to be here 25 years from now.”

But why a podcast, specifically?

“It’s a way that a lot of people are consuming information these days. I think it’s a necessary long-form method of connecting with the audience,” Kamau explained, in contrast to the “fragmented” nature of social media posts. “When you’re doing it on podcasts, you can go into more depth, and you can connect with an audience in a different, more meaningful way.”

While the exact episode order is yet to be determined, Kamau said the pilot will feature Barry Hart. His interview acts as a primer to CJP, touching on elements like the Little Books of Justice and Peacebuilding series and curriculum design, which other interviewees then dive into more deeply. “It’s like passing on a baton,” Kamau said. 

She asked each interviewee the same questions, based on the 25th anniversary’s theme of “celebrate, reflect, dream,” but of course “each one of them goes down a very unique path based on their own careers and life experiences.”

Kamau is an avid podcast consumer – she subscribes to at least eight, and regularly listens to others beyond those. That gave her an ear for what makes for a good listening experience, as she went into the project having to teach herself about audio production by looking up internet guides and tutorials.

Alumni Michaela Mast ‘18 and ‘19 have also helped breathe life into the podcast. Mast, co-host of the climate justice podcast , which is sponsored by the housed at 91����Ƶ, has lent technical assistance. Mullet, whose scores have been featured in recent documentaries and video games, is composing original music for the episodes.The podcast’s audio mixing engineer is Steve Angello who works closely with Mullet.  

“There’s something organic about it, just doing the work in anticipation of what will emerge. It’s a work of art, where the overall beauty lies in paying attention to the details” Kamau said.

The episodes will be also available on Apple Podcasts on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcast, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, and TuneIn.

Featured voices

Each episode presents an interview with the following CJP affiliates, listed alphabetically by last name as the exact episode order is yet to be determined.

• David Brubaker, dean of ���ѱ�’s School of Social Sciences and Professions and longtime CJP professor,
• Jayne Docherty, executive director,
• Bill Goldberg, director of the Summer Peacebuilding Institute,
• Barry Hart, professor of trauma, identity and conflict studies,
• Katie Mansfield, Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) program lead trainer,
• Janelle Myers-Benner, academic program coordinator,
• Gloria Rhodes, professor of peacebuilding and conflict studies,
• Carl Stauffer, professor of restorative and transitional justice and co-director of the ,
• Johonna Turner, professor of restorative justice and peacebuilding and co-director of the , and
• Howard Zehr, distinguished professor of restorative justice.

“It takes courage to try to address harms at the systemic level, such as the land theft that is at the foundation of the service; at the institutional level, like culture and climate issues faced by employees throughout the service; and the individual level, things like interpersonal bullying and harassment. None of our organizations is a shining example of doing this well, so it’s a gift to be part of the process of struggle toward change.”

STAR Lead Trainer Katie Mansfield

The National Park Service is focusing on improvement of its workplace culture and climate – and calling in the help of restorative justice and conflict transformation professionals from 91����Ƶ’s Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) program.

Most recently, STAR trainers conducted a training and facilitated discussion over four days in Philadelphia for 20 federal workers, including five park service superintendents. Its goal? To engage with trauma and resilience experts to help shift workplace culture and build employee satisfaction throughout park service offices in the Northeast.

The event was the second time STAR has worked with the park service and more trainings are being planned, according to STAR Program Director Hannah Kelley.

The inclusion of STAR programming has provided a way into addressing systemic issues within the park service’s unique context, said Rebecca Stanfield McCown, director of the host agency, the National Park Service . “I’m still amazed at the impact of the December workshop, which not only connected each of us to the personal and human side of trauma awareness and restorative practices, but helped us begin to develop a common language around these principles.” 

NPS explores the potential of RJ

The Stewardship Institute is dedicated to helping NPS leaders “move the organization in new directions” through collaboration and dialogue. It began exploring the potential of restorative justice for “employee wellness in the face of harassment and hostility” about two years ago, McCown said.  

At about the same time, Grand Canyon National Park hosted a STAR training. Park administrators were connected with STAR by Sigal Shoham, a 2013 alumna of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding and an organizational omsbudsman with the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Collaborative Action and Dispute Resolution (CADR). 

Administrators at The Stewardship Institute were especially interested in the beneficial outcomes of the training in Arizona. “When we were looking to understand what role restorative practices could have in addressing harassment and hostility, we reached out to STAR because of the good things we had heard from the staff at Grand Canyon,” McCown said.

She added: “It had been challenging to communicate the potential alignment and benefits restorative practices could bring to the NPS because most of us lacked the language and strong understanding of how it might be applied to our workplaces.”

With STAR programming shaped to that educational goal and outside experts brought in for the facilitated discussion, the Philadelphia training helped the Stewardship Institute shine light on the way forward. 

Positive outcomes

The training was facilitated by STAR Lead Trainer Katie Mansfield and Jonathan Swartz, a restorative justice practitioner and Center for Justice and Peacebuilding alumnus. The participants, including Shoham and other CADR employees, spent 2.5 days learning about the personal and organizational impacts of trauma, concepts and applications of restorative justice, self care, and secondary traumatic stress. 

The remainder of the third and fourth days focused on a facilitated dialogue, during which participants could ask questions of experts in restorative justice, trauma awareness and resilience, truth and reconciliation, and organizational anthropology, including the STAR trainers themselves. 91����Ƶ professors Johonna Turner and Carolyn Stauffer, who bring expertise in trauma awareness, resilience and restorative justice, contributed to this discussion, which also included cultural anthropologists and other specialists.

One outcome of the final session was strategies and action items to create awareness, implement practices, and build a new culture. 

“I could feel the combination of struggle and inspiration and care among the participants,” said Mansfield “It takes courage to try to address harms at the systemic level, such as the land theft that is at the foundation of the service; as well as at the institutional level, like culture and climate issues faced by employees throughout the service; and the individual level, things like interpersonal bullying and harassment. None of our organizations is a shining example of doing this well, so it’s a gift to be part of the process of struggle toward change.”

The December workshop, McCown said, equipped park service staff to begin “to implement trauma-aware and restorative practices in our individual parks or program culture,” such as developing workshops for more staff. The participants are also working to “identify ways that park leadership can foster workplaces that include restorative practices and trauma-aware leadership.”

Turner, the co-director of the , will speak on race, gender and restorative justice. Attorney will speak about restorative lawyering and wellness, assisted by JD candidate Rachel Campbell. , director of the Fairfield Center for Restorative Justice in Harrisonburg, Va., will be among the panelists addressing restorative justice in the community, including programs and resources for clients.

The free symposium will examine restorative justice principles in the criminal justice system, explore the different types of restorative programs and community accountability alternatives for juvenile and adult offenders throughout Virginia, and discuss how restorative principles can be implemented into lawyer discipline, according to event organizers.

She began planning for a campus-wide training at 91����Ƶ as part of her capstone project to earn a bachelor’s degree in peacebuilding and development, and then, as a graduate student in the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding’s MA in restorative justice program, applied for and was awarded a CJP Creative Initiatives Community Engagement grant.

That grant enabled her vision to come to fruition in October 2018, when Poplett joined with campus restorative justice practitioners and other graduate students to host 24 participants for a day-long training.

“We had several goals, but mainly we wanted to increase knowledge across campus about restorative practices and empower students, faculty and staff from different parts of campus to use these practices to address conflicts in a more restorative way that encourages communal accountability and relationship-building,” Poplett said. “We also wanted to start conversations about how restorative justice can be used every single day by everyone.”

The two training facilitators were Professor Johonna Turner and Associate Dean of Students Jonathan Swartz. Turner arrived at 91����Ƶ as a faculty member for CJP’s new MA in restorative justice program in 2015. Now a co-director of the Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice, she also teaches undergraduate and graduate classes on restorative practices, among other topics.

Since 2015, Swartz has filled several roles, reflecting increased attention and resources to restorative justice practices in the campus community. He was named ���ѱ�’s first restorative justice coordinator in 2015, the responsibilities of which were folded, two years later, into a new position called director of residence life, student accountability and restorative justice. His current title as associate dean still includes accountability and restorative justice.

Poplett served as a coach during the training, with fellow graduate students Mikayla Waters-Crittenton and Fabiana Espinal. She came away from the learning opportunity “grateful” for participants who were “engaged and critically thinking about how restorative justice could be used in their own life,” she said, adding that her own understandings were deepened as well. “Every time that I hear Johonna and Jon speak about RJ, I learn something new and am able to delve deeper into my own thought process that surrounds restorative justice.”

Poplett hopes the enthusiasm for educating the campus community grows after this first endeavor. The 24 participants, a critical mass of new advocates, is a key indicator that the campus community is interested and willing to engage, she says.  “I think getting people excited and educated is the first step towards a more comprehensive implementation of RJ here on campus. ”

As part of her graduate practicum in spring semester 2018, Waters-Crittenton is working with Swartz on plans for more trainings and activities to engage the 91����Ƶ campus community.

Creative Initiatives grants

CJP’s annual Creative Initiatives grant competition, open to all CJP graduate students, encourages collaboration and innovation around community engagement and arts in peacebuilding. Poplett’s project won the community engagement category of the 2018 contest, while a team of students planning a playback theater and arts day for area high school students who are immigrants and refugees won the arts in peacebuilding category. This event hasn’t yet occurred because of weather-related rescheduling.

Turner will lead the organization with Carl Stauffer, also a CJP professor, who has co-directed the institute since its founding in 2012. She succeeds Howard Zehr, a well-known professor of restorative justice for whom the institute was named, who will continue advising the institute as a director emeritus. Turner, previously a faculty associate, is well-acquainted with the Zehr Institute. Her responsibilities in that role included planning and co-leading the regular webinar series as well as developing strategic partnerships in support of the institute’s mission to facilitate connection and exchange between restorative justice practitioners and students around the world.

As co-director, Turner looks forward to greater involvement in the Zehr Institute’s organizational development and big-picture strategy. One of its strengths to date, she says, has been “bringing different groups of people together to learn from each other.”

At the same time, she hopes to widen the institute’s reach by including people and groups – particularly young people of color involved in grassroots activism – whose important contributions to restorative justice have not received the attention they deserve.

“We can play a role in amplifying the voices of young people of color involved in organizing, because their views and theories are not being heard,” Turner says.

Turner is also eager to see the institute’s profile grow on ���ѱ�’s campus as it has around the world in recent years, during which time it has hosted delegations from several countries for restorative justice seminars and trainings. An upcoming example of such on-campus work is a partnership with ���ѱ�’s Office of Student Life to host a training for faculty, staff and students on using restorative justice to address harm and build community at the university. The training is on Oct. 27.

A third priority of Turner’s involves her recent academic work examining the relationship of faith and spirituality to the practice of peacebuilding and justice. Last year, she taught a new class “Peacebuilding Through Biblical Narrative,” as well as a Summer Peacebuilding Institute course called “Christian Spirituality for Social Action.”

Such passing on of leadership is what Zehr hoped for when the institute began, he said.

“It is time for me as a first-generation developer and practitioner to make room for others of this new generation,” Zehr said. “Johonna is in that second generation of restorative justice practitioners who is empowering a third generation, and that opening of the space for new voices and emerging themes is important to the movement.”

Turner and Stauffer recently addressed that very topic in a book chapter, “The New Generation of Restorative Justice,” they co-wrote for a recently published book, The Routledge International Handbook of Restorative Justice.

Stauffer welcomed Turner’s appointment to jointly lead the Zehr Institute, saying her visionary power, gift for networking and organizational skills will serve the organization well.

“It’s a pleasure and an honor to be able to co-direct with Johonna,” he says. “I look forward to a strong partnership and an excellent opportunity to grow and expand the vision of the Zehr Institute with [her].”

Throughout the fall, Turner and Stauffer will conduct a strategic visioning process to both evaluate the Zehr Institute’s past and plan its future programming. Turner will also continue teaching graduate-level courses on restorative justice and other topics.

A campus culture that “respects students’ right to protest” – that nurtures both students and the social movements they create, and embraces student activism as being the result of new knowledge at the core of liberation – benefits the entire community, said Hinojosa, a professor of history at Texas A & M. In their activism, students think critically, lead outside the classroom, practice civic engagement, and develop a greater sense of social responsibility.

Hinojosa’s August 14 address on the conference theme of “Being or Becoming a Third Way University” began the two-day event’s broader discussions around campus engagement, civic collaboration and diversity and inclusion, goals that are articulated in the university’s strategic plan.

“Dr. Hinojosa’s address was a helpful invitation as we anticipate the return of students to campus,” said Provost Fred Kniss. “Cultivating students’ abilities to engage with the world is central to our mission, and as an institution we can also learn from their desires for change.”

Conferences an annual tradition

���ѱ�’s faculty-staff conferences bookend each academic year, with the fall event providing gathering in fellowship and renewal of the community’s common purpose and goals.

Braydon Hoover, director of development and annual giving and frequent conference emcee, pointed out that common vision in his welcome: “We’re all here for the exact same purpose … to prepare every single one of our students to distinctively serve and lead in a global context,” he said. “Whether you coach on the grass or you cut it, whether you teach 18-year-olds or students a little older, whether you work remotely or right here on campus, whether you took a break this summer or work diligently all year round, and even whether you hail from the titular religious tradition or another completely different, we – all of us – are 91����Ƶ.”

The event included workshop sessions, worship and fellowship opportunities, and what’s become an annual favorite, “Storytelling,” featuring members of the campus community sharing about their journeys to, towards or within the 91����Ƶ community. Fall storytellers included professors Johonna Turner and Esther Tian; Jasmine Hardesty, director of development and planned giving; and Scott Barge, vice president of institutional effectiveness.

The event was also a forum for announcements about the upcoming academic year, including the observance of MLK Day with extensive service and learning opportunities replacing scheduled classes.

Keynote speaker calls for empowering synergy

Hinojosa knows what it means to envision a different university. While a student at Fresno Pacific University in California, he joined student movements to encourage the hiring of more diverse faculty and expansion of the curriculum and academic programs.

“How could a university in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley, surrounded by a large Latinx population and located in an area that gave birth to the greatest and most successful farm workers civil rights movement, not teach a course on this?” he said.

The synergy between his own student activism and intellectual engagement – the “growth of political consciousness and understanding of history,” his own and his people’s – was both personally empowering and beneficial to the campus community.

Now a tenured professor of history at Texas A&M University, Hinojosa also directs the history department’s undergraduate studies and is co-founder and co-director of the Latina/o Studies Working Group sponsored by the Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research.

Sharing his pedagogical philosophy that asks “So what? Now what?” with his students in courses about social movements, Latinx history, gender, comparative race and ethnicity, Hinojosa has become a resource, guide and mentor to diverse student activists.

This role – and the work of activism itself – is “messy” and “chaotic,” but “more important than ever,” he said.

In considering the role of the “third way university,” Hinojosa noted the history of socially progressive Christians. While “distorted forms of Christianity got the most play,” they quietly went to work in communities around the world.

“A third way university must build on this radical tradition,” he said.

In response to a question from Director of Multicultural Services Celeste Thomas, Hinojosa elaborated on additional ways of supporting black and brown students in the predominantly white university setting: listening to the voices and perspectives of marginalized students, hiring diverse and/or culturally competent faculty and staff, providing safe community spaces for these students, and prioritizing issues and the history of diverse communities in curriculum and academic programs.

Beyond the keynote

Afternoon breakout sessions offered faculty and staff opportunities to learn more about distinctive programs that link to core values of ���ѱ�’s mission and vision.  

Various restorative justice initiatives and programs were highlighted in a special session hosted by professors Johonna Turner and Carl Stauffer, who co-direct the housed in the . Jon Swartz, associate dean of students, talked about restorative justice as it relates to the campus community and highlighted the growth, and growing interest, in RJ-related trainings. Meg Sanders, director of ���ѱ�’s Graduate Teacher Education program, spoke about the new master’s degree and graduate certificate in restorative justice, as well as the integration of RJ principles and practices into professional training courses offered by the university.

Director Kimberly Schmidt presented on the , ���ѱ�’s Washington D.C.-based program offering cross-cultural urban studies, internship and community living experience. She was joined by Associate Director Ryan Good and Program Assistant Karlyn Gehring.

Doug Graber Neufeld presented on the , a collaborative initiative of 91����Ƶ, Goshen College and Mennonite Central Committee to lead Anabaptist efforts to respond to the challenges of climate change. Neufeld, a biology professor at 91����Ƶ, directs the center.

The summit was targeted to students and community members engaged in the prison abolition movement and organized by various student organizations, including the Prison Resistance Project, Students for Justice in Palestine, Aging People in Prisons Human Rights Campaign and the UMD Socialists, as well as the university.

“The goal for the summit is to challenge ourselves to think really critically and deeply about problems of violence, harm, punishment, and justice, and to come out of the summit with a better understanding of what kind of world we’re fighting for and what kind of future we want,” one student organizer said in an email to Turner that included an invitation to speak.

Turner’s address provided an introduction to both restorative and transformative justice including specific examples, the difference between these two models or approaches to justice, and the roles they play in addressing everyday conflicts and gender-based violence, respectively, she said. She also shared concrete steps that participants could take in their everyday lives to work toward a world informed by these models and provided participants with resources to learn more.

The summit included opportunities to hear from and engage with current and formerly incarcerated individuals, such as Shujaa Graham, exonerated after years on death row, and Kenny Collins, an incarcerated man sentenced to death in Maryland. Collins spoke by phone to summit attendees, many of whom are part of a student-led campaign for his freedom.

“It was very powerful to have so many different people together for the shared purpose of cultivating hope and vision for a world in which safety and security is not premised on the practice of putting people in cages,” Turner said. “It was also nice to return to the campus where I earned my doctorate, connect with current students and learn about continuing activism and organizing against the prison-industrial complex that is happening on and off campus.”

During spring semester at 91����Ƶ, Turner taught an independent study course on . She is also writing a chapter on this topic for an anthology to be published by .

“The opportunity to speak at this summit on both restorative and transformative justice was a wonderful extension of this work, which serves to both build greater awareness and understanding of transformative justice as well as to build bridges between restorative justice and transformative justice leaders,” she said.

A straight talker with an evangelical flair that betrays his Southern Baptist roots, Posey shared some eye-opening strengths and weaknesses related to his own experience as a student at 91����Ƶ, and urged the gathered community to answer the call to “meet students where they are.”

He ended with four practical questions related to faith formation — picture Posey saying “Go get ‘em,” as we all trot to the mound — that participants carried with them throughout the day’s panel sessions, presentations and worship.

Recognize and build on your strengths as related to faith formation. Evaluate and understand your weaknesses. Ask how you can more effectively merge your calling with your work. And finally, how can you better mentor young people to lives of faith?

���ѱ�’s faculty-staff conferences are community gatherings at the beginning and end of the academic year. This spring’s event focused on “fostering faith among students but also among ourselves,” said Professor Marti Eads, who chaired the planning committee with Campus Pastor Brian Martin Burkholder. “I hope you leave the day fed and hungry for more.”

Titled “Journey Companions: Fostering Faith Formation at 91����Ƶ,” the theme enabled discussions and development of an objective in ���ѱ�’s strategic plan: to nurture spiritual growth and enhance formational engagement among faculty, staff and students.

“Undergraduate students in our faith mentoring survey a few years ago expressed eagerness to hear more from faculty and staff about their personal faith journeys and how they navigated doubt, challenge and opportunity,” said Burkholder. “This conference gives us a chance to hear from each other about how we’re doing that in our work on campus and how we might expand opportunities for fellowship and relationship-building into new places and spaces.”

More from Coach Posey

At a time when ���ѱ�’s student population is more diverse than ever – and that diversity includes culture, religion, race, ethnicity and political beliefs – Posey pointed out that being open and hospitable to different perspectives is very much a part of faith formation. It was deep relationships with a small number of influential faculty and staff that aided his own spiritual and intellectual development, he said.

Posey talked about the challenges of coming to 91����Ƶ from Poquoson, a mostly white, upper middle-class community among the many military bases in the Hampton Roads area. A communications major, he said the first person he met outside of the baseball coaching staff was Professor Jerry Holsopple, an experience “which really should have counted as my cross-cultural,” he joked.

“Even among the baseball team, I heard in those first few months perspectives that differed from mine, and that was a culture shock for me, away from home for the first time, away from my girlfriend, trying to figure out some of the things that come with being at 91����Ƶ,” he said.

What helped him become more comfortable and get through “a rocky first couple of years” was a tight relationship with head coach Jason Stuhlmiller (then a high school special education teacher and now area director for Fellowship of Christian Athletes) and connections with faculty members Holsopple and Deanna Durham — all mentors who got to know him “on my level, on my playing field, in my arena.”

Though he came primarily with an identity and purpose tied to his athletic experience, Posey said that changed over the years, and now he’s grateful that he chose to stay and “not miss out on experiences that have been really important to who I am today.” There are plenty of students today, ones he coaches and others he knows, who have had a similar difficulty adjusting to the 91����Ƶ community.

“Whether you agree with why that student is here at 91����Ƶ or not, you have four years to build a relationship with that person and talk to them about things you’re passionate about, whether it’s peacebuilding or social justice,” he said.

One beauty of these opportunities is how they remind us of what matters: in the midst of a losing streak, Posey said a player reached out to him to talk about how God was calling him but he felt unworthy. “I want to give my life over to Christ, but how do I reconcile that?”  he asked.

“It’s easy to get lost in our jobs and lost in what we’re doing and not remember why we’re here,” Posey said. “But we have to keep that in perspective. I would venture to say that we’re all here at 91����Ƶ because we hope to impact young people in a way that contributes to the rest of their life.”

Bringing imagination to course design

In his keynote address via Zoom, , professor of education and director of the Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching and Learning at Calvin College, challenged faculty to have imagination about their course designs. He told the story of different workers on a construction site, one of whom said he was cutting a stone block and the other which said he was building a cathedral: “What do my students think is happening when they sit in my classroom? What is it they think they are doing?” he asked, and, “What do we think we are teaching in our subject area? What does it contribute to the world? To the Kingdom of God?”

He recounted a call from a former student excited at having lent a willing ear to a German-speaking train rider after remembering what Smith had taught in German class, that the purpose of learning a language is less to speak it than it is to listen.

Pedagogical norms, he said, are simply how things are done in any given era, according to prevailing social norms. These norms often separate course content matter from reality’s ambiguities that merit curiosity and practicable empathy.

‘Examining assumptions’

After the annual recognition luncheon, five break-out sessions were offered on a variety of topics, including workshops on spiritual practices for mentors, exploring spirituality types in mentoring.

Panel discussions offered insights into faith formation in various programs, including the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding and athletics.

Professor Ann Hershberger and interim director Don Clymer invited shared insights into making faith connections for and with students on travelling on 91����Ƶ’s required cross-cultural trips.

“When we are forced out of our routines, we have to rethink many things and examine our assumptions,” Clymer said. That makes for many opportunities to plant seeds, Hershberger added.

Their own and session participants’ stories bore that out: the student whose host mother prayed for her hemoglobin deficiency, which then was resolved to a degree that without a blood transfusion is medically impossible; the group that found cohesion in protectively encircling a sick classmate who had become ill on a crowded street; the homesick and tired group that, by recounting how they had experienced the presence of God in the last three days, turned their “mumbling and grumbling to singing.”

The group also gathered ideas for trip leaders to further prepare for and build on faith building experiences, cultivating groups in which students have starkly different faith understandings, and establishing shared resources and activities that have proven effective.

A final 45-minute gathering, hosted by Burkholder and Professor Johonna Turner, invited reflection and sharing.

Christopher Clymer Kurtz contributed to this article.