Fellows Bios
| Gabrielle Apollon |
Gabrielle Apollon is currently in her first year of law school. She has enjoyed being involved in NYU’s Anti-Trafficking Advocacy Coalition, Christian Legal Fellowship, and the Black Allied Law Students Association and will be on the executive boards of those organizations next year. She is also looking forward to participating in the Global Justice Clinic and taking international human rights courses next year. In regards to her vocation, Gabrielle hopes to join grassroots work with legal reform advocacy, and contribute to the development of stronger laws and institutions to protect women and children in Haiti.
Gabrielle currently lives in New York City and attends Trinity Grace Church’s Upper West Side parish. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Columbia University, and a Master of International Affairs at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. She is Haitian-Canadian and grew up primarily in Kansas City, Missouri. When not in school, she visits her mother and younger brother in Montreal, Canada.
| Barakatullo Ashurov |
Barakatullo is a doctoral candidate in the Study of Religions department at School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. His current research examines the spread and influence of the Eastern Syriac-speaking Christianity among Sogdians; an Eastern Iranian- speaking people in Central Asia between the 5th and 9th century, with particular focus on the cultural adaptation and indigenous representation of Christianity from the material culture objects and manuscript tradition perspectives. He is interested more broadly in questioning the spiritual-cultural and social-intellectual impact of Christianity in medieval Central Asia and how that can help to understand the contemporary role of Christianity in the region.
Barakatullo received a B.A. Oriental Studies (Hindi Philology) from Tajik National University, with a focus on literature and history of Indian subcontinent, before graduating from the M.A. English (Literary and Cultural Studies) program at Central University of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad, India. After living for the past 3 years in London Barakatullo together with his wife and two children currently live in Worthing, West Sussex and attend St. Mathew’s church.
| Carolyn Barnes |
Carolyn is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science and Public Policy at the University of Michigan. Her research interests include political behavior among low income populations and trends in social welfare policy administration in the urban context. In her dissertation, Carolyn explores the effects of privatized welfare services on low income communities in the city of Chicago. More specifically, she investigates the variation in social service provision across different types of nonprofit social service providers and the effects of nonprofit program design on the political and civic engagement of clients.
Carolyn is passionate about understanding the complex implications of poverty on families and communities and is committed to using her gifts and skills to uncover unique biblically based poverty interventions. She hopes her research will be used by policymakers and social service practitioners in developing social policy and enhancing service delivery. Carolyn has earned a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the Virginia Tech and a Masters in Political Science from the University of Michigan. Carolyn currently resides in Chicago, Illinois where she attends Harvest Bible Chapel.
| Rubina Feroze Bhatti |
Rubina is pursuing a PhD in Leadership Studies at the University of San Diego. The doctorate program matches her work and ultimate career goal of establishing a leadership institute in her home country, Pakistan, which will provide programs and services to help people make a contribution by building a world where human rights, peace and living without fear becomes a tangible reality. Rubina founded the NGO, Taangh Wasaib Organization (TWO), which strives to protect the rights of women who are targets of gender-based violence, train women’s groups to report on violence against women, and support victims with counseling and legal aid. She has introduced human rights education programs in more than 200 public and private schools and written scripts for films and theater productions on human rights and peace issues. TWO’s production on the issue of domestic violence, “Shackle Yet to Open,” was presented at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Film Festival 2011.
Rubina earned her Master’s Degree in chemistry from Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) in Pakistan and her Master’s in development studies from Ireland where she was awarded with “Student of the Year” for her outstanding educational career. Her journey of achievements has been long and challenging. Her nomination for the Noble Peace Prize in 2005 as part of the 1,000 Women for Peace Project is a hallmark for her life. In 2009 she was selected as a Woman Peacemaker at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice in San Diego, where her life story was documented, and in 2010 she was the recipient of the World Vision Peacemaking Award. She also won the 2011 Woman of Courage Award, along with former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, from the National Women’s Political Caucus. This award is given to women from diverse backgrounds who exemplify women’s leadership and demonstrate courage by taking a stand to further civil rights and equality. In 2013, Rubina met with World Bank President, Dr. Jim Kim, at the World Bank headquarters in Washington DC where she was awarded with the Margaret McNamara Memorial Fund (MMMF) Scholarship Award 2013 in acknowledgment of her efforts for improving the lives of women and children in rural Pakistan.
| Peter Blair |
Peter is pursuing a PhD in Applied Economics at the University of Pennsylvania in the Wharton School. He earned his MA from Harvard University in Theoretical Physics, and his BS from Duke University in Physics and Mathematics, with dual minors in Economics and French.
His award-winning research on the relationship between foreign direct investment and economic growth in the Caribbean has earned him invitations to speak at the Bank of Jamaica, the Central Bank of Barbados, the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (UWI, Mona), and at the Caribbean Science Forum on Science Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Trinidad & Tobago). In addition to his speaking engagements in the Caribbean, Peter has given talks at the University of Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania, the Korean Military Academy (Seoul, Korea), and Lovely Professional University (Jalandhar, India).
Peter is as committed to service as he is to academic and professional excellence. In 2006, along with main sponsor ColinaImperial, students and faculty at the College of the Bahamas, teachers and administrators at St. Andrews School, and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Peter co-founded the Innoworks Bahamas Science Summer Camp. Over a three year period, the camp provided world-class mentorship and scientific exposure to 150 students. This diverse group of campers represented 40 junior high schools and 10 distinct islands in the Bahamas. Currently, Peter serves on the board of the Angoon Alive Project, a Philadelphia-based non-profit founded by his home church Antioch Calvary Chapel, which is devoted to economically empowering the Native-American Tlingit tribe of Angoon, Alaska.
Peter’s motivation in both his work and his service comes from his favorite book: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, which is in heaven” (Matt 5:16). He is the last son of seven boys born to Leslie M. Blair and Judith C. Blair in the beautiful islands of the Bahamas.
| Lia Chavez |
Lia Chavez is a New York-based contemporary artist working with the body and the image as sites of encounter with a dynamic, mystical reality. She has been presented in numerous exhibitions internationally including the 52nd and 53rd Venice Biennales, Frieze Art Fair, The Armory Show, 10th Istanbul Biennial, Savannah College of Art and Design and Affirmation Arts in New York. Her work incorporates a diverse array of mediums with an emphasis on live performance and process-centered photography. She did her studies at Oxford and Goldsmiths College in London. She lectures regularly as a visiting artist at numerous academic institutions in Europe and the US, from Oxford University to New York University. You can read about her work in the Huffington Post.
| Daniel Cheely |
Daniel Cheely is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Pennsylvania studying the history of early modern Europe. His dissertation examines the circumstances and experiences of Catholic readers of the Bible in order to understand better the development of sacred reading across multiple Christian traditions. With the help of the Harvey Fellowship, he conducted research in Europe, following his readers and their assistants to Rome, Northern France, and all around the United Kingdom. He aspires to teach and write about the history of religion, culture, and reading at an American or British research university.
After finishing his A.B. in History at Princeton University, Daniel joined Teach For America. He led eighth grade instruction in the Wentworth neighborhood of Chicago during the day, and completed his state teaching certificate at National Louis University during the evening. Daniel participates in activities at the Penn Newman Center, and he and his family are parishioners at St. Margaret in Narberth, PA.
| Stephen Chen |
Stephen Chen is a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. His research examines family influences in the development of psychopathology, particularly among at-risk and underrepresented populations. His goal is to identify mechanisms in the family context that serve as risk and protective factors in children’s development.
Stephen earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Rutgers, and a master’s degree in psychology from Berkeley. Prior to beginning his doctoral studies, Stephen worked for a number of years as a school administrator and counselor in Shanghai, China. He and his family attend Christ Church East Bay in Berkeley, California.
| Danny Colombara |
Danny Colombara is a PhD student in epidemiology at the University of Washington. He is interested in exploring the relationship between infectious disease and cancer. Specifically, his dissertation research will assess the relationship between particular viral infections and subsequent development of lung cancer in a Chinese population. His vocational goal is to become an independent researcher in global infectious disease epidemiology who invests in the epidemiological training of nationals.
Danny has earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Master of Divinity degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Washington. He currently lives in Seattle, WA with his wife, Anita, and their two children, Silas and Cassia. They have found a spiritual home with Every Nation Church Seattle.
| Shardé Davis |
Shardé Davis is a PhD student in the Communication Studies Department at the University of Iowa. Shardé’s interdisciplinary research uses theories and approaches from Communication, Feminist Studies and Ethnic Studies to investigate how ethnicity and gender shape relational dynamics and communication processes. Under the stewardship of her adviser, Dr. Tamara Afifi, Shardé plans to extend her master’s thesis into a dissertation project examining the social support process among Black and White female friend circles when a friend is experiencing relational turmoil with a male romantic partner. Shardé will qualitatively and quantitatively test the effect of social support messages from female friends on romantic relationship quality levels.
After spending the first 18 years of her life in San Diego, Shardé attended the University of California, Santa Barbara for her undergraduate and graduate studies, completing a Bachelors of Arts in Communication and Feminist Studies (high honors) and a Masters of Arts in Communication. In addition to her academic endeavors, Shardé was also involved in the Santa Barbara Christian community, leading a women’s Bible study and serving in multiple capacities at her home church, called Reality Santa Barbara. In Fall of 2013 Shardé will leave California to finish her dissertation in Iowa. Once there, she intends to get connected into a loving church family and Christ-centered campus group.
| Christina Davidson |
Christina C. Davidson is a doctoral candidate in History at Duke University, where she focuses on racial formation in the Americas and the intersection of racial, religious, and national ideology. In her dissertation work, Christina explores the role of Protestant Christian missions in the Dominican Republic during and after the U.S. Occupation (1916-1924). She is particularly interested in the important role that Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, and other Caribbean people played in transforming Dominican religious spaces and establishing Protestant Christianity in the Spanish Caribbean. In addition to her dissertation, Christina is passionate about education in the digital age. She has led on Duke campus as a member of the Franklin Humanities Center’s Ph.D. Lab in Digital Knowledge and a co-founder of the Digital History Working Group. She has also blogged on HASTAC.org as a 2013 and 2014 HASTAC scholar. After graduation, Christina aspires to use her degree and experiences to teach and write about race, religion and transnationalism in the Americas.
Christina has earned a Bachelors degree in Latin American Studies from Yale University and a Masters in History from Duke University. She currently resides in Durham, North Carolina where she attends Greenleaf Vineyard Church.
| Justin Denholm |
Justin Denholm is completing a PhD in epidemiology and mathematical modeling of tuberculosis infection. His doctoral work includes evaluation of the effectiveness and ethical acceptability of varying approaches to tuberculosis incidence reduction in low-prevalence countries, including immigration screening and treatment strategies. He intends to continue working in infectious diseases clinical medicine while building a collaborative international research program related to tuberculosis.
In addition to his medical degree and fellowship in infectious diseases, Justin holds masters degrees in Bioethics and Public Health. He lives in Brunswick, Australia with his wife Gina and children William, Charlie and Susannah, and attends St John Chrysostom Anglican Church. Justin also directs the Centre for Applied Christian Ethics at Ridley Melbourne Ministry & Mission College, and has many challenging ethical conversation about putting faith into action.
| Rachel Dunn |
Rachel Dunn is a Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University specializing in early modern English literature. Her primary research interests include early modern women’s writing, manuscript circulation, Civil War literature, and the romance genre–and the way politics and faith have shaped these subfields. In particular, Rachel’s research has focused on the mid-seventeenth century writings of the recently discovered Hester Pulter and the non-dramatic works of Margaret Cavendish.
After completing her B.A. at Princeton University, Rachel read for her master’s degree at the University of Oxford. Though originally from Minnesota, she now lives in (and is slowly coming to appreciate) New York City, where she attends Emmanuel Presbyterian Church.
| Kyle Dugdale |
Kyle Dugdale is a doctoral candidate in architecture at Yale University. His current research examines the enigmatic role of the Tower of Babel as a recurring motif within the discourse of architectural modernity, with particular focus on the early decades of the twentieth century and with particular reference to conceptions of the death of God. He is interested more broadly in questioning the disciplinary implications of Christian doctrine for the contemporary practice of architecture, and especially of non-ecclesiastical architecture.
Kyle received a B.A.(Hons) Lit. Hum. from Corpus Christi College, Oxford, with a focus on philosophy and on Greek and Latin literature, before graduating with distinction from the M.Arch. program at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. A licensed architect, he has taught at Yale and has practiced in London, Chicago, and New Haven. Although not a Baptist, he currently attends Trinity Baptist Church in downtown New Haven, where he lives with his wife and two small children.
| Rebecca Elvin |
Rebecca is a doctoral student at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford. Her research focuses on mechanisms that promote judicial accountability and independence in deeply divided societies and states emerging from conflict. As part of this work, she has recently spent time in Kenya working as a UNDP consultant to the Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board. After graduating, Rebecca hopes to continue her involvement in judicial reform projects and to engage in a practical manner with the shifting dynamics of justice, law and governance in transitional societies.
Rebecca graduated from the University of Otago, New Zealand, with degrees in Law, Political Science and English Literature. After training as a lawyer, she went on to complete a Master’s degree in Conflict Resolution in Divided Societies at King’s College, London. Originally hailing from Tauranga, New Zealand, Rebecca now resides in Oxford and attends St. Aldate’s Anglican church.
| Joseph Ewoodzie |
My highest career aspiration is to be a professor at a respected sociology department where I can teach and conduct research. My primary research and teaching goal is to make explicit the hidden processes that create and reproduce inequality as well as to highlight how marginalized communities make sense of their day-to-day lives. For my most recent project, which tackles questions about how people up and down the socioeconomic ladder choose what they eat, I moved to Jackson, Mississippi to conduct an ethnographic study of foodways among African Americans.
I have a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Ithaca College and a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I am completing my doctoral degree in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I have one brother, who also a budding sociologist at the University of Iowa. I am blissfully married to Zahida Sherman Ewoodzie, and African historian who works in student affairs. I currently live in central Ohio and have been teaching sociology classes at Kenyon College.
| Heidi Fuqua |
Heidi Fuqua is a phd candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, in the Earth and Planetary Science department and the Space Sciences Lab where she researches the lunar interior. She is currently analyzing NASA’s ARTEMIS satellite measurements in search of induced magnetic signatures. Heidi enjoys teaching, engineering and is passionate about all things relating to planets.
Originally from Southern California, Heidi holds a Master’s degree in Space Studies from the International Space University in Strasbourg, France, a Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace-Astronautics Engineering from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor’s degree in Physical Science from Biola University. Heidi also graduated from the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola. Currently residing in Berkeley, Heidi attends Berkeley Covenant Church and is involved in InterVarsity’s Graduate Christian Fellowship Veritas.
| Vinicius Gripp |
Vinicius Gripp is a PhD Student in the Department of Mathematics at UC Berkeley. He works with Symplectic Geometry and Low-dimensional topology. He loves the Math that he studies and he sees his work as a great opportunity to meet people, with whom he can share some of his joy and excitement for life. He also wants to do excellent teaching and to be an inspiration to young students.
Vinicius grew up in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with his parents Doris and Josias. In 2007 he earned a B.S. and an M.S. in Applied Mathematics from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). He is a part of Veritas Christian Fellowship at UC Berkeley and attends the First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley. He enjoys traveling, meeting new people and spending time in the outdoors.
| Rui Guo |
Rui Guo is an SJD candidate at Harvard Law School. His thesis focuses on China’s State Owned Enterprises (SOE). His research emphasizes that in China the modern state ownership is not merely a diminishment or a reduction of state planning capacities, but a displacement from ideological to legal techniques of government that indicate fundamental transformations in statehood and a new government-business relation.
Rui would like to teach law when he finishes the doctoral study. He currently resides in Boston and attends Park Street Church.
| Derek Ham |
Derek Ham is a third year PhD student in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s School of Architecture. His research emphasis is in Design Computation, a branch of architecture that takes a computational and algorithmic approach to building design. Currently, Derek is developing “video game” like tools for designers to synthesize their special concepts. From his previous years of teaching and practice, Derek sees a need for radical reformation in the way architects use technology in their design process. Furthermore, he sees these new tools as opportunities to impact younger children in strengthening teaching practices in STEM related subjects.
Derek holds a Bachelors of Architecture from Hampton University and a Master’s Degree in Architecture from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. Along with his wife, Remington, they are the parents of a two year old daughter, Taylor, and are expecting their second child in January of 2013. As a family living in one of MIT’s family dormitories (The Eastgate Building), Derek and Remington were appointed officers in the dorm with the title of “Parent Coordinators.” Derek sees this as an awesome ministry opportunity to be in contact and build relationships with so many international families. Currently, Derek and his family attend Calvary Christian Church and are active with MIT’s Graduate Christian Fellowship.
| Christopher Hampson |
Born and raised in Cranston, Rhode Island, Chris Hampson graduated from Harvard magna cum laude in 2009 with a degree in the Comparative Study of Religion. After a year of service with Americorps and two years working for The Veritas Forum, Chris returned to Harvard for a joint degree in law and theology at Harvard Law School and Harvard Divinity School.
At Harvard, Chris focuses on the intersection of law, religion, and money, and eventually hopes to teach law and contribute to a robust interdisciplinary scholarship on the relationship between law and religion, particularly Christianity. This summer, Chris is working for Professor John Witte, director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University.
Chris is active in the HLS Christian Fellowship, planning academic and outreach events and preparing to lead a “Christianity and Law” reading group in January 2015. He also works with the Journal of Civil Rights & Civil Liberties and the Harvard Business Law Review.
Chris lives in Watertown, MA, with his wife, mother-in-law, and daughter Olivia, who is one year old and keeps everyone busy. They attend Covenant Church in Arlington, MA.
| Pat Hastings |
Pat Hastings is a doctoral student in sociology at the University of California at Berkeley, where he focuses on the sociology of organizations, culture, and religion. His recent work includes analyzing the reliability of survey questions, understanding the social lives of the Spiritual But Not Religious, and examining the religious gender differences of American elites. After graduate school, Pat hopes to conduct research, write, mentor, and teach as a professor of sociology.
Pat grew up near Austin, TX. After receiving a B.S. in Physics and B.A. in Mathematics from Rice University, he remained at Rice for several years serving as a campus minister and then a sociology postbaccalaureate research fellow. Pat and his wife Michelle now live in Berkeley, California, where they are members of Christ Church. Pat’s website is http://ophastings.com
| Anna High |
Anna J. High is a visiting assistant professor at Marquette University Law School. Her teaching focuses on criminal law, human rights and foreign legal systems. Anna completed her LLB and BA (Chinese) at the University of Queensland. She has clerked UK and Australian law firms in Hong Kong and Shanghai. On graduating, she was admitted as a lawyer in New South Wales and worked as a commercial lawyer with Blake Dawson (Ashurst LLP). Anna has completed two Masters in Law, with Distinction, and a PhD in Law, as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford. She has also studied in Hong Kong and mainland China, and spent numerous summers in China researching NGOs involved in services for vulnerable and orphaned children, and volunteering at local and foreign-run orphanages.
| Angela Howard |
Angela Howard is a DPhil candidate studying legal philosophy with John Finnis at the University of Oxford. She is a fellow at the Becket Institute, an academic project of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a public interest law firm where she formerly served as the International Law Director. Before joining the Becket Fund, she graduated from Northwestern University, Harvard Law School, and the Université Libre de Bruxelles as a Fulbright Fellow in European Law. Her current research has to do with the nature of rights, and moral justifications for religious exceptions in law. She is continuing her studies from Alexandria, VA, where she lives with her husband and daughter.
| John Juhyun Jeong |
John is pursuing a joint-degree in Master in Business Administration and Master in Public Administration in International Development (MBA/MPA-ID) at the Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School. He hopes to help businesses in developing countries as an investment professional focusing on investments with the greatest economic and social returns.
Before coming to Harvard, John completed his undergraduate degree in Economics from Stanford University, was a management consultant in Seoul, and worked for a humanitarian aid agency in Cambodia. He and his wife live in Cambridge, Massachusetts where they attend Hilltop Church and are involved with the Justice House of Prayer Boston.
| Aaron Koning |
Aaron Koning is a doctoral student in the Department of Zoology and Center for Limnology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research aims to elucidate the relationships between fish communities and ecosystem processes, like productivity and nutrient cycling, in tropical streams of Southeast Asia. Aaron uses descriptive field surveys, chemical analyses, and experimental manipulations of research sites to investigate these relationships. In conducting this research, he hopes to further our understanding of basic ecological processes in tropical aquatic ecosystems and to inform conservation decisions in Southeast Asia, where population density, rates of deforestation, and dependence on freshwater fish for daily nutrition are the highest in the world
Aaron received a bachelor’s degree from Wheaton College (Wheaton, IL) in 2007 before moving to Thailand for four years to work as a field instructor and ecology curriculum developer for the International Sustainable Development Studies Institute, a study abroad program based in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Aaron’s interest in the tropics may be traced back to the first four years of his life, which were spent in El Salvador, before he and his family settled in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His father is a pastor in the Christian Reformed Church, his mother teaches Spanish, and he has three younger siblings. Aaron and his wife Stephanie, also a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, currently reside in Madison and attend Geneva Campus Church, a Christian Reformed Church in the heart of campus.
| Mark Ku |
Mark Ku is a PhD student at MIT studying experimental atomic and optical physics. Using a combination of laser beams and magnetic field, Mark and his collaborators create gases of atoms that are billion time colder than air. The research team uses these ultra cold quantum gases to probe model quantum systems which are believed to describe systems ranging from neutron stars to high temperature superconductors. Mark’s vocational vision is to teach and conduct research as a faculty member in a university. With a desire to be Jesus’ representative in the academia, his heart is that whether in classroom or in research lab, he will train students in not only scientific knowledge but also in values, integrity, and characters.
Mark has earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physics in 2007 and a master’s degree in physics in 2009, both from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Originally born in Taiwan, Mark immigrated with his parents and two younger brothers to Vancouver in 1998. Mark now lives in Boston and attends the Park Street Church. On campus, he is involved with the MIT Graduate Christian Fellowship and United Christian Organization.
| Heidi Liu |
Heidi Liu is originally from Minnesota, but has lived in the Boston area since 2007. Heidi is pursuing a PhD in public policy and is in 1L through the coordinated JD/PhD program at Harvard. Her interests are in applying behavioral economics to public policy, especially as it relates to education, employment/promotion procedures and gender equality. Some of her previous work has concerned the organizational structure of Protestant denominations. Before grad school, she worked as a research assistant for the book “Nudge” and as an analyst at an economic consulting firm. She has been involved with Harvard-Radcliffe Christian Fellowship and Cambridge Community Fellowship Church.
| Olivia Carter Mather |
Olivia Carter Mather is a part-time scholar and a full-time mom at home with three children. She graduated from UCLA in 2006 with a PhD in musicology. Her specialty is American popular music and her dissertation analyzed country rock music of the sixties and seventies (the Byrds, the Eagles, Gram Parsons, etc) arguing that the music reflected tension between national and regionalist sentiments. Other interests include folk revivalism, music of the Jesus Movement, and Hildegard von Bingen. Olivia is married to Jason, pastor of King’s Church in Long Beach, CA. Olivia received the Harvey Fellowship in 2002 and has served on the Harvey Fellows Advisory Board since 2009.
| Sean McClowry |
Sean McClowry is a composer, producer and songwriter who is an Assistant Professor of Music Industry Studies at the College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY. As a composer, Sean writes music that often explores sentiments that are difficult to express using words, such as prayer or the nature of the Trinity. He is currently working on a CD of his compositions for double bass that will be released sometime this year. Equally active in popular music, Sean is a singer and multi-instrumentalist interested in recording and performing songs that combine his work as a classical musician in creative ways. Sean also works as a producer for singer/songwriters, bands, and classical musicians. Sean was awarded the Harvey Fellowship in 2007 while he was working on his PhD in Composition at Princeton University, which he completed in 2012. His doctoral dissertation is titled: The Song of the Convert: Religious Conversion and its Impact on the Creation of Music. Go to seanmcclowry.com for music recordings and detailed biographical information. He is currently serving as chair of the the Harvey Fellows Advisory Board.
| Tiffany McNair |
Tiffany McNair is an Obstetrician-Gynecologist currently finishing training in General Preventive Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. This education is shaping Tiffany’s future career in health policy. Her research and policy interests are in women’s sexual/reproductive health and healthcare economics, with an emphasis on minority, urban, and other vulnerable populations. Tiffany’s long-term vision is to create effective, evidence-based policies to prevent teen and unplanned pregnancies, reduce abortions, and educate women on healthy sexual decision-making. In so doing, she seeks to positively impact the physical and spiritual health of women on a national scale.
Tiffany is originally from southern New Jersey. She earned an A.B. from Harvard College and M.D. from Harvard Medical School. She completed a residency in Gynecology and Obstetrics at Johns Hopkins before venturing into the world of public health, at which time she received the MPH from Hopkins as well. Tiffany attends I5 Church in Odenton, Maryland and resides in Baltimore. It is her fervent prayer to continually grow in relationship with Jesus Christ and to live out His Word in all dimensions of her life.
| Kirsten Meyer |
Kirsten Meyer is a PhD candidate in the department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences at Johns Hopkins University. She studies the parasite that causes African sleeping sickness, a deadly disease found in sub-Saharan African. Her research is focused on investigating new drugs to treat the infection, looking both at their effect on the molecular biology of the parasite and at their clinical potential. Combining a love for science and a passion for international development, she plans to pursue a research career working on drug discovery for neglected tropical diseases.
Kirsten hales from New Zealand, where she completed her Bachelor of Biomedical Science at Victoria University of Wellington. She spent her childhood in Bangladesh and India, where her parents continue to work for New Zealand Baptists. Alongside these important places in her life, Kirsten now calls Baltimore home. She lives and worships in the neighborhood of Sandtown-Winchester as a member of New Song Community Church.
| Michael Miltenberger |
Michael Miltenberger is currently an associate on the healthcare team at the private equity fund Advent International, and is planning to pursue an MBA at Harvard Business School in the fall. Mike is pursuing a career in healthcare venture capital and entrepreneurship, where he would like to be part of developing and growing innovative companies that can transform our healthcare system to deliver better quality healthcare at lower costs.
Mike received a degree in Healthcare Economics and Policy with High Honors from Harvard College. Mike and his wife Lexi currently live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Lexi is a second year student at Harvard Law School. Mike and Lexi attend Hope Fellowship Church in Cambridge, where they host a small group and serve in several of the church’s ministries.
| Erin Nerstad |
Erin is completing a dissertation on the influence of religious faith on poetic form in nineteenth-century Britain. This includes S.T. Coleridge’s Unitarian to Trinitarian conversion; the intersection of Robert Browning’s dramatic monologues with evangelical epistemologies and contemporary biblical hermeneutics; G.M. Hopkins’s poetic weaving together of physics and metaphysics; and Christina Rossetti’s lyric incarnation of heavenly song and community. Erin plans to pursue her love for literature and for teaching both as a professor of English and as a scholar of the endlessly fascinating Victorian Era.
Erin earned an M.A. in the Humanities from the University of Chicago. She also received her B.A. from Claremont McKenna College, where she met her future husband, Caleb, who since has faithfully endured many Chicago winters with her. Caleb and Erin also have a one-year-old daughter. They attend the Hyde Park Vineyard Church and reside in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago.
| Mindy O’Brien |
Mindy is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Musicology at UCLA. She is interested in the dynamic relationship between music and social identification, particularly during times of political, religious, or cultural upheaval. She has explored this topic in a variety of historical and social situations, from music and spirituality in the 1960s counterculture to Mexican American immigration and music listening. She recently designed and taught a freshman seminar at UCLA on music in the Chicano Movement. Her dissertation research centers on song, the courts, and devotional contrafacta in the charged climate of the newly Reformed city of Geneva in the sixteenth century.
Mindy received a B.A. in music from UC Berkeley and an M.A. in ethnomusicology from UC Riverside. An avid musician, Mindy spends much of her free time playing the piano, violin, or singing. She is married to Patrick O’Brien, a Ph.D. Candidate in New Testament Studies at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. They currently live at the beach in sunny Santa Monica, CA and attend Mosaic Hollywood where they are involved in the music and small groups ministries.
| Mary Thamari Odhiambo |
Mary Thamari O. will join the department of Anthropology and African Studies, University of Birmingham as a PhD student in September 2014. Through applied ethnographic research methods, Mary will investigate gender issues in Kenyan marriage customs and their effects on community development in regard to women’s quest for socioeconomic growth. Mary’s career history includes directing projects such as the Global Bag Project, a social enterprise for women in Nairobi slums and County Girls Caucus where she is a founding director of a leadership and life skills development project for teenage girls in rural Kenya.
Mary has a Bachelor’s Degree in Education from Maseno University and a Master of Arts Degree from Africa International University in Kenya. Mary and her husband George with their 3 children worship at the Christ is the Answer Ministries(CITAM) Ngong, Nairobi where they chair the Family Care and Enrichment ministry committee. After completion of her doctoral studies, Mary plans to widen her involvement in community development through local governance as well as lecture at a university in Kenya where she plans to engage students on matters of development and gender in the context of local customs. She believes that God has called her in the public/community arena to build a Christ-led legacy of God’s holistic mission.
| Oyebola Olabisi |
Oyebola Olabisi is a PhD candidate in Public Policy at Harvard University. She studies public economics and international development. Her goal is to be a researcher that will contribute to increasing the level of transparency and evidence-based approaches in policymaking, especially in Africa. She hopes to do this through three avenues: researching new ideas for economic policy, training the next generation of policy analysts, and advocating for ideas that have strong evidence for positive impact in society.
Oyebola received her Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Dartmouth College and completed a Master of Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID) at Harvard Kennedy School. She is married to Yemi Okunogbe and they attend Pentecostal Tabernacle in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
| Samuel David Perli |
Samuel David Perli is a Ph. D. candidate in the department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. Sam is currently studying specific mechanisms that give rise to systems-wide properties of biological systems such as robustness and evolvability. He is also working on developing a scalable architecture for designing complex transcriptional networks in living systems. His vocational goal is to become a researcher at top-notch academic or a research institution.
Prior to his foray into Synthetic Biology, Sam earned a Masters degree in Computer Science from MIT and a Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in 2008. Both his parents serve as ministers at Full Gospel Church, Hyderabad, India. He has two siblings both of whom are younger to him and serve in the worship and music ministry at their local churches. Sam lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts and attends Boston’s historic Park Street Church. He is also involved with the InterVarsity’s MIT Graduate Christian Fellowship and the Veritas Forum at MIT.
| Marcus Rodriguez |
Marcus is pursuing a PhD in clinical psychology at Duke University. His vocational goal is to become a professor of psychology in China. As a researcher, his goal is to help develop efficacious web- and smart-phone-based interventions for emotion regulation.
Marcus grew up in Mexico, with his parents Daniel and Jeanette. He earned his B.A. in Religion and Psychology from Pepperdine University. Upon graduation, he moved to China with his older brother Martin. During the 9 years he lived in China, Marcus met his wife Zheng Xiao, learned Mandarin, worked as an adjunct professor at Fudan University, and was the first foreigner to complete a graduate degree in psychology at Peking University, where he learned to conduct research and psychotherapy. Marcus, Zheng and their two children Caleb (3) and Journey Grace (19 months) are members of the Summit Church in Durham, NC.
| Blake Roeber |
Blake Roeber is a PhD student in philosophy at Rutgers University. He works primarily in epistemology, and he has secondary interests in philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, philosophy of religion and philosophical methodology. Blake is currently working on the nature of belief and the relationship between believing, knowing and acting.
Blake is from Colorado but he has two degrees from Illinois: a BA in philosophy from Wheaton College and an MA in philosophy from Northern Illinois University. He’s the lucky husband of Ruth Roeber and the lucky dad of rambunctious 6-year-old twins, Isaiah and Leorah Roeber. He really dislikes being indoors. He’d rather be biking, hiking, swimming, or something like that. Ruth and the twins agree.
Blake and his family attend Point Community Church, in New Brunswick, NJ.
| Allison Ruark |
Allison is completing a PhD in International Health at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, where she studies behavior change for HIV prevention, how norms of sexual behavior are created and sustained, and how these norms might be shifted in order to slow the spread of HIV in southern Africa. She is the author of a book on HIV prevention (AIDS, Behavior, and Culture: Understanding Evidence-Based Prevention, Left Coast Press, 2011) as well as a number of articles and conference presentations, and previously spent four years as a researcher with the Harvard AIDS Prevention Research Project. In addition to her academic work, she consults for the World Bank’s Global HIV/AIDS Program, and has worked with US-government funded HIV prevention, care, and treatment programs in a number of African countries. She is passionate about using research to equip and encourage the church in Africa towards evidence-based HIV prevention which addresses the root causes of the risky sexual behaviors which spread AIDS, such as broken marriages and families. She has conducted research, worked, and engaged with the church in a number of countries in west, southern, and eastern Africa.
Allison graduated from Williams College (2001) with majors in history and political science, and earned an MS in public health from Oregon State University (2004) in her hometown of Corvallis, OR. She is married to Joel, an engineer and graduate of Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. They plan to relocate to Swaziland with their son William in fall 2012 for Allison to pursue dissertation research on marriage and couple relationships in a context of high HIV transmission.
| Caleb Spencer |
Caleb Spencer teaches literary theory, American literature, and aesthetics in the Department of Liberal Arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He holds a PhD in English (2011) from the University of Illinois at Chicago where, in addition to his work in literature and literary theory, he focused his research on the intersections between aesthetics, philosophy of language and theology in late modernity. He has twice been a Visiting Professor of English at Wheaton College where he graduated with a BA in English in 1999 and continues to teach at Wheaton as Guest Assistant Professor in the Department of English. He is currently at work on a monograph entitled Protestant Postmodernism: theory and theology, affect and art on the peculiar ways that late-Modern British and American culture mirrors central features of Protestant Liberalism. The book has chapters on Tillich and postmodernism aesthetics, contemporary conversion and deconversion narratives, films and novels like Fight Club and Twilight, apocalyptic narratives including The Road and Left Behind, the resurgence of theology in contemporary Continental philosophy in the work of Badiou and Zizek, and a critique of the notion that postmodernism is a continuation of the Comteian secularization hypothesis offered by historians of late-Modernity like Fredric Jameson. He is also working on a trade book proposal on professionals who are simultaneously stay-at-home fathers. His scholarly work has been published in the Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, Christianity and Literature, and in various visual art catalogues. Prior to focusing on American literature and theology, he worked on British Romanticism and Milton, including an MA thesis on Wordsworth’s Prelude and the theology of Romanticism. In addition to his current academic work, Caleb works as a professional photographer, doing portraits, occasional commercial work and art b&w, and as a clerk in a law firm. He is now bi-vocational as he is a stay-at-home dad to his three children Sophia (9), Auden (5) and Hadley (20 months) while Brooke, his wife of 13 years, works as a health care executive. He is also involved in avocational ministry as a ruling elder at his Presbyterian church, helping with the arts ministries and as a college and high school ministry leader. Caleb is an avid cyclist racing on the both road and in cyclocross events.
| Brad Smith |
Brad Smith is a Ph.D. candidate in the sociology department at Princeton University. His research focuses on the corporate domain, wherein a rash of high profile corporate scandals, the recent financial crisis, and eroding public confidence in corporations and their leaders have prompted growing enthusiasm for spirituality as a resource for re-humanizing business and fortifying its ethical moorings. Drawing on interviews with more than one-hundred corporate executives, Brad is studying the ways Christian faith, in particular, challenges or, in many cases, sustains business as currently practiced. Through his research and its application, Brad hopes to promote the institutional frameworks, organizational practices, and moral vocabularies that facilitate human flourishing in and through business.
Before coming to Princeton, Brad completed an undergraduate business degree at Baylor University, traveled domestically and abroad as a management consultant, survived and enjoyed life in the investment banking industry, earned an M.Div. at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and directed a leadership studies program at Rice University. Brad and his wife and two young daughters have attended Princeton Alliance Church during their time in New Jersey.
| Marcos Steuernagel |
Marcos Steuernagel is a Brazilian PhD candidate in the department of Performance Studies at New York University, currently writing his dissertation on ways in which political events are processed in and through the performing body in contemporary Brazilian theater and dance. Informed by fields as diverse as Continental philosophy, post-colonial theory, Latin American studies, and Brazilian political history, he is deeply invested in the importance of epistemological diversity as a necessary condition for global justice. Having worked as a theater director in the past, Marcos hopes to live a professional life that integrates theory and practice, and to establish himself in a position of leadership between the US-American and the Brazilian academic worlds.
Marcos holds an MA in Performance Studies from NYU, and a Certificate in Cinema and Video and a BA in Theater Directing from Faculdade de Artes do Paraná, in his native Brazil. He lives in New York City with his wife Michelle Siqueira Steuernagel, and is blessed to attend All Angels Church.
| William Tarpeh |
William Tarpeh is an Environmental Engineering PhD student at the University of California at Berkeley researching technologies that increase access to sanitation in the developing world. William focuses on creating fertilizers and disinfectants from urine and measuring the environmental and economic impact of these products. He hopes to become an engineering professor with strong partnerships in sub-Saharan Africa, where he currently conducts fieldwork.
William studied Chemical Engineering and African Studies at Stanford University and earned an M.S. in Environmental Engineering from Berkeley. He is the youngest child of Cheryl Walters and is extremely grateful to his mother and siblings for molding him into the man he is today. Originally from Alexandria, Virginia, William currently resides in Berkeley, CA and attends 360Church of the Assemblies of God.
| Brett Theodos |
Brett Theodos is a PhD candidate in Public Policy at George Washington University with a focus on urban policy. He is also a Senior Research Associate in the Urban Institute’s Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center. His vocational calling is policy research, principally observing, analyzing, reporting, and disseminating information about the conditions of poor neighborhoods, and strategies to improve them. After school, Brett hopes to conduct research on and teach urban policy issues.
Brett has a Masters of Public Policy from Georgetown University and a Bachelors of Arts from Northwestern University. He is a member of Peace Fellowship Church in the Deanwood neighborhood of Washington, DC. Married, with two small children, he resides in Prince George’s county, Maryland.
| David Vishanoff |
David Vishanoff is an Associate Professor in the Religious Studies Program at the University of Oklahoma, where he strives to practice sacrificial listening in his teaching and scholarship. He earned a B.A. in mathematics and philosophy at Gordon College, an M.A. in religious studies at the University of Colorado, and a Ph.D. in Islamic thought at Emory University. His research is principally concerned with how religious people interpret and conceptualize sacred texts—both their own, and those of other religious traditions. He has written on medieval Islamic hermeneutics and Islamic versions of the Psalms of David; he spent the spring of 2013 in Indonesia starting a new project on contemporary Islamic hermeneutics. He has served on the Harvey Fellows Advisory board since 2010. He lives in Norman, Oklahoma with his wife Beth, their two teenagers, his parents, and his mother in law, in a large home that often welcomes students and friends from church.
| Joshua Walker |
Joshua W. Walker is Director of Global Programs, APCO Worldwide in the Office of the CEO in Washington, DC, specializing in foreign policy, international affairs and public-private partnerships. He has been a bridge-builder since his earliest days of growing up in Japan, pursuing a Fulbright fellowship in Turkey, and subsequent international experiences in academia and government. Dr. Walker most recently was a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow serving as a senior advisor to a variety of executive branch principals. He served at the U.S. Department of State in the Secretary’s Office of the Chief Economist in 2013 and prior to this appointment he served in the Secretary’s Global Partnership Initiative as the Senior Advisor on the Middle East and North Africa. Before the State Department Dr. Walker was a Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States responsible for the Turkey program and Japan portfolio of the Asia team. Active in bridging the academic and policy worlds, he co-founded the Yale Journal of International Affairs, Young Professionals in Foreign Policy in New York, and the Project on Religion, Diplomacy, and International Relations at Princeton along with being a Foreign Policy Initiative Future Leader and Truman National Security Project fellow. He was a Fulbright Fellow in Ankara, Turkey and has worked for the U.S. Embassy and State Department on Turkey. Dr. Walker has been affiliated and taught at Brandeis University, George Mason University, Harvard Kennedy School, Middle East Technical University, Istanbul Sehir Merkez, Tokyo University, Transatlantic Academy, Princeton University, University of Richmond, and Yale University.
Dr. Walker earned his Ph.D. in Politics and Public Policy with a specialization on international relations and security studies at Princeton University. He holds a Master’s degree in International Relations from Yale University, a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Richmond and speaks both Japanese and Turkish fluently.
| Craig Warmke |
Craig is originally from Indianapolis, IN, and he’s finishing his Phd in philosophy at UNC-Chapel Hill. He currently lives in Durham, NC with his daughter, Tessa, and wife, Laura.
| Andrew Watkins |
Andrew Watkins is an architect, planner and urban designer at SWA in Southern California, having over 10 years of professional experience. His current work focuses on large-scale urban design projects that explore the confluence of ecology and urbanism. Andrew has been Project Manager for three community plans on the west coast totaling over 1400 acres and 5000 dwelling units as well as new city designs internationally. He is involved in local and national projects having worked in the United States, China, Indonesia, India, South Africa, Botswana, Ethiopia, Germany, Italy, and Mexico. Andrew has researched contemporary urban conditions related to infrastructure and grassroots organization in both developed and developing nations. Past research projects have included ‘Social Entrepreneurship: Expanded Business Models for the Developing World’; ‘Ecologies of Gold’ in Johannesburg, South Africa; ‘Villages in Development’ in the rapidly developing Pearl River Delta in China; ‘Opportunities of Contemporary Urban Transformations’ in of Eastern Germany; and ‘Tall Buildings in the City,’ a research fellowship with Moshe Safdie that explored the potentials of connecting tall buildings. Andrew’s research has been published in Places, 306090 and Architecture Plus. Andrew currently resides in Laguna Beach, CA and attends Church by the Sea.