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Alumni Monthly News
June, 2020
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Dear Iliff alumni/ae,
I am grateful for my time with Iliff over the last two years spent building meaningful relationships with our community of board members, alumni, students, and donors to elevate the culture of philanthropy. I am thrilled to step into this leadership role as Vice President of Institutional Advancement to continue deepening the engagement of our alumni/ae community.
Since its founding, Iliff has remained committed to academic excellence and social justice, and again is heading into a pivotal transformation period as we address the rapidly changing landscape of higher education and beyond. Iliff has long served as a leader in theological education, training students with courageous theological imaginations to serve communities in authentic ways. You are the activists, leaders, connectors, and caretakers that are doing this work on a daily basis.
I have seen firsthand in the recent months, the collective impact of our community when our worlds have been stretched to new boundaries. The generosity of gifts our alumni/ae invested to establish the Student Emergency Fund is inspiring. We have established the fund with over $40,000 ready to support our students in their time of greatest need.
I invite you to connect with us through the summer and fall as we continue to offer leadership development offerings through ReSource. We have also built a Toolbox for Leading in a time of Pandemic that includes countless links to faculty, alumni/ae, and community leader presentations and resources to support your work through technology, organizational care, and more. Iliff is a long-standing leader in building meaningful connections and community through virtual and hybrid learning opportunities, and I hope for the opportunity to listen and learn from you in the coming weeks as we venture into building these bridges to hybrid connections for our alumni/ae community.
Thank you for engaging in this lifelong journey with Iliff. I look forward to continuing our efforts together as we elevate the core essence of Iliff in our changing expectations of today’s society and advancing Iliff’s mission rooted in social justice, inclusiveness, and equity.
Sincerely,
Kelsey Cochrane
Vice President of Institutional Advancement
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Commencement 2020 Video Available Online for Viewing! |
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We warmly welcome all members of the Class of 2020 into the Iliff alumni community.
With the global pandemic making it impossible to gather, Iliff held its first-ever virtual commencement ceremony on June 4, which was attended by more than 425 students, families, and friends. The celebration may have been virtual, but the milestone was real—and no less tremendous despite the fact that we could not gather in person.
The commencement address was a public conversation between two lifelong friends, Mayor Wellington Webb and Rev. Dr. Gerald Durley. They spoke to the class of 2020 from their leadership and social justice experience. Mr. Webb spent 12 years as the mayor of Denver from 1991 to 2003 and is a significant influencer in Colorado and the national Democratic Party. Rev. Dr. Gerald Durley is a member of the Iliff President's Advisory Council and attended high school in Denver with Mayor Webb. Rev. Dr. Durley is a national leader in the environmental justice movement.
This year's commencement ceremony is sure to inspire your spirit. You are invited to view the commencement ceremony video recording, as well as the commencement day print program, at iliff.edu/commencement2020.
Congratulations to all of the graduates!
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James Norris Porter (ThM '58), social worker and social work instructor, died October 6, 2019.
Jim served as a Minister of Education at a few churches in Michigan following graduation from Iliff. By the late 1960s, his passion turned to social work.
He served as a social worker in Michigan at the Oakland Schools Psychological Services and Speech and Hearing Clinic from 1970 to 2001. Jim also taught social work undergraduate and graduate students at Wayne State University throughout his career.
As a member of Beacon Unitarian Universalist Congregation he served on the board of directors, sang in the church choirs, conducted Adult Bible Study Classes, and delivered an occasional sermon.
An online obituary may be found here.
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Rev. Dr. John Gingerich (ThM '46, ThD '59), United Methodist minister and social justice activist, died June 5, 2020.
During their 70 years together, John and his wife Roberta noticed problems and took action. Early in his career, John sought to bridge cultural divides when he organized the first integrated service mission for Caucasian, African-American and Cherokee students as director of the Wesley Foundation at Oklahoma State University. In Columbus, OH, John helped to strengthen families by initiating a Sunday family worship service and pioneering an intergenerational family camp while minister of education at North Broadway United Methodist Church.
While directing the Council on Ministries of the United Methodist Church Kansas East Conference, he organized a program to feed the hungry, a project that later became instrumental in establishing a Heifer International program in Pueblo, Mexico. As a founder and president of the Lawrence, KS chapter of Habitat for Humanity, John helped to provide more opportunity for home ownership to struggling families.
An online obituary may be found here.
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Ruth Fisher Hall, wife of the late Rev. Dr. T. William "Bill" Hall (ThM '46), passed away February 29 in Davis, CA.
Ruth centered her life around humanism, working to promote compassion in her family and in the world beyond. Whether it be as an activist in the civil rights movement, her development of a sex education program at Syracuse University, her participation in progressive religious communities, or her diligent curation of her family’s archives, she always brought an admirable energy.
She met Bill Hall (d. 2016) when they were children, but it wasn’t until they were at Kansas Wesleyan University that their relationship developed. But, by then it was clear, their mutually curious and compassionate worldview, along with a shared vision of the future, would bloom naturally into a love that would last the rest of their lives.
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Rev. James B. Persons (MDiv '73), a United Methodist pastor, passed away on May 31, 2020.
He served First United Methodist Churches of Huron, SD; Conde and Andover, SD; Rapid City—Knollwood Heights United Methodist Church; Clark and Garden City, SD; Madison, SD and Grand Forks Wesley.
Persons also served as the Western District Superintendent in Bismarck, ND and Rapid City, SD. He retired from Mitchell in 2012. His retirement was spent in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
An online obituary may be found here.
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The very best way to submit news items is through the online form, which automatically gets it into our tracking system.
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Dr. Kelly Arora (PhD '11), spiritual director and John Wesley Iliff Senior Adjunct Lecturer in Spiritual Care at the Iliff School of Theology, recently published a book, Spirituality and Meaning Making in Chronic Illness: How Spiritual Caregivers Can Help People Navigate Long-term Health Conditions.
Dr. Arora explores chronic illness through two stories in the book—her own journey living with rheumatoid arthritis and Dorothy's journey in The Wizard of Oz.
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Dorothy is a person living with chronic illness, a person who lives between the worlds of wellness (Kansas) and illness (Oz). The Wicked Witch of the West is Dorothy's illness personified. Glinda represents Dorothy's spiritual orienting system. Dorothy's family, Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion have much to teach us about spiritual struggles and spiritual coping. The Wizard and his alter ego, Professor Marvel, illustrate healing relationships. Each chapter includes guidelines and exercises to help the reader facilitate healing for themself or with other people who live with long-term health conditions.
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Rev. Daniel Klawitter (MDiv '02), ordained minister in the United Methodist Church, recipient of the Ronald E. Sleeth preaching award, and Iliff Admissions Representative, has published a book of poetry, The Misuse of Scripture.
Poet Daniel Klawitter turns his well-trained eye toward Holy Scripture in this entertaining and thought-provoking poetry chapbook riffing off of Bible verses.
Rich in both pathos and humor, these non-dogmatic poems wrestle with issues of aging, homophobia, marriage, environmental destruction, and the naked disciple in the Gospel of Mark (among many other topics).
Klawitter has been described by author David J. Rothman as "a sly poet capable of great sweetness and formal grace," and those traits are on full display in this delightful collection that blurs the categories between the sacred and the secular.
Learn more about the book and Klawitter's other works.
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Student Spotlight - Rahdearra Paris Woods |
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Rahdearra Paris Woods came to Iliff on hope and faith. "I did not know what an Iliff education was about, that it existed, and never dreamt of living in Denver, Colorado. I grew up in the Pentecostal church and was a part of the African Methodist Episcopal denomination."
Her vision is be an ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church and run a residential non-profit focused on working with youth of color. To best attain this goal, she is pursuing a joint Master of Divinity degree from Iliff and a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Denver.
Iliff and the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver allows qualified students to pursue concurrently the Master of Divinity, the Master of Theological Studies, or the Master of Pastoral and Spiritual Care with the Master of Social Work degree. The cooperative degree program offers students the opportunity to apply theological learning to social service settings. Each school allows students to transfer credits from one degree program into the other, which allows students to complete both degrees in a shorter amount of time.
Paris Woods shares, "My education at Iliff has been very enlightening. Iliff has a curriculum that prepares you holistically for ministry and other vocations. Having professors of color also brought other perspectives to the classes. I have had some great professors whom I have developed great relationships with, learned a lot from, and admired. Several of them served as my mentors. Overall, the experience at Iliff has been amazing!"
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Pandemic Resources for Leaders |
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Iliff has launched a page containing curated pandemic resources for those serving in leadership, whether in a church or a non-profit. The page also offers information about student loans from our consultant Heather Jarvis. Visit the Pandemic Toolbox at resource.iliff.edu, or click below.
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Iliff's Professional Information Network (PIFN)
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Iliff hosts an online list of available positions for the community, where you can see what is available and submit positions you are trying to fill. You can sign up to submit positions directly, too!
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