Search For Meaning 2010: Author Bios

Keynote Speaker: Kathleen Norris
Presentation Title: "The Search For Meaning: A Spirituality for the Real World"

Kathleen Norris is the award-winning poet, writer, and author of The New York Times bestsellers The Cloister Walk, Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith, and The Virgin of Bennington.  Exploring the spiritual life, her work is at once intimate and historical, rich in poetry and meditations, brimming with exasperation and reverence, deeply grounded in both nature and spirit, sometimes funny, and often provocative.
 
Kathleen Norris has published seven books of poetry.  Her first book of poems was entitled Falling Off and was the 1971 winner of the Big Table Younger Poets Award. Soon after, she settled down in her grandparents’ home in Lemmon, South Dakota, where she lived with her husband, the poet David Dwyer, for over twenty-five years. The move was the inspiration for the first of her nonfiction books, the award-winning bestseller Dakota: A Spiritual Geography.  It was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and was selected as one of the best books of the year by Library Journal. With Dakota, she creates in the reader an almost hypnotic awareness of being present in her day-to-day life.
 
In Lemmon, she joined the Presbyterian Church, where her grandmother had been a member for 60 years. When the church was between full-time pastors, members called on her to fill-in, commenting, “You're a writer, you can preach.”  In 1986 she became an oblate, or associate, of a Benedictine monastery, Assumption Abbey in North Dakota.  Subsequently, she spent two years in residence at the Ecumenical Institute at St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota.  Her next book, The Cloister Walk, is structured as a diary of her monastic experience interspersed with meditations on virgin saints, Emily Dickinson, celibacy, loneliness, monogamy, and a hymnist of the early church, Ephrem of Syria. Some reviewers have compared her portrait of the world of the monastics to the writings of Thomas Merton.  Her book Amazing Grace continues her theme that the spiritual world is rooted in the chaos of daily life. In this book, she sheds light on the very difficult theological concepts such as grace, repentance, dogma, and faith. Her intention is to tell stories about these religious concepts by grounding them in the world in which we live.

Her book, The Virgin of Bennington, is a continuous narrative in which she shares the period of her life before Dakota.  From the sheltered youth, to her entrée into the New York art world, she describes the internal and external journey of an artistic young woman trying to find a place for herself amid the cultural tumult of the 1960s and 70s.  Other books include Journey: New and Selected Poems, and Little Girls in Church. Kathleen Norris is the recipient of grants from the Bush and Guggenheim Foundations.  Her new book, entitled Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life, was published in September 2008.  It is a study of acedia, the ancient word for the spiritual side of sloth. She examines the topic in the light of theology, psychology, monastic spirituality, and her own experience.  Widowed in 2003, Kathleen Norris now resides in Hawaii, where she volunteers at her mother’s retirement home and her local Episcopal Church.  She travels to the mainland regularly to speak to students, medical professionals, social workers, and chaplains at colleges and universities, as well as churches and teaching hospitals.

Keynote Speaker: Gustav Niebuhr
Presentation Title: “Why Be "Tolerant" in an Age of Terror?”

Gustav Niebuhr is associate professor of religion and the media at Syracuse University. He is based in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications; he also holds an appointment in the university’s Religion Department, in the College of Arts and Sciences. He teaches courses in news reporting and also in religion in the United States.

At SU, Niebuhr is also director of the Religion & Society Program, an undergraduate major and minor, and founding director of the Carnegie Religion and Media Program, an undergraduate minor focusing on courses in religion relevant to understanding contemporary events.

Prior to coming to Syracuse in 2004, he spent two years as a visiting fellow and scholar-in-residence at Princeton University’s Center for the Study of Religion. From 1980 to 2001, he worked as a newspaper reporter, most recently at The New York Times and, earlier, at The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. Viking Press published his book, Beyond Tolerance: Searching for Interfaith Understanding in America, in 2008. He is a regular contributor to the “On Faith” blog at www.washingtonpost.com and www.newsweek.com.

He is married to Margaret L. Usdansky, an assistant professor of sociology at Syracuse. They have two sons.

Nassim Assefi, MD
Presentation Title: "An Agnostic's Search for Spiritual Intelligence"

Nassim Assefi, MD (www.nassimassefi.com), a 2nd generation Iranian-American, is an internist specializing in women’s health and global medicine. For the last decade, she has been an academic in Seattle, a humanitarian aid worker and underground salsa dance teacher in Kabul, an aspiring musician in Havana, and a novelist in Istanbul. In 2009, she was selected as a TEDGlobal Fellow. She has traveled to more than 45 countries, and is based in Seattle when she is not abroad. She is a graduate of Wellesley College, University of Washington Medical School, and Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s residency program. She is the author of numerous scientific publications; Aria is her first novel. She is currently writing a second novel set in post-conflict Afghanistan entitled Say I Am You, producing a documentary film about Afghan midwives, serving as a volunteer doctor, and living a meaningful life as a thrillionaire.

Photograph Copyright Niku Kashef

Betsey Beckman (with Christine Valters Paintner, Ph.D.)
Presentation Title: "Awakening the Creative Spirit – Bringing the Arts to Ministry"

Betsey Beckman is nationally acclaimed as spirited dancer, storyteller, teacher of SpiritPlay, and dancing spiritual director. Her background includes a Masters in Ministry from Seattle University, a certificate in Movement Therapy from the Institute for Transformational Movement, and a fourteen-year practice of InterPlay. Betsey's artistry blends strong dance technique, riveting storytelling, and a transparently prayerful spirit. Performing her biblical storydances at local churches as well as conferences nationwide, she also directs the dance ministry at her local parish, St. Patrick’s.

Betsey is co-author with Christine Paintner of Awakening the Creative Spirit: Bringing the Arts to Spiritual Direction. Together the two lead numerous arts-based programs for spiritual directors as well as retreatants. Betsey's other publications include books, meditations and videos, including the 2010 DVD release, The Dancing Word: Mary Magdalene. Through the gift of embodiment, Betsey proclaims her theology with grace, passion and an ongoing invitation to aliveness.

Sheila Bender, Ph.D.
Presentation Title: "Writing Grief: How Creating Prose and Poetry Heals"

After earning an MAT in education and an MA in Creative Writing, Sheila Bender, Ph.D., has taught writing at colleges and universities (including Seattle University where she was writer in residence for two years in the 1990’s), public school classrooms, writer's workshops (including Centrum’s Writer’s Workshop in Port Townsend and the Writing It Real Writers’ Conference there), teacher training events, and private seminars across the country. Her poetry appears in US and Canadian literary magazines and anthologies. She has written nine books on writing and is at work on her tenth for McGraw-Hill’s education department. Her memoir, A New Theology: Turning to Poetry in a Time of Grief, is out from Imago Press. Poet Peggy Shumaker writes of the book: “With great generosity, Sheila Bender's writing shows how poetry can create moments when we can breathe, places where we can rest. Beyond that, fully aware of harsh losses, her work celebrates life, celebrates love.” Memoirist Abigail Thomas writes, “With this beautiful book Sheila Bender offers a way through unimaginable loss. I love this book. Sheila Bender broke my heart and put it back together again.”

In addition to her books and poetry, Sheila Bender has published articles on writing for The Writer magazine, The Associated Writing Program’s Writer’s Chronicle and Writer’s Digest magazine, among other instructional venues. Her own online magazine for those who write from personal experience, WritingItReal.com, offers weekly in-depth instructional articles. She teaches writing workshops online for her site, writers.com and llifejournal.com

Mary Rose Bumpus, RSM, Ph.D
Presentation Title: “Awakening to Mystery: Supervising Spiritual Directors”

Mary Rose Bumpus is a Sister of Mercy and educator in the field of Christian Spirituality. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Spirituality at Seattle University’s School of Theology and Ministry. She has been a spiritual director for thirty years and a supervisor of spiritual directors for fifteen years. Mary Rose teaches and writes in the areas of biblical spirituality, spiritual direction, and psycho-spiritual development. She holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union in Christian Spirituality, an M.A. in New Testament Studies, and an M.Ed. in Developmental Counseling Psychology. Mary Rose is an author in and co-editor of Supervision of Spiritual Directors: Engaging in Holy Mystery, and she has written a number of articles in the area of spirituality.

Scott Cairns, Ph.D.
Presentation Title: "The End of Suffering: Finding Purpose in Pain"

Scott Cairns, Ph.D., a Puget Sound native who is very glad to be home for a visit—is Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at University of Missouri. His poems and essays have appeared in Poetry, Image, Paris Review, The Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic, etc., and both have been anthologized in Best American Spiritual Writing. His most recent of six poetry collections is Compass of Affection: Poems New & Selected. Other books include his spiritual memoir, Short Trip to the Edge and Love’s Immensity (translations and adaptations). His book-length essay, The End of Suffering: Finding Purpose in Pain, has just been published by Paraclete Press. Christianity Today magazine has just selected Cairn’s book for an Award of Merit from among 472 submissions. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2006, and was recently named the Catherine Paine Middlebush Chair in English.

Robert Clark (with Gregory Wolfe and Mary Kenagy Mitchell)
Presentation Title: "Bearing the Mystery: Readings from Twenty Years of IMAGE Journal"

Robert Clark is the author of eight books, the novels In the Deep Midwinter, Mr. White's Confession, Love Among the Ruins, and The Lives of the Artists as well as the non-fiction works The Solace of Food, River of the West, My Grandfather's House, and, most recently, Dark Water: Flood and Redemption in the City of Masterpieces. He is a winner of the Edgar for Best Novel, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, the Washington State Book Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship in Creative Non-Fiction as well as being a finalist in the Los Angeles Times Book Awards and the IMPAC Dublin Award. His essays and reviews have appeared in The Antioch Review, Conjunctions, The Washington Post, and Image. He lives in Seattle.

Dr. Thomas Curran
Presentation Title: "The Mass: Four Encounters With Jesus That Will Change Your Life"

Dr. Tom Curran is Executive Director of MyCatholicFaith.org, a ministry dedicated to helping Catholics live their faith more deeply.

Tom is in high demand as a speaker across North America. In the past twenty years, he has given over 1700 presentations to more than 350,000 people in 35 states and 6 countries.

His weekday radio program, Sound Insight, is the most listened to program on Sacred Heart Radio, 1050 AM. He can be heard from 8-9 a.m. or watched via a live videocast on MyCatholicFaith.org.

Tom is the author of, The Mass: Four Encounters With Jesus That Will Change Your Life, which was listed on Top 10 Catholic Bestseller List within 4 months of its publication. This book, and CDs and DVDs of Tom’s other popular presentations are available tonight at the Resource Table.

Tom is currently focused on deploying live, high-quality, interactive programs through the internet. His most recent project is RosaryLive.com which is an online, interactive prayer chapel where you can submit your prayer intentions 24 hours a day and have them prayed for live. Please visit the site and submit your special pray requests at RosaryLive.com.

Tom has a graduate degree in theology from the Gregorian University in Rome, and a Ph.D. in systematic theology from Catholic University in Washington, D.C.

Tom lives in Federal Way, Washington with his wife Kari, and their seven children.

Christina Dudley
Presentation Title: "Not So Neat and Tidy: Fiction, Faith, and F-Bombs"

Christina Dudley is the author of MOURNING BECOMES CASSANDRA (BellaVita Press), a contemporary novel set in Bellevue, Washington, which was the July Book of the Month for Seattle’s LoveWebRadio.com. Inspired by high school students she met at Bellevue’s Eastside Academy, Christina writes about a wry young widow who puts her life back together when she moves in with single friends from church and reluctantly agrees to mentor an at-risk teenager. It’s fictional, it’s faith-full, and there are more than a couple f-bombs.

In addition to writing adult and children’s fiction, Christina blogs as the UrbanFarmJunkie for the Bellevue Farmers Market, and has spoken, taught, and even acted(!) for all age groups at First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue, Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, and Open Door Church Mountain View. She has also taught expository writing at Stanford University and Foothill College.

Christina dropped out of Stanford University’s PhD Program in English Literature after a couple years, but, happily for her, did manage to scrape an M.R.S. along with her M.A. Husband Scott is the Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue. He and Christina have been married fifteen years and have three children.

For further gory details, see www.christinadudley.com.

Kathleen Schmitt Elias (with Ann Holmes Redding)
Presentation Title: “Separated at birth, reunited at last: Abraham’s family struggling toward one another”

Kathleen Schmitt Elias is a lifelong seeker who has found her true faith home in Judaism. Born into a Roman Catholic family, she was educated for fifteen years in Catholic schools, including Seattle University and Marylhurst College (the latter as a novice in the Holy Names order). Even as a young adult Kate was drawn to Judaism, but thinking it was a “closed” religion that did not accept converts, she explored other possibilities for spiritual growth and fulfillment. Her journey took her for many years into the Episcopal Church and then, through a series of personal events, into the Sufi branch of Islam. This is how she met Jamal Rahman, her co-author along with Ann Holmes Redding, and this is also how she finally found her entrée into Judaism: when she confessed that she thought she had a “Jewish soul,” Jamal introduced her to Bet Alef Meditative Synagogue, “an inclusive and welcoming Jewish community embracing a Universal Spirit.” At her first encounter with that amazing community, Kate knew she was home.

With her long years of exploring the three Abrahamic traditions, combined with her skills as a professional writer and editor, Kate was a natural choice when Jamal Rahman was looking for someone to help write a book about spiritual guidance in the Quran and parallel themes in the Abrahamic literature. The result of their collaboration, along with Dr. Ann Holmes Redding, is Out of Darkness into Light: Spiritual Guidance in the Quran with Reflections from Jewish and Christian Sources, published by Morehouse Press in 2009.

Phyllis Emmert (with Jacquie Ream)
Presentation Title: "Bully for You! A Conversation about Faith with the author, Jacquie Ream, and artist, Phyllis Emmert, of Bully Dogs"

Phyllis Emmert, native Washingtonian, is a Northwest Fine Artist. She has had one woman and group shows at the Woodside Braseth Gallery in Seattle and shows in Washington and Oregon. She lives and paints in Montesano, Washington.

Fran Ferder, FSPA, Ph.d. | Rev. John Heagle, JCL
Presentation Title: "The Secret of Life is Not a Secret!"

Fran Ferder and John Heagle, both adjunct faculty at Seattle University School of Theology and Ministry, have completed 25 years of teaching graduate courses in ministry at Seattle U. Fran is a clinical psychologist licensed in Washington and Oregon. John is a licensed mental health therapist and canon lawyer. They maintain a busy schedule of psychotherapy, national and international speaking, and writing. John is currently completing a manuscript for Orbis Press entitled “Justice Rising: A New Vision of Biblical Peace Making”. Fran is also writing a new book tentatively titled “Enter the Feast: Biblical Stories as Metaphors for Human Life”, also to be published by Orbis Press. Both books are due out in the fall of 2010. In November-December 2009, Fran and John visited India and Bangladesh, working with those who operate literacy programs and serve women rescued from sex trafficking.

Anne Finger
Presentation Title: "Call Me Ahab: The Meanings of Disability"

Anne Finger is a writer of fiction--both short stories and a novel--as well as a writer of creative non-fiction.

Her short story collection, Call Me Ahab, was recently named the winner of the Prairie Schooner Award and will be published in the Fall of 2009 by the University of Nebraska Press. She has published four other books--Elegy for a Disease: A Personal and Cultural History of Polio (St. Martin’s Press), a collection of short stories Basic Skills (University of Missouri Press); Past Due: A Story of Disability, Pregnancy and Birth (Seal Press) and a novel, Bone Truth (Coffee House Press). Her work has also been published in Germany by Fischer Verlag and in the U.K. by The Women’s Press. Her short fiction has appeared in The Southern Review, Kenyon Review, Discourse, and Ploughshares, among other journals.

She has taught creative writing at the university level at Wayne State University in Detroit and at the University of Texas at Austin, as well as teaching workshops in the community--as writer- in-residence at the Woman’s Building in L.A., at the San Francisco Independent Living Resource Center and in elementary, middle, and high schools. She has also been awarded residencies at Yaddo, Djerassi, Centrum and Hedgebrook. She lives in Oakland, California.

Ted Fortier, Ph.D. (with Jeanette Rodriguez, Ph.D.)
Presentation Title: "Cultural Memory: Resistance, Faith, and Identity"

Ted Fortier, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Seattle University, where he has taught since 1996. Originally educated as an archaeologist, Ted also has degrees in philosophy and theology. His experience living among the Yupik and Athabaskan people of Alaska led him to study Cultural Anthropology at Washington State University. He has worked both as an anthropologist and as a pastor for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe of Idaho.

Ted’s work has centered on indigenous religions, shamanism, culture change, and resistance to Westernization. He has worked closely with tribal groups in the Northwest and the Southwest of the United States, in Canada, Alaska, and in Mexico and Central America. He is currently developing projects that deal with cultural knowledge preservation among the Coast Salish in Washington.

Ted is the author of Cultural Memory: Religion, Resistance and Identity. (University of Texas Press, 2007), and Religion and Resistance in the Encounter between Coeur d’Alene Indians and Jesuit Missionaries on the Columbia Plateau (Mellon Press, 2002).

Rev. Dr. Marie M. Fortune
Presentation Title: “Love Does No Harm: Ethics and Intimate Relationships”

Rev. Dr. Marie M. Fortune is a pastor, author, educator and practicing ethicist and theologian; ordained in 1976 in the United Church of Christ. She was the Editor of JORA, The Journal of Religion and Abuse (2000-2008) and has served on the National Advisory Council on Violence Against Women for the U.S. Department of Justice and the Defense Task Force on Domestic Violence for the U.S. Department of Defense. She is also the founder and Senior Analyst at FaithTrust Institute. 

Robert Fulghum
Presentation Title: "Instructions For Wayfarers The need for a Witness ... Having your say without adding to the glut. What I know now after 20 years in publishing and a lifetime of distribution."

Robert Fulghum, best known for his first book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, is the author of eight books of essays, two plays, a novel and an ongoing website journal. He is also a Unitarian Universalist minister. Detailed information about him and his writing can be found at www.robertfulghum.com.

Leticia Guardiola-Sáenz, Ph.D.
This presentation will be conducted in Spanish. Para más información, haga clic aquí.
Presentation Title: “En busca de la verdadera María Magdalena" / "In Search of the Real Mary Magdalene”

Leticia Guardiola-Sáenz, Ph.D., teaches Christian Scriptures at Seattle University at the School of Theology and Ministry and the Theology and Religious Studies department. Her most recent works are Juan/John, a Biblical Commentary for the series Conozca su Biblia/Know your Bible, from Fortress Press, (forthcoming in June 2010), and The Peoples’ Companion to the Bible, a resource for studying the Bible featuring multicultural perspectives and culture-critical methods, for which she served as editor for the New Testament material (forthcoming in February 2010). She holds a Ph.D. in New Testament from Vanderbilt University.

Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, Ph.D.
This presentation will be conducted in Spanish.  Para más información, haga clic aquí.
Presentation Title: "La Trascendencia de la Espiritualidad en la Cultura Popular en la Literatura Latin@" / "The Trascendence of Popular Culture Spirituality in Latin@ Literature"

A native of Texas and California, Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Modern Languages and Women Studies at Seattle University, and currently serves as the Diversity, Citizenship, and Social Justice Core Track (DCSJ) Director and the Director of the Latin American Studies Program. Gutiérrez y Muhs’ research interests lie principally in the areas of Chican@/Latin@ and Latin American literatures, theorizing Chican@/Latin@/Mexican@ subjectivity, Chican@/Latin@ spirituality, cultural studies, and feminist theory. Currently, she is working on a book exploring the diverse experiences and expressions of spirituality in the works of Latina authors.

Gutiérrez y Muhs’ publications include several essays, encyclopedia entries, opinion pieces and other cultural work on Chicana subjectivity, spirituality, popular culture, transnationalism, feminist theory, and cross-cultural issues. She is the author of the poetry collection A Most Improbable Life (Finishing Line Press), a forthcoming novel Fresh as a Lettuce: Malgré Tout, and a collection of interviews and theorization of cultural exile Communal Feminisms: Chicanas, Chilenas and Cultural Exile (Lexington Books, 2007). Her forthcoming co-edited books include Rebozos de Palabras: An Helena María Viramontes Reader, and Presumed Incompetent. For the past fifteen years, she has been actively delivering poetry readings, motivational talks and keynote speeches nationally and internationally. She is also working on her own collections of poetry The Runaway Poems and Corner People.

Lesley Hazleton
Presentation Title: "After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split"

British-born Lesley Hazleton is a psychologist and journalist whose work focuses on the way religion and politics, past and present, are inextricably intertwined in the Middle East. The author of several books on Middle East politics, religion, and history, she has also written for The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Nation, The New Republic, and many other publications. In 1992, she moved to Seattle, where she lives in a Lake Union houseboat.

Her most recent books are After the Prophet (2009), the award-winning Mary: A Flesh-and-Blood Biography (2004) and Jezebel: The Untold Story (2007).

Ingrid Hess, M.F.A.
Presentation Title: "Creating Children's Books: My quest to make books that matter"

My name is Ingrid Hess, M.F.A., and I write, design, and illustrate children's books. I have my MFA in graphic design with an emphasis in the book arts and have worked in the publishing industry for twelve years. I now teach at the University of Notre Dame. My dual passions of design and illustration work well together and help me tell stories through pictures.

My work has been heavily influenced by my past. The theme of simplicity comes from my Amish/Mennonite roots and the bright colors and patterns I use are inspired by art from Costa Rica (my childhood home for several years). Now as an adult I continue to nourish these influences in my work.

It is important to me that my work empowers children to understand they can make a difference. It is also critical to me that all types of children are represented. Historically children's books have not done a good job of depicting diversity. This problem is slowly beginning to change. I want to be part of this change.

Rev. Maria "Dancing Heart" Hoaglund
Presentation Title: "Joyful Transitions: Bringing Relaxation and Wholeness into Life's Changes"

Rev. Maria "Dancing Heart" Hoaglund is a U.C.C. minister, author, and transformational healer. Her book, The Last Adventure of Life, is an inspirational resource book, a unique work that brings together material from many faith traditions and all walks of life. It is assisting people who desire to face the end-of-life with courage and hope. Dancing Heart shares from her rich experience with hospice that has opened up her own spiritual life. Anyone facing death, grief, or a transition of some kind would find her book and resources helpful.

One of Dancing Heart's passions is the body-mind-spirit healing modalities. She has developed a line of gift baskets called "Soul Baskets" incorporating tools for healing and relaxation from the last chapter of her book. Maria considers herself a bridge builder who encourages more joy and awareness around living and dying. Her book will help you bring death back to life! She also writes for Examiner.com as their Transitions & Grief Examiner. See her websites for more: www.changewithcourage.com, www.soulbaskets.com, and www.examiner.com/x-2858-Seattle-Death--Grief-Examiner.

Katherine C. (Kedda) Keough, M.Div 
Presentation Title: “Creation waits with patient hope”

Katherine C. Keough, M.Div, has conducted many workshops, retreats and classes in her years as a pastoral minister; facilitated small groups, organized councils and communities; prepared liturgies and “missions,” and preached at liturgies. She is a continual learner, and enjoys sharing what she learns with others. She received her Master of Divinity degree, and Certificate of Pastoral Leadership from The School of Theology and Ministry at Seattle University, Seattle WA. Katherine, known to her friends as “Kedda,” lives in Western WA with her husband of many years, and presently serves as a pastoral leader in a faith community in the South Sound region. 

Kathleen MacInnis Kichline, M.Div
Presentation Title: "Empowering Women to Find Their Story and Voice in Scripture"

A graduate of Seattle University's School of Theology and Ministry and of the Pastoral Leadership Program, Kathleen has served as Pastoral Associate at St. Thomas Parish in Lynnwood for over 20 years. She is also the eldest of seven sisters, a mother and grandmother. Those relationships as well as her pastoral experience and theological formation come together with the conviction that God's Word is alive and life-changing. Her book, Sisters in Scripture, draws from all of that and empowers women to find their own stories, to discover where God speaks to them and to find their own voice.

Kirby Larson, Writer for Children and Young Adults
Presentation Title: "The Lord Works in Mysterious Ways: Exploring Faith in Fiction"

Inspired by a snippet of family history, Kirby Larson published her first novel, Hattie Big Sky, in 2006. The main character, a 16-year-old orphan named Hattie Inez Brooks, goes by herself to eastern Montana in 1918 to finish proving up on her uncle's homestead claim. In addition to being fool-hardy and stubborn, Hattie is a young woman of faith. In this session, Kirby will talk about how she worked to portray that faith in a way that was organic to Hattie's story and true to the historical time.

In addition to Hattie Big Sky, which has won numerous awards, including the 2007 Newbery Honor and Montana Book Award, Kirby has co-written two narrative non-fiction books with her dear friend, Mary Nethery: Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship and Survival (winner of the 2008 ASPCA Award and the Southern Independent Booksellers Award) and the recently released New York Times bestseller, Nubs: The True Story of a Mutt, a Marine and a Miracle. Kirby has a second historical novel due out from Scholastic in Fall 2010, and a third from Delacorte in Spring 2011.

Rabbi Anson Laytner
Presentation Title: "Arguing with God--and beyond"

Rabbi Anson Laytner is president of the Sino-Judaic Institute and interim rabbi at Congregation Kol HaNeshamah in Seattle, Washington. Previously he served as the executive director of the Seattle Chapter of the American Jewish Committee and of Multifaith Works, a Seattle non-profit agency serving people with AIDS or other life-threatening illnesses. He also directed the Jewish Federation’s Community Relations Council.

Laytner is the author of the cult classic “Arguing with God” (Jason Aronson, 1998), co-author of “The Animals’ Lawsuit Against Humanity” (Fons Vitae, 2005) and over sixty articles on subjects ranging from Jewish theology to the Arab-Israel conflict to the Chinese Jews. His work-in-progress is a study of god-concepts and the meaning of suffering entitled “Letting Go of God”.

Laytner has a BA, summa cum laude from York University in Toronto, a Masters of Hebrew Letters (MHL) and rabbinic ordination from Hebrew Union College, a Masters in Not-for-Profit Leadership (MNPL) from Seattle University, and an honorary Doctorate in Divinity from Hebrew Union College.

Rabbi Laytner is married to Merrily McManus Laytner, a retired development consultant. Between them, they share three daughters, two sons-in-law, and four grandkids.

Richard Maffeo
Presentation Title: "Restless in Seattle"

Richard Maffeo is a retired Naval Commander (U.S. Navy Nurse Corps). He now serves his community as a classroom and clinical nursing instructor at Tacoma Community College. Maffeo is the author of two books – We Believe: Forty Meditations on the Nicene Creed and Lessons Along the Journey (Xulon Press). He also writes two online blogs and serves on the faculty of the Seattle Archdiocese’s Catechetical Certification Program.

Maffeo was raised in a Jewish home. When he was twenty-two he discovered Jesus is the Jewish Messiah and went on to serve Christ in evangelical Protestant churches for more than thirty-two years. During that time Maffeo earned his baccalaureate and master’s degrees from Assemblies of God schools. In 2005 he was received into the Catholic Church. He and his wife Nancy are married thirty-five years and have three grown children. 

Donald E. Mayer, D.Min
Presentation Title: “So How Does the Comfort Come?”

A minister of the United Church of Christ, Don Mayer served congregations in the mid-west, adjunct faculty for his alma mater Eden Seminary, and as president of the St. Louis Board of Education. After he and his wife, Lynnea, followed their children to the Northwest, Don served Eagle Harbor Church, Bainbridge Island, and two interims for Plymouth Church, Seattle. Don is one of the founders of STM, and taught UCC History and Polity.

The Mayers enjoy hiking, kayaking, theatre, singing with the Plymouth Choir, times with their five grandchildren, and celebrating their 53 year marriage.

Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, Ph.D.
Presentation Title: “Love as a Political–Ecological Vocation in the Context of Economic Globalization”

Dr. Cynthia Moe-Lobeda holds a Ph.D. in Christian Ethics from Union Theological Seminary (2001). She is author of Healing a Broken World: Globalization and God (Fortress, 2002), Public Church: For the Life of the World (Fortress, 2004), and numerous articles and chapters. She is co-author of Saint Francis and the Foolishness of God (Orbis, 1993), and Say to this Mountain: Mark's Story of Discipleship (Orbis, 1996). Her current book project focuses on moral agency in the context of systemic evil, and on the Holy Spirit as moral power for resistance to it.

Moe-Lobeda lectures and consults internationally and nationally in theology and ethics. She has served as the theological consultant to the national Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; as Director of the Washington, D.C. office of Augsburg College's Center for Global Education; and as a health worker/missionary in Honduras. Dr. Moe-Lobeda is on the faculty of Seattle University’s Department of Theology and Religious Studies, Environmental Studies Program, and graduate School of Theology and Ministry. Among her favorite things in life – in addition to her spouse and two wonderful sons – are hiking in the Cascade Mountains and time with friends. 
 

Nicholas O’Connell, M.F.A., Ph.D.
Presentation Title: "On Sacred Ground: Spirituality in Pacific Northwest Literature"

Nicholas O’Connell, M.F.A., Ph.D., is the author of On Sacred Ground: The Spirit of Place in Pacific Northwest Literature (U.W. Press, 2003), At the Field’s End: Interviews with 22 Pacific Northwest Writers (U.W. Press, 1998), Contemporary Ecofiction (Charles Scribner’s, 1996) and Beyond Risk: Conversations with Climbers (Mountaineers, 1993). He contributes to Newsweek, Gourmet, Saveur, Outside, GO, National Geographic Adventure, Condé Nast Traveler, Food & Wine, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sierra, The Wine Spectator, Commonweal, Image and many other places. He the publisher of www.thewritersworkshopreview.net and teaches writing classes for www.thewritersworkshop.net.

Christine Valters Paintner, Ph.D. (with Betsey Beckman)
Presentation Title: "Awakening the Creative Spirit – Bringing the Arts to Ministry"

Christine Valters Paintner, Ph.D., is an adjunct faculty at the School of Theology and Ministry, Seattle University. Her co-authored books include Awakening the Creative Spirit: Bringing the Arts to Spiritual Direction (Morehouse 2010) and Lectio Divina: Contemplative Awakening and Awareness (Paulist Press 2008). She has also written Water, Wind, Earth, and Fire: The Christian Practice of Praying with the Elements, available from Ave Maria Press in March 2010 and she creates full-color Reflective Art Journals with reflections and visual art, available at her website, www.AbbeyoftheArts.com.

Rosanne Parry
Presentation Title: "The Search for Meaningful Work: Guiding children in their choice of vocation"

Rosanne Parry has been an educator and storyteller for more than 20 years. Her first novel, Heart of a Shepherd is a children's coming-of-age stor set in rural Oregon. It addresses a favore theme of discovering your life's work. She has guided many students along the path of long and short term goal setting, is in the thick of guiding her own 4 children in their life choices and has made quite a journey in her own discernment of vocation. Her book, Heart of a Shepherd (Random House, 2009) has won several awards. In 2007 she won 1st place in fiction from the Oregon Writers Colony Short Story Contest. In 2003 she took 3rd place in Juvenile Fiction from the Willamette Writers Kay Snow Award, She was the recipient of a fellowship from Oregon Literary Arts in 2005.

Brenda Peterson
Presentation Title: "I Want to Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here on Earth"

Brenda Peterson is a novelist and nature writer, author of 15 books, including a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year,” Duck and Cover. Her memoir, Build Me an Ark: A Life with Animals, was chosen as a “Best Spiritual Book of 2001,” and was translated into Chinese. Her non-fiction books include Living by Water and the National Geographic book Sightings: The Gray Whale’s Mysterious Journey. Peterson’s most recent novel is Animal Heart (Sierra Club). Peterson’s work has appeared in many national publications, including The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Utne Reader, Orion and Oprah magazine. Since 1993 she has contributed environmental commentary for Seattle’s NPR stations. Peterson’s new book, I Want to Be Left Behind: Finding Rapture Here on Earth, a spiritual memoir, is forthcoming Feb. 1, 2010 from DaCapo Press (Boston). Her new children’s book, Pups on the Beach (Henry Holt), is due out in 2011. Peterson lives by the Salish Sea in Seattle, Washington and her website is: http://www.literati.net/Peterson 

Judy Pigott
Presentation Title: “What is the Meaning to be Found in Compassionate Actions? Personal Safety Nets®: Fostering Compassion and Finding Your Power”

Judy Pigott is noted in the Northwest for her experiences in teaching, facilitating and mediating, parenting, volunteering and advocating for communities. After receiving a Master’s degree in education from Columbia University, and an undergraduate degree in Psychology from Skidmore College, Ms. Pigott received a Post-Master’s degree in English as a Second Language from Seattle University. Additionally, she has participated in ongoing trainings for hospice work, facilitation and mediation methodology, team participation and race relations.

Ms. Pigott has a wealth of experiences with an extended, blended, and chosen family which provides strong background when she speaks with and leads local and regional organizations, helping them set up personal safety nets or create care-share teams. She has experience in a variety of classrooms and with a wide range of student and adult populations assisting them with finding and connecting resources and solutions to individual and group needs.

Ms. Pigott is the author of two books. She has served on non-profit boards as a trustee, committee chair, board chair and consultant. She has worked in classrooms, offices, and a hospital. Her travels have taken her to five continents. To her delight, she has been a parent, foster parent and an adoptive parent. She is committed to celebrating and supporting communities that nurture the physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual needs of its participants.

Currently, she resides in Seattle, Washington. 

Bill Porter / Red Pine
Presentation Title: "Taoism’s Dark Moon"

Bill Porter assumes the pen name Red Pine for his translations. He was born in Los Angeles in 1943, grew up in the Idaho Panhandle, served a tour of duty in the US Army (1964-67), graduated from the University of California with a degree in Anthropology in 1970, and attended graduate school at Columbia University. Uninspired by the prospect of an academic career, he dropped out of Columbia in 1972 and moved to a Buddhist monastery in Taiwan. After four years with the monks and nuns, he struck out on his own and eventually found work at English-language radio stations in Taiwan and Hong Kong, where he produced over a thousand programs about his travels in China. In 1993 he returned to America with his family and has lived ever since in Port Townsend, Washington. His most recent publications include a revised translation of Lao-tzu’s Taoteching and an account of a pilgrimage to Zen monasteries in China. He is currently working on a translation of the Lankavatara Sutra, which was the text used by Bodhidharma to transmit Zen in China.

Bart Preecs
Presentation Title: “Reform, Resistance, or Reconciliation: Confronting the Communications Revolution"

 Bart Preecs started writing about business, technology, policy, and religion as a newspaper reporter in the 1970s and 1980s. He moved to creating and analyzing web content in the 1990s and currently works for a Seattle-area technology marketing firm.

Bart has a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington and an interdisciplinary M.S. in Communications Systems from Eastern Washington University. His writing on current affairs has appeared in the op-ed pages of the Seattle Times, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Sojourners and Prism magazines. His book, If Every Voice is Sacred: A Truth and Reconciliation Path to Communication Justice, examines the convergence of new media and digital communications technologies and their impact on democratic discourse and popular culture.

Jacquie Ream (with Phyllis Emmert)
Presentation Title: "Bully for You! A Conversation about Faith with the author, Jacquie Ream, and artist, Phyllis Emmert, of Bully Dogs"

Jacquie Ream was born June 10, 1952 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and was raised in San Bernardino, California. She attended college on writing scholarships (Pitzer, Claremont and Cal-State SB) and completed her master’s degree in Creative Writing at the University of Washington.

She currently lives in Seattle with her husband. Her daughter retired from the Air Force and resides in Hawaii.

“I benefited greatly from professional writing groups, and I have taught creative writing for ages five through sixty-five years old. I have published a book on how to make writing easy, written two more adult novels, three children’s books and numerous short stories. I should like my epitaph to read: “She lived, she loved, she wrote.”

Ann Holmes Redding, Ph.D. (with Kathleen Schmitt Elias)  
Presentation Title: “Separated at birth, reunited at last: Abraham’s family struggling toward one another”

Ann Holmes Redding, Ph.D., has been a pastor and teacher for over 25 years and now identifies herself as both a Christian and a Muslim: “Being a Muslim,” she says, “makes me a better Christian.” The convergence of Islam and Christianity in Ann’s life resulted in her defrocking from the Episcopal priesthood in April 2009. It has also drawn attention from local, national, and international media, including the Seattle Times, KUOW Radio, CNN, and ABC World News. Most recently she was featured in a radio documentary on finding a spiritual home on the Canadian Broadcasting Company.

Ann has a Ph.D. in New Testament from Union Theological Seminary in New York. She is co-author of Out of Darkness into Light: Spiritual Guidance in the Quran with Reflections from Jewish and Christian Sources. She is founder and president of Abrahamic Reunion West, a non-profit dedicated to healing the dysfunction of the Abrahamic family of faith. Ann has conducted bible studies, retreats, and quiet days nationally and internationally. She is also a musician, specializing in jazz and classical music, and a bead jeweler, creating tangible, wearable art and prayer beads.

Jeanette Rodriguez, Ph.D. (with Ted Fortier, Ph.D.)
Presentation Title: "Cultural Memory: Resistance, Faith, and Identity"

Jeanette Rodriguez, Ph.D. is professor and chair in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Seattle University, and also serves as adjunct graduate faculty member in the School of Theology and Ministry. Rodriguez is the author of several books and articles concentrated in the areas of U.S. Hispanic theology; theologies of liberation (with an emphasis on Latin America and feminist); peacebuilding; justice education; and genocide studies. Her works include Our Lady of Guadalupe: Faith and Empowerment Among Mexican American Women; Stories We Live; co-author with Dr. Ted Fortier of Cultural Memory: Resistance, Faith and Identity; and co-editor with Dr. Maria Pilar Aquino and Dr. Daisy Machado of A Reader in Latina Feminist Theology.

She is a member of the Academy of Hispanic Theologians in the United States, has served as Vice Chair for Pax Christi USA, and is a clinical member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy. Rodriguez holds a Ph. D. in Religion and the Personality Sciences from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California.

Patrick J. Twohy, SJ
Presentation Title: "The Birth of Kindness"

Patrick J. Twohy, SJ., is a Jesuit priest who has lived and worked with Native American Peoples in the Pacific Northwest for the past thirty-eight years. He has published two books: Finding a Way Home: Indian and Catholic Spiritual Paths of the Plateau Tribes and Beginnings: A Meditation on Coast Salish Lifeways.

Larry N. Walls
Presentation Title: “What are the barriers to love? A conversation with the Author”

Larry is currently a student in the School of Theology and Ministry at Seattle University and author of the book I Love You, Really I Do (XulonPress 2009). He retired in 1993 as the Strategic Weapons officer onboard the USS Henry M. Jackson (SSBN 730)(Blue) after 25 years of naval service. He is also an Associate Chaplain, Harrison Medical Center, Bremerton, Washington, where he has served for fourteen years. And he is very proud of his 14 grandchildren.

Eugene Webb, Ph.D.
Presentation Title: "Theological Implications of the Psychology of Mimetic Desire."

Eugene Webb, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. Before his retirement he was Professor of Comparative Religion and Comparative Literature and Associate Director of the Jackson School where he founded and chaired both the Comparative Religion Program (in 1974) and the European Studies Program (in 1994). From 2000 to 2007 he served on the Advisory Board of the Institute for Ecumenical Studies in the School of Theology and Ministry at Seattle University, and from 2001 to 2006 he also served on the Executive Committee of the Institute for Ecumenical Studies.

In addition to two books on the novels and plays of Samuel Beckett, Professor Webb is the author of The Dark Dove: The Sacred and Secular in Modern Literature (1975), Eric Voegelin, Philosopher of History (1981), Philosophers of Consciousness (1988) and The Self Between: From Freud to the New Social Psychology of France (1993). His World View and Mind: Religious Thought and Psychological Development will be published by the University of Missouri Press in February 2009.

Karen Kissel Wegela, Ph.D.
Presentation Title: "The Courage to Be Present: Buddhism, Psychotherapy, and the Awakening of Natural Wisdom"

Karen Kissel Wegela, Ph.D., is a professor at Naropa University where she has taught in the M.A. Psychology: Contemplative Psychotherapy program since 1981. A psychologist with a small private practice in Boulder, Colorado, she is the author of two books, How to Be a Help Instead of a Nuisance (1996) and The Courage to Be Present: Buddhism, Psychotherapy, and the Awakening of Natural Wisdom. She has written numerous chapters and articles and currently writes a blog for the Psychology Today website. In addition, she has presented at workshops and conferences nationally and internationally.

Kate Willette
Presentation Title: "Loss, Lasagna, and Collapsing Ceilings: The Surprising Spiritual Discipline of Compassion"

In the spring of 2001, Kate Willette was publishing short stories and completing research for a novel about Isaac Newton's extraordinary life. She and her artist/software engineer husband were raising their pre-teen daughters and managing complicated schedules filled with music, church camps, volunteer activities, and work. She taught mathematics part-time, and she was on staff at Seattle's Plymouth Congregational Church as coordinator of youth ministries. It was a rich and lively period, and it ended abruptly on the day her husband fell and sustained a catastrophic spinal cord injury.

Kate's journals and correspondence from the first year of her family's new reality became the basis for her memoir, Some Things Are Unbreakable. In the years since its publication, Kate has put her narrative talent and passion for justice to work in the service of helping the many thousands of families who find themselves confronting life with disability. She travels to scientific conferences around the USA, writes articles that keep her readers up to date on the work that will one day lead to curative therapies, and lives every day in the tension formed by humor and hope, gratitude and love, sorrow and loss.

Rev. Dr. Flora Wilson Bridges
Presentation Title: "God’s Extravagant Welcome: Beyond Religion as Hatefulness"

 The Reverend Flora Wilson Bridges, Ph.D., is a theologian and associate professor and Speghar-Halligan Professor of Ecumenical Collaboration in Inter-religious Dialogue in the graduate School of Theology and Ministry at Seattle University. Dr. Bridges teaches courses focused on issues of peace, justice, and reconciliation. The consistent theme of her work is what the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called “the solidarity of the human family.” King emphasized, “We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.” This was his homiletical way of affirming that reality is composed of structures that form an interrelated whole.

The theological view of the interrelated and interdependent character of all of life challenges notions of self-sufficiency that have led to divisions within the Christian Church, between faiths, within our society, and with nature. Dr. Bridges employs this significant insight drawn from King, other African-American theologians, the Black Church and from African-American culture, spirituality, and religion to suggest “a constructive equality of oneness” that may help the Christian community transcend antagonistic divisions and dualisms within the Church and in its relationship to others.

Gregory Wolfe, MA (with Robert Clark) 
Presentation title: "Bearing the Mystery: Readings from Twenty Years of IMAGE Journal"

Gregory Wolfe, MA, is Writer in Residence at Seattle Pacific University and the founder and editor of Image, one of America’s leading literary quarterlies, now celebrating its twentieth anniversary. He also directs the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at SPU. In 2005, he served as a judge for the National Book Awards. Wolfe has published essays, reviews, and articles in numerous journals, including Commonweal and First Things. His essays have been anthologized in collections such as The Best Christian Writing and The Best Catholic Writing. Among his books are Intruding Upon the Timeless: Meditations on Art, Faith, and Mystery, Malcolm Muggeridge: A Biography and Sacred Passion: The Art of William Schickel. Wolfe is also the editor of Bearing the Mystery: Twenty Years of IMAGE (forthcoming), and The New Religious Humanists: A Reader. A new collection of essays, Beauty Will Save the World, is forthcoming from ISI Books. He has co-authored several books on parenting with his wife, the novelist Suzanne Wolfe, including Books That Build Character and Bless This House: Prayers for Families and Children. He received his BA, summa cum laude, from Hillsdale College and his MA in English literature from Oxford University. He and his wife are the parents of four children and live in Seattle, Washington. 

Audrey Young, MD
Presentation Title: "The Quest for Health Justice: Can One Person Save the World?" 

Audrey Young, MD, earned a B.A. in history from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.D. from the University of Washington, in Seattle. She is board certified in internal medicine and practices at Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland, Washington. Washington Travel and Life Magazine named her one of Washington's best doctors.
 
She is the author of What Patients Taught Me, published in 2004, and House of Hope and Fear: Life in a Big City Hospital, published in 2009. People Magazine called her "a fine storyteller". She lives in Seattle with her husband, daughter, and dogs.