These are the candidates being proposed by the Nominations Committee. If you would like to nominate another person for any of the positions, please ascertain his/her willingness to serve and then contact Maureen O’Brien at obrien at duq dot edu prior to the business meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 9
- Yolanda Smith (VP/Program Chair-Elect)
- Kathy Winings (Recording Secretary)
- Anabel Proffitt (Treasurer)
- Joyce Mercer (Harper Committee)
- Dean Manternach (Forum for RE in Public Life and Global Community)
- Cindy Kissel-Ito (Forum for RE in Academic Disciplines and Institutions)
- Aldona Lingertat (Forum for RE in Faith Communities)
- Mary Hinton (At-large member)
Yolanda Smith (VP/Program Chair-Elect), is Associate Professor of Christian Education at Yale University Divinity School. Her teaching interests include the practice of Christian education with particular attention to the role of the arts, womanist theology, Christian education in the African American experience, and multicultural approaches to Christian education. She is the author of the book Reclaiming the Spirituals: New Possibilities for African American Christian Education. Her forthcoming book is titled Women’s Spirituality and Education in the Black Church. She has served as a member of the Yale Divinity School Women’s Initiative on Gender, Faith, and Responses to HIV/AIDS in Africa and a board member of the AIDS Interfaith Network and the Yale Center for Faith and Culture. An ordained Baptist minister, she has served as an associate minister and minister of evangelism and discipleship in the local church.
Kathy Winings (Recording Secretary), Academic Dean and Director of the Doctor of Ministry program at Unification Theological Seminary and Professor of Religious Education and Ministry. Member of REA-APPRRE since 1989. Author of Building Character through Service Learning and numerous articles. President of Educare and Vice President of the Board of Directors of International Relief Friendship Foundation. Interests: tennis, swimming, reading.
Anabel Proffitt (Treasurer) is Associate Professor of Educational Ministries at Lancaster Theological Seminary. She is a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary (PhD), the Presbyterian School of Christian Education (M.A.) and Hood College (B.A.). An ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, she serves as a consistory member and adult Sunday school teacher at Hamilton Park United Church of Christ in Lancaster. During the summer months she serves as pastor of Childwold Memorial Presbyterian Church in the Adirondack Park in upstate New York. Author of numerous articles on religious education, she is currently completing a book, entitled The Sense of Wonder: Pathos and Play in Religious Education. Dr. Proffitt serves as faculty advisor to the seminary’s youth program “Leadership Now: Spiritual Formation with Youth.” She serves the larger world of theological education as a member of the “Women in Leadership” Steering Committee of the Association of Theological Schools. In addition to her teaching and pastoral activities, she is a poet and a djembe drummer. She is married to Chuck Melchert, an author and adjunct professor at Lancaster Theological Seminary, and is stepmother to Tim Melchert,who works for the Forestry Service in Boise, Idaho.
Joyce Mercer (Harper Committee) is Professor of Practical Theology at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, VA. She is the author of Girl Talk, God Talk: Why Faith Matters to Teenage Girls—and Their Parents; Welcoming Children: A Practical Theology of Childhood; and co-author of Lives to Offer: Accompanying Youth on Their Vocational Quests. Her current writing projects deal with conflict and peace-building, and she recently participated with international church and civic leaders as an election observer in the Philippines. Dr. Mercer is a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and serves in her local congregation through teaching, pastoral care with elderly members, and occasional preaching. For relaxation she hikes, reads mystery novels, and plays the fiddle in an Irish band. Joyce and her husband Larry Golemon have three teenage children.
Dean Manternach (Forum for RE in Public Life and Global Community) teaches on the faculty at Clarke University and is Chair of the Department of Religious Studies. He received his PhD in Theology and Education at Boston College and his M.A. in Theology at the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. Prior to his academic studies, he has served in parish roles as a Youth Minister, Director of Religious Education, and Pastoral Associate. Areas of research interest include adult faith formation, catechesis, and the mission of the laity in public life.
Cindy Kissel-Ito (Forum for RE in Academic Disciplines and Institutions) is an Adjunct Instructor of Religious Studies in the School of World Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her primary scholarly activity is teaching, as she engages Bachelor’s and Master’s level students in description, evaluation and analysis of theoretical perspectives that are foundational to their area of study. Her work at VCU supports student integration of community service learning with academic study on the relationships between world religion’s perspectives and care of the environment. Her experience in directing and teaching in multiple delivery formats (residential and hybrid programs) has prompted writing on the use of social networking sites to support teaching/learning in religious education. She also serves as the seminary’s representative to Educator Certification Council, the professional support and accreditation group for persons employed as church educators in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Aldona Lingertat (Forum for RE in Faith Communities) is the Director of the Master of Arts in Ministry Program for laity at St. John’s Seminary, Brighton, MA. Dr. Lingertat’s doctorate is a joint degree in Theology and Education from Boston College. Her field of study is the formation of laity for ministerial service in Catholic parish life and other settings open to the laity. She teaches courses in Transformative Learning and Evangelization, Adult Religious Education, as well as Vocation and Mission of the Laity. She has served as a religious educator in her local faith community for over 30 years.
Mary Hinton (At-large member) is Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs at Misericordia University. Dr. Hinton first joined Misericordia University as an assistant professor of religious studies and as the coordinator of multicultural student affairs during the 2006-07 academic year. She taught undergraduate courses, while also providing mentoring and support to students of color. Dr. Hinton also served as the Misericordia University Diversity Club faculty advisor; facilitated workshops and training to student affairs offices and provided consultation to the Northeastern Pennsylvania Diversity Education Consortium. Most recently, Dr. Hinton has been the director of the core curriculum at Misericordia University.