This is a 2 yr term from September 1, 2022 – August 31, 2024.
Rev. Dr. Mark Chung Hearn is Associate Professor and Director of Contextual Education at Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, CA. Prior to this, he served as Director and Assistant Clinical Professor of Contextual Education at Seattle University School of Theology and Ministry. He currently serves on the Nominations Committee of the Religious Education Association and has participated for the last fifteen years in the guild through plenary speaking, session facilitation, search committee work, and paper presentations. He holds a Ph.D. from Claremont School of Theology in Practical Theology with an emphasis in Religious Education and Spiritual Formation.
Hearn has published on Korean American religious experiences, the social construction of Korean American men, antiracism, and critical inquiry into sports. His current research interests include antiracist work in the congregation, changing church and its compelling reasons to exist today, and the sacred work of BIPOC healing in secular spaces. His hermeneutical lens is intersectional with a bend towards race, and he advocates that antiracist and decolonial work is not about changing epistemologies only, but about changing ontologies and the way we show up in academic and professional spaces.
He is an ordained minister in the Pacific Northwest Conference of The United Methodist Church and has served in faith communities of color and in white faith communities throughout various denominations including the United Methodist Church, the Nazarene Church, the Assemblies of God, and the Christian and Missionary Alliance. He has coached women’s and girls’ volleyball and basketball in college and high school athletics and when he can, enjoys playing most sports or watching his daughter run (really fast) on her track team.