Aware Magazine | Summer 2026

AWARE Garrett Seminary

Summer 2026

Home Is Where the Faith Lives An expanded campus in Evanston and a network of global hubs throw the seminary doors wide open.

Clearing the Way

Garrett Seminary removes barriers that prevent students from answering their call p.04

Your Sneak Peek

Planting Partnerships

Learn how our strategic campus relocation will improve the student experience p.10

How you can help shape ministers who will serve a growing global church p.16

contents

Have you or someone you know wanted to explore theological education without committing to a degree program?

Join our next Laity Discernment Cohort Apply by July 15 to take an extremely-discounted seminary class and participate in discernment conversations with students, staff, and faculty.

aware magazine | summer 2026

Learn more at garrett.edu/laity

AWA R E | Summer 2026 03 Presidential Perspective

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Building an Accessible and Affordable Seminary

06 Faith Beyond Borders 08 Evanston Hub for Chicagoland Ministries 09 A Love Rooted in Place On the Cover:

Illustration by Daniel Liévano.

For the thriving of the church and the healing of the world, make a gift today!

Aware magazine is published biannually by the offices of development and marketing and communications for alums and friends of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, a graduate school of theology related to The United Methodist Church with an ecumenical outreach.

Feedback and comments for the Aware editorial board should be directed to seminary.relations@Garrett.edu All stories and photos are the property of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary and may not be used without permission.

Copyright © 2026 Garrett -Evangelical Theological Seminary. All rights reserved.

10 Garrett’s Strategic Campus Relocation 14 Integrating Technology and Infrastructure 16 Zimbabwean Hub for African Ministries 17

Chilean Hub for Latin American Ministry

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Indian Hub for South Asian Ministry

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Korean Hub for East Asian Ministry

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Offering a Transgenerational Blessing

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Alum Notes

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In Memoriam

How Garrett is growing to meet the needs of today’s learners

PHOTO BY BRIAN MCCONKEY

“N

ew wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”

Jesus speaks these words while sharing a meal with sinners and tax collectors, people whom many in his day believed stood outside the boundaries of religious life. Some are scandalized by his willingness to cross those boundaries. Yet Jesus explains that those boundaries are not expansive enough to hold the new life his ministry brings into the world.

I would never describe our students as sinners and tax collectors—and I am certainly not Jesus. But Garrett Seminary finds itself at a similar table.

Many of the students who now come to Garrett are people who historically have had limited access to theological education. They include locally licensed ministers already serving congregations, international learners who cannot uproot their lives to move to Evanston, second-career students balancing coursework with family and work, and leaders who have long felt marginalized within the church. They come with faithful dreams and a deep sense of calling, seeking the wisdom and formation that will equip them for lives of servant leadership.

The seminary of the future will not be defined primarily by who can relocate to campus, but by how faithfully we can form leaders wherever God has called

them to serve. The ways our students learn, live, and lead have changed dramatically. To serve them well, Garrett must change as well.

That is why this fall we announced a strategic campus relocation. Honoring our historic relationship with Northwestern University, we are entering a new chapter—moving into beautifully renovated lakefront buildings on the southern end of Northwestern’s campus.

In this issue of Aware, you will get a first glimpse of these new facilities and the vision that guides this move—a significant investment in the residential student experience and in the formation of future church leaders.

At the same time, Garrett’s mission now extends far beyond Evanston. In recent years we have seen remarkable growth in the number of international students joining Garrett from around the world. These students deserve the same depth of investment, formation, and support.

Our new facilities will strengthen the technological infrastructure that makes this possible. But we are also taking another step forward by partnering with local institutions to create global learning hubs in Zimbabwe, India, Korea, and Chile. These hubs will allow

Javier A. Viera President

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Expanding Missions Need a Wider Home

students in those regions to participate in residential intensives, communal worship, and spiritual formation. In these pages, you will learn more about that vision and hear directly from the students whose lives and ministries will be shaped by it.

We cannot do this work alone. We are deeply grateful for the generosity of donors who have already helped expand scholarships and make Garrett more accessible to students answering God’s call. Your faithfulness has allowed many new leaders to receive the education and formation they need for ministry.

As Garrett enters this next chapter, we invite you to walk alongside this work.

Please pray for it, learn about it, and support the initiatives that will help this vision flourish. Throughout this issue you will be invited to take an active part in this future.

Jesus crossed boundaries because he knew that a community willing to make room at the table for those previously excluded becomes capable of loving the world more fully. I see a parallel truth every day at Garrett: When a seminary opens pathways for those who once stood outside its doors, it becomes better able to serve the church and all who seek to follow Christ’s call.

The future of Garrett will be built not simply in classrooms or buildings, but through a community of partners who believe that forming faithful leaders is one of the church’s most important callings. Together, we can fashion the wineskins that will hold the abundance God is already pouring out in our midst so that Garrett graduates may continue to labor faithfully for the thriving of the church and the healing of the world.

aware magazine | summer 2026

presidential perspective

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Building an Accessible and Affordable Seminary Garrett helps students answer the call

By Benjamin Perry

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ifty years ago, most students entering seminary were in their twenties. Predominantly male and overwhelmingly white, they often had strong affiliations with a denomination who helped them finance their studies, and for whom students could expect to work upon graduation. Reflecting these structural realities, those learners generally chose to study full-time as residential students. The church, however, has undergone dramatic

change in the interceding half-century.

With congregations across the United States shrinking, the amount of support most seminarians can expect to receive is likewise contracted. The promise that graduates will quickly find good-paying work has been similarly shaken. And yet, for much of this time, expectations for how students should study remained constant—to the detriment of both seminaries and people pursuing their call to ministry. Over the past four years,

however, Garrett embarked on a radical shift in how we structure learning to be responsive to these changing realities.

The results are in: This bold experiment in accessibility and affordability has steadily increased the vitality of our student body, enriched the seminary’s learning culture, and deepened our relationship to the institutional church—both in the United States and throughout the world.

To understand why this shift has been so successful, it’s crucial to recognize what kinds of students are now more inclined to pursue theological education. “Our learners tend to be increasingly bi- or multi-vocational.

They already have jobs, they have families,” describes President Javier Viera. “We’re also experiencing a more diverse student body. We have more people of color, women, queer folks, many who come to us from around the world where the church is growing and thriving.” By adapting its academic models, spiritual formation, and community to cater to these students’ unique gifts and needs, as well as the busy schedules of people already serving churches, Garrett has attracted an abundance of learners at a time when seminary enrollments are shrinking across the country.

“When we started to investigate what would attract students to theological education, we realized that every single strategy to reach new populations of students was rooted in us removing a barrier or obstacle to theological training,” explains Scott Ostlund, Vice President for Enrollment Management.

“It could be a barrier like the availability of digital modalities because folks wanted to remain in their communities of accountability instead of uprooting themselves to a new learning environment, or it could be an affordability obstacle in the way we were pricing programs or requiring residential instruction. When we began to remove those obstacles, we immediately started to see our degree enrollment change.”

In the Fall of 2021, Garrett admitted

PHOTO BY IV Y KURUVILA

aware magazine | summer 2026

Nurturing a Renaissance: Eliminating structural barriers to education has significantly increased enrollment.

After conducting listening circles, faculty and administration carefully responded with programs curated to meet these needs. “Partnership with the UMC helped us create pathways for people who are already serving local churches as pastors,” Ostlund explains. “We made a commitment that getting a visa to come to the US wasn’t going to be the only way an international student could study at Garrett—and that we weren’t going to create a two-tiered model between students who could study in Evanston and a second group who could only take classes online in a clunky user experience.” Garrett launched the Masters of Arts in Pastoral Care and Counseling degree, which has rapidly become our swiftest growing program.

“Access is also about feeling like we belong.”

These changes aren’t as simple as launching an online portal and opening the door to a new group of learners.

“Even something as basic as when you offer your classes is something we have to consider from an access perspective,” Dean Harvey says. “So, we have lots of evening classes for students who work during the day, we think critically about time zones so students can complete their studies in Korea or Zimbabwe without having to always attend class in the middle of the night.” Garrett has also invested significantly in classroom technology and faculty training, to create hybrid pedagogies that deliver a robust experience whether students are sitting side-by-side in Evanston or half-way across the world. And still, opening the door widely isn’t enough.

“Access isn’t just about being able to sign in online. Access is also about feeling like we belong,” she concludes.

To fulfill this deeper calling, Dean of Students Thehil Russelliah Singh

has completely reimagined spiritual formation and extracurricular offerings to meet a wide array of learners’ needs. The seminary still hosts many opportunities for residential students to break bread and create informal connections, but these are paired with frequent events that foster hybrid community. “All of our student life events are now blended synchronous, so everything our in-person students have access to, our online students can attend as well,” she explains. “Whether that’s Let’s Talk Globally, weekly chapel services, a new series called Let’s Talk Careers, or any other chance to learn.”

Students who primarily attend online notice the intentionality with which they are included. “We’re flipping the script by creating an engaging, dynamic experience online while still retaining a robust residential experience.”

Indeed, as much as affordability and accessibility are sometimes framed as mostly benefiting those students who would otherwise be unable to pursue theological higher education—and to schools who benefit from the diverse perspectives and tuition dollars students bring with them—it’s Garrett’s commitment to the church’s thriving that redoubles commitment to the present trajectory. “If we truly believe in the priesthood of all believers,” President Viera says, “then we have to reckon with the systems that have limited that calling. What would it mean for the church—and for theological education—to be restructured around that radical affirmation?”

Garrett’s recently launched laity discernment cohort is another example of what it looks like to follow that theological commitment, creating an affordable pathway for people who are often asked to labor for local churches but are not often resourced by denominational infrastructure and finances.

“We’re forming leaders wherever they’re called,” President Viera concludes. “That openness is reshaping Garrett—and it’s a gift to the church, to the world, and to ourselves.” †

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71 students. In the Fall of 2025, that number was 119. A 59% increase isn’t chance—it reflects a structural shift.

What’s crucial to understand, however, is that this change simply would not have been possible if it had not been driven by Garrett’s academic vision. “The number one reason why Garrett has been able to pivot in a way that is different from our peers is that it was led by our faculty,” President Viera explains. “That’s not something you often hear from higher education administrations. Too often institutions change because the market tells them to—because recruiters or consultants say, ‘This is what’s trending.’ But in our case, it was the faculty themselves who said, ‘Something deeper needs to shift in how we teach if we’re going to shape the future of the church and those who will lead it.’ That conviction is what’s driving our transformation.” When Academic Dean Jennifer Harvey arrived three years ago, she was thrilled to find this deep, compelling vision for how Garrett can better resource Christian communities. “Faculty joyfully adopted the mantle to be the educational community who prepares leaders from the very communities where the Church is growing quickly,” she says.

Garrett began this process by asking partners in the United Methodist Church and other partners in global Methodism how the seminary could empower those who feel called to ministry. These conversations yielded a more accurate picture of the ecclesial landscape. They heard from local ministers who would love to pursue graduate level education but did not want to leave the parish they already served. International partners described the high cost of studying in the United States, and students who didn’t want to remove themselves from their homeland’s learning context, even if they could afford residential education. Alums who served bi-vocationally as ministers and counselors expressed desires for a degree program that more specifically prepared students for that work.

aware magazine | summer 2026

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ILLUSTR ATION BY DANIEL LIÉVANO

garrett seminary

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global hubs

FAITH BEYOND BORDERS I

n the 21st century, institutional flourishing will be measured by the strength of our relationships.

When we threw the seminary doors wide open, expanding students’ ability to study remotely while remaining rooted in their homes, we found a wellspring of joy and passion waiting. Students who never thought theological higher education would be possible now bring their dreams to Garrett—adding to the beauty of this community and being shaped by it in turn. When our faculty and administration made this choice, we also made a commitment: We will do everything in our power to serve every student who trusts us with their education. The quality of a Garrett degree will not be determined by the modalities that make it feasible.

To enact this promise, Garrett is building an interconnected web of global hubs. A strategic relocation on Northwestern’s campus provides fertile soil for this network to grow, rooted in Evanston’s academic vibrancy and paired to better gathering spaces

and state-of-the-art technology that will nurture connections across time and space. But all students deserve in-person formation, even those who may never step foot on our Chicagoland campus. So, we are partnering with elite institutions across the world to access physical spaces, envision new ministries, and build relationships precisely where the church and our student body is growing fastest. Soon, collaborations in Chile, India, Korea, and Zimbabwe will provide residential intensives for students in those georegions. Already, this plan is bearing fruit: This summer, Dr. Esther Acolatse and Dr. Kenneth Ngwa will travel to Africa University’s campus in Mutare, Zimbabwe to teach classes and work with students who join from across the African continent.

The full potential of these partnerships will be revealed once we are able to fund and build out the necessary infrastructure. In the future, work between our faculty and global scholars will unlock new possibilities for research. International classrooms

will be filled not only by students in those georegions, but also remote students in the U.S. who want to learn how global contexts shape contemporary ministry. Partnerships between churches will deepen connectional ministries and illuminate best-practices for folks on both sides of that exchange. And the newly launched Garrett Collective will bring low-cost, robust theological education to clergy and practitioners to supplement their faithful work.

God has always been bigger than the buildings that nurture discernment.

The church has never been the exclusive province of any country or people.

When Jesus told his followers to “go and make disciples of all nations,” this was not an exhortation to colonial frameworks. It was an invitation to recognize our fundamental interconnectedness and live into the Christian values that enrich our lives and guide the world toward God’s justice and peace. At Garrett, we are doing everything we can to enact that story.

We invite you to join us. †

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How Garrett Seminary’s global hubs will usher in a new era for theological training

aware magazine | summer 2026

By Benjamin Perry

chicagoland

Fundraising Priorities • Furnish student lounges in our new facility • Support Garrett as a gathered people through events, community meals, and community building initiatives • Offer affordable housing for students • Invest in Garrett’s partnership and impact within Evanston/Chicagoland • Stabilize Garrett’s commitment to residential theological education amidst rising institutional costs

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Evanston Hub for Chicagoland Ministries

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urturing Chicagoland has been a core part of Garrett Seminary’s institutional identity since our founding.

For more than 150 years, our students have served across the city and in our local Evanston community—using their newfound knowledge and skills to serve God’s people. From our roots in the Chicago Training School, this has birthed dozens of nonprofits and even led to the formation of now-cornerstone landmarks like Northwestern Memorial Hospital!

The time is ripe to reinvest in that mission. Garrett’s strategic campus relocation (read more on page 10) offers a dynamic new facility and a chance to deepen connections between the seminary and Northwestern University. Likewise, relationships between Garrett’s racial-ethnic centers and community organizations create opportunities to bring local leaders to Garrett for vocational training. But this activity on Garrett’s campus is only half the story. Each year, Garrett students

“ I want to use my dissertation to provide robust solutions for problems right here in Chicago.

That’s why I’m right back in the city where I started.”

– Moises Mendez, DMin

work at more than 100 field sites across the Chicagoland area. Through a focus on social impact, we create research projects with groups like the Evanston NAACP, helping students root themselves in the world beyond our doors. To make education in Evanston accessible and affordable, however, it’s essential that we subsidize housing and offer community meals to residential students. And still, mere subsistence isn’t enough: To fulfill the possibilities our new campus provides, we need funding partners who are excited about the future of Chicagoland, and the role Garrett can play to seed healing, hope, and wholeness. Help us create events, retreats, seminars, and other experiences that enrich our students’ formation and invite the wider city to use Garrett as a vibrant resource for collective change.

And the promise of our Evanston hub extends well-beyond Chicagoland’s borders. As we see more U.S. locally licensed pastors pursuing ordination while continuing to serve their churches and a rise in second-career learners who cannot uproot their families to attend seminary, our Evanston hub will facilitate in-person formation to supplement online study. Through intensive courses and retreats, we create space to nurture and provide connection.

We’re thrilled for the ways that our new facilities will support those endeavors— offering comfortable places to socialize, and communal rooms that are better suited for spiritual retreats. †

PHOTO BY JOSS BROWARD; PHOTO COURTESY OF MOISES MENDEZ

aware magazine | summer 2026

Make a gift and support the thriving of the church and the healing of the world across the United States!

chicagoland

By The Reverend William Mack III

PHOTOS COURTESY OF REVEREND WILLIAM MACK III

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ike many people during the pandemic, I found myself, in my old Kentucky home, very still and alone. Looking back, I believe God shut down the outside so I would deal with my insides. Hopes, dreams, excuses, and fear were familiar companions, yet I sensed a call to put each in its proper place and resume the seminary journey I began fifteen years prior. I laughed like Sarah in Genesis 18—How is this happening? I had dropped out once due to limited resources, a growing family, and the demands of ministry. Nevertheless, God provided in ways only God can, and my family and I relocated to Chicago.

I’ve borne witness to the transformational power of love. Through my own story, I understand the internal and external barriers marginalized people must navigate to experience liberation.

My Garrett journey began with a deep conviction to serve God’s beloved in the hard spaces, and my professors consistently challenged me to stand in the shoes of those I serve. Our

A Ministry of Accompaniment: Rev. Mack celebrates with graduating students.

simply labeling dysfunction. I came to understand that faithful presence often matters more than polished answers.

I’ve had hard conversations, celebrations, a good cry, and a lot of prayer in there. Those men are my brothers made in the image of our Father and loved just as ridiculously as I am.

In my school chaplaincy placement, I have witnessed how trauma surfaces in young people—through disruption, withdrawal, or silence. What I learned in the classroom about safety, attunement, and emotional regulation became essential tools to slow down, ask better questions, and create space where students feel seen and safe. I do my best to embody Maya Angelou’s words, and “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.”

As I approach graduation, my sense of call is both the same and fortified.

I feel equipped to live a ministry of presence, not performance; showing up with compassion, courage, and love.

Okay with not having all the answers, I am present with people in their most human moments. My call is rooted in accompaniment—walking with individuals and communities toward healing, wholeness, and a deeper awareness of God’s presence. As of now, I’m not sure where this call will send me. My responsibility is to say, “Yes,” and trust God sets the GPS. Wherever I land, seminary has not simply prepared me to lead; it formed me to love more faithfully. †

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A Love Rooted in Place

trauma-informed training invited me to listen with both heart and awareness—attuned not only to others’ stories but also to what is unfolding within me.

Romans 12:15 has become a pastoral rhythm: “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.”

Going to school and serving in this region has stretched and deepened my learning in ways that, for me, an online experience couldn’t. Chicago is a city of beauty and burden, resilience and rupture. Ministry demands presence, humility, and a willingness to encounter people where they are in the complexity of their lived experiences.

I am grateful for the diverse opportunities I’ve been invited into through my work in prison and school chaplaincy.

In the prison, I encountered men shaped by layers of trauma—personal, familial, and systemic. I learned to listen beyond behavior and to recognize survival strategies rather than

aware magazine | summer 2026

Liberative Education: Students at Stateville Correctional Center, where Rev. Mack served, gather for a graduation ceremony.

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Space to Gather: Two newly refurbished buildings offer ample room for offices, social lounges, community meals and more. Meanwhile academic programs will stretch far beyond those walls, sharing Northwestern University’s state-of-the-art resources.

Building on the Cornerstone Garrett’s strategic relocation kindles a vibrant future, grounded firmly in our history

By Javier A. Viera hen the Garrett Biblical Institute was founded in 1853 on the grounds of the newly established Northwestern University, their chartering boards envisioned a symbiotic relationship between the two institutions.

Evanston, they believed, could become a center of learning and faithfulness—an embodiment of the Methodist conviction

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that intellectual inquiry and social holiness belong together.

Northwestern would educate lawyers, doctors, engineers, scientists, and other scholars and practitioners who would help shape a thriving urban center. Garrett would form ministers who would care for the spiritual life of the community and help cultivate the moral imagination of a growing city.

Chicago’s population at the time was about 60,000; within thirty years it had grown tenfold. The founders’ vision proved prophetic, and both institutions expanded in ways that likely surpassed even their most hopeful expectations.

From the beginning, the founders imagined the two schools working side by side—distinct in mission, independent in governance, yet united in purpose. That vision helped shape both institutions as Chicago grew from a modest lakeside city into one of the world’s great urban centers. Over the century and a half that followed, both schools evolved dramatically. In the early decades of the 20th century, Garrett became the largest school of theology in the United States. The Garrett Biblical Institute later merged

PHOTOS, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: GREGORY SINGLETON, COURTESY OF NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY, COURTESY OF GARRETT SEMINARY, BENJAMIN PERRY

aware magazine | summer 2026

campus relocation

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE STYBERG LIBR ARY

overcome—it is one of our greatest strengths. Garrett has experienced six consecutive years of enrollment growth, bringing into our classrooms a remarkable range of theological traditions, cultures, professions, and national perspectives. That diversity enriches every student’s education. But sustaining that growth requires a learning environment designed for the realities of theological education today: flexible, connected, and capable of supporting multiple forms of learning and community.

Our current Gothic campus spreads faculty, staff, and students across seven separate buildings. While beautiful, the layout often leaves members of our community feeling surprisingly disconnected from one another.

Our new facilities will bring faculty offices, administrative spaces, classrooms, and gathering areas into closer proximity, creating a campus designed intentionally for collaboration and community. Comfortable lounges will provide places for students to gather informally—the kinds of spaces where late-night theological conversations

often become some of the most formative moments of seminary life. Our centers and institutes will have new homes that place them more visibly and vibrantly at the heart of our shared work and in direct proximity to one another, enabling a new era of shared research and collaboration.

These renovated buildings will represent only part of Garrett’s campus.

Through our partnership with Northwestern, the seminary will become part of a much wider academic and residential ecosystem including Northwestern’s renowned University Libraries, gaining fuller access to one of the nation’s premier academic collections.

Classes will be held in newly renovated classrooms, adjacent to the university chapels, equipped with technology that supports dynamic hybrid learning for both on-campus and distance learners. For the first time, Garrett students will receive Northwestern “Wildcards,” providing access to dining halls, study space, and other campus resources. Weekly worship will take place in Northwestern’s Vail chapel,

Echoes from Our Past: This is far from the first time that Garrett Seminary has moved campuses. Heck Hall, a dormitory for the then-Garrett Biblical Institute was one of our first buildings, opening in 1866.

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with the Chicago Training School and the Evangelical Theological Seminary to become Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary—changing homes on Northwestern’s campus three times along the way. Northwestern, meanwhile, also grew dramatically, gradually shedding its Methodist identity and becoming one of the world’s leading research universities.

This fall we announced the beginning of a new chapter in that partnership—one that will strengthen both institutions and bring our faculties and students into closer collaboration.

In the summer of 2027, Garrett will relocate from our current buildings to a newly renovated academic home on the lakefront at the south end of Northwestern’s campus. This move represents far more than a change of address. It opens the door to deeper partnership with Northwestern, including shared classrooms and libraries and expanded access to the University’s student services and facilities.

Over the coming year we will continue refining the details of this transition, but I want to offer a first glimpse into our future home and share why Garrett’s Board of Trustees believes this decision positions the seminary to flourish for generations to come.

In considering this decision, the board faced a challenge not unlike the one confronted by our founders: how best to prepare leaders for a rapidly changing world. The landscape of theological education has shifted dramatically. Today’s seminarians arrive with diverse callings, circumstances, and pathways into ministry. A locally licensed pastor pursuing an MDiv while continuing to serve a congregation has different needs than a recent college graduate beginning full-time study. International students studying from their home countries require different forms of support than those who relocate to Evanston with their families.

Simply put, there is no longer a single typical Garrett student.

This diversity is not a challenge to

aware magazine | summer 2026

campus relocation

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offering beautiful space for intimate prayer services, with access to Alice Millar Chapel for larger gatherings.

Our residential students will live in Northwestern graduate housing, where Garrett will continue to offer subsidized rent to maintain affordability.

Living within Northwestern’s graduate community will open new opportunities for connection and engagement across disciplines.

In short, our students will experience a campus that is both more intimate and far more expansive—combining the close-knit community of Garrett with the resources of a major research university.

These changes will also strengthen the experience of the many students who study with us from a distance.

Today, a significant and growing portion of Garrett students complete their degrees either partially or fully online. They deserve an educational experience every bit as rich as that of our residential students.

Our faculty have already made major strides in developing innovative

“Our students will experience a campus that is both intimate and far more expansive.”

A Growing Wisdom: Assistant librarian W.J. Davidson sits behind the Memorial Library desk, housed in Garrett’s third building. In 1902, the seminary collection was about 18,000 books—a number that has now swelled to more than 300,000 volumes.

hybrid teaching practices and redesigning courses for digital learning.

But to fully realize this vision, our physical spaces must also support that pedagogical creativity.

Our renovated classrooms will incorporate advanced technology designed specifically for hybrid instruction, allowing online students to participate fully in discussion and collaboration.

Digital access to library resources, Garrett’s guest lectures, and campus events will ensure that students studying from around the world are fully integrated into our community’s intellectual and spiritual life. In this way, the new campus will help us extend Garrett’s reach, creating a seminary that is both deeply rooted in place and genuinely global in scope.

Perhaps the most exciting possibilities of this relocation are the intellectual partnerships it will make possible.

Already, Garrett students benefit from access to academic offerings such as the Kellogg School of Management’s nonprofit leadership program and Northwestern University Hospital CPE program. At the same time, Garrett faculty contribute important perspectives to Northwestern’s scholarly conversations.

For example, the Job Institute for Spirituality and Spiritual Formation is engaged in collaborative research exploring the relationship between spirituality and mental health. The Stead Center for Ethics and Values is helping shape conversations about the ethical use of artificial intelligence and the cultivation of digital wellbeing for young people. Garrett’s Religion and Global Health Forum collaborates with researchers leading programs in medicine and public health to explore how faith communities can advance whole-person health around the world. Bringing our communities into closer proximity will only deepen these collaborations.

These partnerships are especially important at this moment in history.

Ethical questions surrounding artificial

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE STYBERG LIBR ARY

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aware magazine | summer 2026

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PHOTO COURTESY OF NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

Immersive Learning: Unfettered access to one of the world’s premier academic research libraries will better facilitate interdisciplinary study, while shared reading rooms will bring students into closer relationship with the Northwestern University community.

intelligence are reshaping debates about technology and human dignity.

Understanding religious identity is increasingly essential for political analysis both in the United States and globally.

Christian nationalism continues to challenge democratic institutions and distort the public witness of faith.

Religious and ethical illiteracy threaten the quality of civic discourse.

In such a moment, theological scholarship and religious literacy are not peripheral concerns. They are essential for cultivating thoughtful leadership and healthy communities.

Garrett is committed to equipping pastoral leaders and scholars who can help cultivate communities of justice, compassion, and hope—leaders who can demonstrate how faith traditions, rightly understood, call us toward the flourishing of all people. Northwestern students will benefit from Garrett faculty’s expertise in these areas, just as

Northwestern’s faculty enrich our own students’ learning through interdisciplinary collaboration.

This relocation also represents an important milestone in Garrett’s broader vision for the future. The seminary is investing in the people, programs, and partnerships that will shape theological education for the next generation. Our new campus home will allow Garrett to steward its resources more effectively while strengthening the academic collaborations, technological innovation, and global reach that define our mission today.

For alumni and friends who care deeply about the future of theological education, this moment represents not simply a move—but a renewal of Garrett’s enduring commitment to the thriving of the church and the healing of the world.

In the coming year we will share more details about the relocation and the

opportunities it will create. Architectural renderings, classroom designs, and plans for shared student services will become public as they are finalized.

For now, it is worth pausing to reflect on the broader promise of this moment.

Nearly 175 years after Garrett and Northwestern were founded, both institutions remain committed to rigorous scholarship, ethical leadership, social progress, and the conviction that learning can nurture abundant life.

The world has changed in ways our founders could scarcely have imagined.

Yet the vision they set in motion—of institutions working together to advance knowledge, public service, and the common good—continues to guide us.

By renewing that partnership for a new era, we are building on the cornerstone our forebears laid so long ago. And we believe the brightest days of this relationship, and of both institutions, still lie ahead. †

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Hybrid Learning Demands Technology and Humanity 21st-century classroom instruction must be approached with care and intention

By Allie Lundblad

“M

y fear is that the pandemic killed online learning,” says Dr. Brooke Lester, enjoying the irony of such a statement and perfectly sincere in his concern.

The sweeping shifts the COVID-era brought to online learning opened doors and kindled fresh vision for the

Garrett community. New technologies for online teaching developed rapidly, creating opportunities that led to significant changes in Garrett’s student body.

International enrollment increased as students were able to take classes while still in their home country, and it quickly became clear that online classes could better serve domestic students

already engaged in ministry across the United States. Garrett’s increasingly global student body, with students learning from a distance in both domestic and international contexts, were important considerations as the seminary made the decision to move to new buildings on Northwestern’s campus—to invest more deeply in the technology that will better facilitate residential and remote students learning together in Garrett’s classrooms.

Dr. Lester served as Garrett’s director of digital learning from 2011 until just last year. In the early days of online learning, a decade before the pandemic began, institutions were debating the value and risks of virtual learning, a conversation that pushed faculty to consider what it means to teach well.

When the pandemic arrived, those careful conversations were replaced by an urgent need to move everything online. Over time, digital learning came to be the responsibility of the whole institution. Now Dr. Lester, like much of the faculty and staff, sees that transition as an opportunity to reinvigorate those careful conversations and intentionality around Garrett’s technology use.

“It’s another opportunity to look at our practices and ask why we do the things we do,” Dr. Lester says. “How do we thoughtfully reflect on our responsibility to our students, future students, and the faculty who will inherit our decisions?”

Currently, the conversations happening among faculty, staff and students ask what it means to build community and form equitable partnerships. Assistant Director of Technology David Frisk, who serves as part of the transition team, emphasizes how important it is that decisions about technology be made in conversation with faculty and in support of student learning. He wonders how Garrett might provide more effective technological access and support for students in other countries and whether artificial intelligence may soon provide real-time language translation to

PHOTO BY CHRIS MONTGOMERY

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“It’s not only a practice of cultivating presence, but also of recovering attention, negotiating varying degrees of visibility, and sustaining connections.”

takes on an additional function,” he says. “It’s not only a practice of cultivating presence, but also of recovering attention in the midst of fragmentation, negotiating varying degrees of visibility, and sustaining connections across different forms of participation.

Presence here is no longer given; it must be intentionally constructed.”

Like Dr. Nolasco and Dean Harvey, PhD candidate Dri Rivera emphasizes attention to embodied realities “on the other side of the screen.” Rivera began their doctoral work in Christian Education at Garrett after teaching classes at a public school where students were required to spend the school day staring at a screen. They

wanted the seminary classes they would teach to attend more fully to their students’ embodied realities and to be “more liberative, more equitable, and more justice oriented.” Over time, they familiarized themselves with a variety of learning tools, and found two were consistently well received: Mentimeter, which creates a word cloud based on student responses, and Padlet, which they describe as a virtual “bulletin board.” Both allowed creative response as well as an anonymity that might allow students to engage more freely.

Yet, Rivera insists, the particular technologies, “the tools aren’t really the main thing. It’s about how we treat each other.” Using technology well is a matter of sustained attention to the humanity of everyone involved, whether that means choosing fonts that work for people with dyslexia, ensuring enough breaks to avoid eye strain, or sending Grubhub gift cards to those who join lunch events virtually. When teaching hybrid classes, Rivera is intentional about turning first to online students to share, making clear that they are more than an afterthought. These kinds of small decisions aim not just to provide access to technology but to facilitate deeper engagement and a sense that every voice is valued.

That sense of community is possible, even across technology-mediated distance, as Rivera has experienced themselves in a moment that convinced them of the value of online learning. It happened during the Covid-19 pandemic, in a class taught by two pastoral theologians who led communion over Zoom.

“I was amazed that I was by myself at my dining room table with all these little boxes in front of me and everyone’s holding up all the different elements— someone had a Cheez-It and someone had a potato chip and someone had bread—and it still felt like communion, that same unifying moment that we have in person. I breathed a sigh of relief. I thought, I can still do this. I can still be a part of the body of Christ, even if I’m at a distance.” †

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facilitate deeper communication across language differences.

For Academic Dean Jennifer Harvey, the opportunities being created by online and hybrid learning offer a chance to meet the challenges of Garrett’s decolonial commitments and disrupt traditional power dynamics. She imagines that, for students in Evanston, meeting in classroom spaces more appropriate to the number of in-person attendees and more efficient for those joining online will give hybrid classes a more mutual and intimate feel. At the same time, the expanded role of online learning will, she hopes, lead to new kinds of relationships as Garrett finds ways to collaborate with pastors and ministries overseas to provide contextual education for international students and collaborate with faculty at partner institutions. Doing so will require the kind of humility and attention to particularity that Dean Harvey already sees developing as the community navigates virtual space together.

“I’m noticing how often now folks don’t say ‘Good morning’ when they start a meeting,” she says. “They say ‘Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening . . .’ Those are really small things, but they’re about belonging.”

That kind of awareness of embodied experience is, according to Dr. Rolf Nolasco, essential to navigating online and hybrid spaces well. Hybrid classrooms certainly make learning more accessible, he says, but can make it far more difficult to read the room, leading him to ask what presence means “when everyone is, quite literally, captured in a box?” Whatever the answer to that question is, it must include “cultivating attentiveness, care, and relational depth within technologically mediated spaces.”

For Dr. Nolasco, one method he uses is offering grounding practices at the beginning of each class, practices that he has used for years but hold new meaning amidst the realities of online learning.

“In hybrid environments, grounding

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global hubs

$500,000

Fundraising Needs

$300,000

$400,000

Develop tech infrastructure for remote learners

Create contextual education and internship opportunities

$215,000 aware magazine | summer 2026

$100,000

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Garrett and AU staff and faculty exchanges

$200,000

Design crosscultural curriculuar collaboration

Zimbabwean Hub for African Ministry I n Zimbabwe, Garrett has cultivated a deep partnership with Africa University. Through the Mageto Fellows Program—named for AU Vice Chancellor and Garrett alum Rev. Dr.

Meet Juliet Sithole

M

y journey into ministry was acutely rooted in community, resilience and gratitude. I was raised at Fairfield Children’s Home in Mutare, Zimbabwe, alongside eleven other children. Growing up as an orphan shaped my understanding of faith not as an abstract idea, but as something lived through care, presence, and collective responsibility. From an early age, I learned that circumstances do not

• Help Garrett send faculty and staff to AU for annual intensives, to deepen connections and discern ways to collaborate.

• Contextual education demands new educational models. With your support, Garrett is designing a cross-cultural curriculum that speak to students’ unique gifts and needs.

• Fund field education and internships for students with churches and community partners across the African continent.

• A hub cannot thrive without people to run it! Hire a staff member shared between Garrett and AU to support the partnership and nurture cohort students.

• Build technology infrastructure for distance learners that gives them what they need to flourish.

Make a gift and support the thriving of the church and the healing of the world in Africa!

Peter Mageto—students are eligible for full scholarships and participate in contextual education on AU’s campus. New collaborations also seek to equip clergy so they can strengthen public health in

under-resourced communities.

Africa University was born from a prophetic vision shared by a Methodist bishop and a local tribal leader in the 1890s. Founded a century later, the pan-African institution now serves more than 2,400 students across disciplines, while remaining deeply committed to forming ministers. This mission is urgent as Christian communities grow rapidly and the continent experiences a severe shortage of trained clergy. †

determine destiny; that education and community can transform lives.

The way Garrett provides remote access to degree programs has been transformative. Studying from my home context in Zimbabwe lets me pursue theological education without disconnecting from the community that shaped my faith, values and commitments. Rather than postponing my education due to geographic or visa constraints, I can engage fully in rigorous theological study while remaining grounded in the contextual realities of ministry and culture. This model ensures that my

learning is proximately accountable to lived experiences, not an imagined future setting.

Studying theology embedded in my own community has expanded my sense of responsibility. Every text I read, every discussion I participate in, and every theological framework I encounter is tested against the questions, struggles and hopes of the people around me. This accountability keeps my education honest and relational. It also helps me approach ministry not as theory imposed from afar, but as praxis shaped by listening, self-effacement and solidarity.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JULIET SITHOLE

Hire a shared staff member to support African students

global hubs

Chilean Hub for Latin American Ministry fertile ground for collaboration, and we are working closely with Rev. Miguel Ulloa—director of the Methodist Seminary in Chile—to identify ways we can work together.

In these initial stages, we’ve partnered to create the Escuela de Ministerio, which is offering theological resources and vocational training to Latine pastors throughout the United States. We’re also building Spanish-language theological resources for the Garrett Collective, which will offer low-cost education cohorts, liturgical guides, workshops, and webinars to clergy and lay leaders. Through these efforts, and the work of our Centro

• Because these efforts are still in preliminary stages, our fundraising opportunities in Chile are not as fully fleshed out as they are in India and Zimbabwe. We are, however, raising money to send delegations from the U.S. to Chile, and inviting Chilean leaders to visit the U.S., so we can mutually explore and shape the future for our partnership.

Make a gift and support the thriving of the church and the healing of the world in Latin America!

Raices Latinas, we’re knitting Latin American theological leaders and communities to those across the diaspora.

Remote international students will play an essential part in this work, building their skills and expanding their relationships through that faithful ministry. †

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arrett’s international partnerships are guided by a commitment to reciprocity and mutuality, so collaboration benefits both sides of our relationships. In Chile, we are in the early stages of expanding our ties to the country’s Methodist Church. Founded in the late 19th century, the Methodist Church in Chile has been fervently committed to Wesleyan social holiness, focusing its efforts in education and healthcare ministries. In more recent years, the church has also worked with the Chilean government on projects dedicated to expanding indigenous rights and culture. These issues and more offer

Funding Priorities:

PHOTO BY GIANNI DONATO; PHOTO COURTESY OF DANIEL CONTRER AS

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Meet Daniel Contreras

I

was born and raised in Chile, but for years I have served as a missionary for the Methodist Church in Honduras. But I really want to go deeper into studying and following my vocation. Eventually, I see myself going back into local parish ministry, so to do that I need

my MDiv. I was so excited to find Garrett’s program because it allows me to serve full time as a missionary, but also to devote time to studying. I was doubly grateful to receive a scholarship to fund this journey, because that’s the only way I could afford and sustain this education.

It’s still challenging: I need to balance career and family. I’m a parent of a 14 year-old and an 11 year-old, while also

supervising pastors and laity who serve 21 local churches. But then I show up to class, and it’s all different cultures, different languages, different accents: This is God’s work.

It’s a garden, blessed with the fruit of love, and I am so grateful to be there. Widening your perspective; seeing other theologies; learning about other people; it opens up a window to infinity and the Kingdom of God as God wants us to see it.

global hubs

$500,000

Develop tech infrastructure for distance learners

Cultivate curricular partnerships and internship opportunities

Develop extensive resources in Hindi and Tamil

• Develop extensive resources on the Garrett Collective in Hindi and Tamil languages • Develop technology infrastructure for distance learners

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$110,000

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Launch a crosscultural course on global Christianity

$100,000

Send Garrett faculty and staff to Indian seminaries

Indian Hub for South Asian Ministry W hile Christianity is a minority religion in India, the country is home to 30 million Christians—a population that is swiftly growing particularly in northern and southeastern regions. However, many

Meet Shibin Babu

M

y call to study theology emerged through my involvement in church ministry and teaching the Bible to young people. Garrett’s academic reputation—its commitment to thoughtful theological reflection, and its openness to global perspectives—attracted me here to pursue this calling.

• Send Garrett faculty and staff to Indian seminaries for annual intensives to nurture relationships and discern additional ways to collaborate • Launch a cross-cultural course on global Christianity in collaboration with Leonard Theological College and Indian Theological Seminary.

$300,000

$200,000

Fundraising Needs

• Cultivate curricular partnerships and internship opportunities to support contextual ministry formation

Make a gift and support the thriving of the church and the healing of the world in South Asia!

who feel called to ministry struggle to access and afford theological higher education, and religious higher education within the country must contend with a government that is often inhospitable to Christian institutions. These

circumstances create ample opportunities to nurture faith, collaborate with Indian seminaries, and build theological resources that can meet the needs of clergy throughout the country.

We are thrilled to work with Leonard Theological College in Jabalpur and Indian Theological Seminary in Chennai. We are particularly focused on climate justice projects, marshalling Christian theological resources to serve the frontline communities experiencing the disastrous effects of climate change. Garrett seeks to learn from Indian students, discerning what strategies empower people and nurture the resilient faith that will chart a sustainable future. †

However, like many students around the world, I faced practical realities that made immediate relocation difficult. Financial considerations, family responsibilities, and logistical challenges meant that moving abroad for study would take time to arrange. Without the possibility of remote study, I would have needed to postpone my theological education. Instead, Garrett’s remote learning structure made it possible for me to begin my studies without delay.

Studying remotely has also given me

a unique advantage: I am able to remain deeply connected to my local church and community while I learn. Rather than separating academic theology from ministry, my studies constantly interact with the realities of everyday life. When I read theological texts, discuss doctrine, or reflect on the church’s mission in the world, I do so while actively participating in the life of my congregation. This allows theological ideas to be tested, refined, and lived out in real contexts.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SHIBIN BABU

$400,000

global hubs

Funding Priorities:

PHOTO BY NATTANAI CHIMJANON; PHOTO COURTESY HAYOUNG SUH

Korean Hub for East Asian Ministry T here is extensive history between the Korean Methodist Church, U.S. seminaries, and diasporic Korean churches. Many graduates return to serve Korean congregations, while others have become prominent leaders here in the

Meet Hayoung Suh (G-ETS ’22)

I

first came to Garrett in 2017 as an international student. Through theological inquiry, Garrett helped me unlearn and relearn about myself and my faith.

My time in the MDiv program (2017-2022) was liberating, giving me a new language to describe my identity, my faith, and my theology—and an expanded perspective

United States. Now, as Korean United Methodist churches experience similar challenges to the ones U.S. congregations face, we are working with our expansive alum network to imagine how emerging technologies and innovative youth ministries can energize a

new generation of Korean Christians. In Korea, we are designing new doctoral programs that will prepare leaders to revitalize Christian communities.

We also know that innovative digital strategies are essential to reach younger generations, and envision a digital ministry program that will train ministers for this work.

Here in the U.S., our Center for Asian/ Asian-American Ministry, founded in part by Korean students in 1984, provides a home for Asian students wherever they study, and seeds collaboration between Korean and diasporic churches so we can draw from the draw from the deepest wisdoms found on both sides of the Pacific. †

of the world. Garrett became a new home, and my comfort zone. Then, I had to return to Seoul during the COVID-19 pandemic, right in the middle of the Spring 2020 semester. Although I was returning home, “home” required re-locating, re-adjusting and re-learning the context.

Perhaps I was returning a different self than when I left, but still, motherland seemed foreign.

Amid it all, I continued with life. I served as a part-time pastor, experienced the Korean church’s diverse landscape.

Motherland required me to re-learn to speak in her way; being contextual, not coming in from outside. Yearning to help the younger generation of Korea, I wanted to return to Garrett—this time staying in Korea. Gratefully, I am now an online international MATM student, with a concentration in educational leadership.

My studies help me stay a striving learner, a practical theologian, and a passionate minister. Feeling at home more than ever, I am excited to continue raising generations of Korean Christian leaders.

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Make a gift and support the thriving of the church and the healing of the world in East Asia!

aware magazine | summer 2026

• Because these efforts are still in preliminary stages, our fundraising opportunities in Korea are not as fully fleshed out as they are in India and Zimbabwe. We are, however, raising money to send delegations from the U.S. to Korea, and inviting Korean leaders to visit the U.S., so we can mutually explore and shape the future for our partnership.

Offering a Transgenerational Blessing

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Love Isn’t Measured in Square Feet: Dan Van Haften smiles with his parents and sister in front of the family’s modest home, where his parents would live the rest of their lives.

Dan Van Haften’s parents nurtured a generosity that extends beyond their lifetimes

“I

t all starts back when my parents bought their house—a small home with a five-year mortgage where they lived for the rest of their lives.” As Garrett Seminary trustee Dan Van Haften reflects on the $1 million gift he made to Garrett to reduce the seminary’s outstanding debts, his mind is drawn to values instilled by his family—the love they offered him and his sister, the wisdom they modeled by living within one’s means, and the

conviction that we’re called to invest in something larger than ourselves.

“Midland, Michigan was a community where people often tried to impress each other, but my parents weren’t into that,” Van Haften remembers. “While other folks were paying off big houses, we were taking wonderful driving vacations to the Grand Canyon and other destinations from coast to coast. We weren’t traveling fancy, but by the time I graduated from high school I had been

in 35 states and learned what it means to be responsible with money.”

Van Haften’s father was an engineer for the Dow Chemical Company, and his mother taught special needs children.

“When my parents came to Midland they had fifty dollars in their pocket,” he recalls with an affectionate smile.

“But they were frugal and bought a lot of Dow stock through the employee purchase plan.” After his father died in 2003 and his mother passed in 2007,

PHOTOS COURTESY OF DAN VAN HAFTEN

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF DAN VAN HAFTEN

Experiences Last a Lifetime: On a vacation roadtrip stop, Dan’s father photographs the family with President Harry Truman at the Truman Presidential Library.

Garrett place? I don’t like that they took my pastor away!” Van Haften says with a laugh. But over the years, he grew to appreciate how the seminary invests in parish leaders and participate deeply in Garrett’s mission.

“With my gift to Michigan State University I wanted to increase the prevalence of logical thinking. But at Garrett, I wanted to improve theological training, helping students grow closer to God and lead in a Christ-like manner,” Van Haften says. “They’re different callings, but they’re interrelated—and both reflect the values I inherited.”

When it came to what he wanted to fund at the seminary, however, Van Haften made an unorthodox choice.

“If you endow a new program, you also create a new budget line item. By giving to reduce Garrett’s debt, I’m not picking out any one program, I’m supporting all the seminary’s existing ministries,” he says with a smile. “They told me, ‘What do you mean? No one gives to debt reduction—there’s nothing to name.’ I told them, ‘I’m funding the seminary, because I appreciate the challenges that pastors face and want to help them in that work.’”

It’s also a way to promote deeper values that Van Haften wishes would shape our cultural relationship to money. “Some people are in debt because circumstances have been hard—perhaps they have medical issues or have suffered other setbacks; I’m sensitive to that,” he explains. “But there are also governments, businesses, and individuals who choose to spend beyond their means—and that’s where I think God is calling us to be mindful and responsible as we steward our resources.” By donating to significantly reduce Garrett’s outstanding debts, he hopes to inspire other folks to give deeply from themselves, knowing that the seminary is an institution which carefully considers how we build a sustainable future. “Their passion may not be debt reduction,” he concedes. “But none of us get where we are by ourselves. I want people to think

A Generous Spirit: Grateful for how his parents provided for his family’s future, Dan Van Haften seeks to bless future generations.

about how we can give out of gratitude for all that has been important to us.”

And while not everyone has the good fortune to be able to make a million-dollar gift, he believes what’s most important is the intention with which a gift of any size is given..

In his gift, Van Haften sees his parents’ hands extending from the past, continuing to shape the world through his own. “My parents were such good parents, and our small home was a cocoon of love,” he says with reverence. “Then you go out into the world and realize all the painful things that surround us—people aren’t always fair, they’re not always logical or kind. But my parents instilled in me Christian values and the importance of being in relationship with people who share them. They invested in me, and now I can invest in others.” When asked what his parents would say to him—if they could see the abundant fruits their faithful seeds have yielded—Van Haften’s hazel eyes grow a little misty.

“I think they’d be proud,” he says.

“They’re the ones who taught me: If you are blessed, you should figure out ways to bless others.” †

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they left that stock to Van Haften and his sister, a nest egg to help sustain them.

The market had other plans: Within a few years, Dow stock prices quadrupled, and Van Haften found himself blessed with an abundance he did not expect.

While some folks would have taken lavish vacations, the sudden change in fortune prompted Van Haften to think about what it means to honor the people and communities who shaped him. “It was really my parent’s money, so I decided to establish the Van Haften Endowed Professorship in Deductive Literacy at Michigan State University in their memory,” he explains. While his alma mater had already bestowed bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics, this experience taught him something else. “It’s more fun to give when you’re alive than when you’re dead,” he notes with a chuckle.

As a career engineer and manager at Bell Laboratories and its successors, a professorship for deductive reasoning spoke to Van Haften’s life’s work and a connection to his father, who likewise graduated from Michigan State. But he also wanted to make a gift to honor the Methodist faith that guided his parents’ lives, one steeped in their deepest principles. He first became aware of Garrett when his beloved childhood pastor, Dr. Orville H. McKay, left First United Methodist Church in Midland, Michigan, to become Garrett’s president in 1965. “I said, ‘What is this

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Dr. Randy Akers (G-ETS 1974) received the Order of the Palmetto, the highest civilian honor given by the state of South Carolina. Akers received recognition for his contributions to the citizens of the state as Executive Director of the South Carolina Humanities Council for 37 years.

Rev. Anne Broyles (G-ETS 1979) won the 2025 Oregon Book Award for Children’s Literature for her picture book, I’m Gonna Paint: Ralph Fasanella, Artist of the People. Her 2025 book for 9-14-year-olds, Eating to Save the

Planet: How Veganism Helps Fight Climate Change, is a Junior Library Guild Gold selection.

was appointed as Director of Ministerial Excellence for the Illinois Great Rivers Conference.

Rev. Karen Koelsch (G-ETS 1995) has been appointed as the District Superintendent of the Indiana Eastern Rivers District.

Ms. Rebecca Wilson (G-ETS 2014) published a book, Not My Grandmother’s Hymnal (Tehom Center Publishing).

Rev. Cornelius Davis (G-ETS 1999) received the Drum Major for Justice Award at the 32nd Annual Celebration honoring Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Rev. Elizabeth Fender (G-ETS 2009)

Ms. Susanna Adlem (G-ETS 2022) published a book, Love the Sinner (Independently published).

Dr. Gina Robinson (G-ETS 2023) was named as a member of Emory University’s class of 2025 40 Under 40

COURTESY OF GARRETT SEMINARY

Alum Notes

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PHOTO BY JELLEKE VANOOTEGHEM/UNSPLASH

In Memoriam LeGrand Smith (GBI 1951) Yorktown, VA, died June 19, 2025.

Clifton Ellerbeck (ETS 1960) Des Moines, IA, died February 2, 2026.

Bill Ping (ETS 1955) Owensville, IN, died September 6, 2025.

Thomas R. Jarrell (GBI 1961 & GTS 1963) Glen Ellyn, IL, died January 1, 2026.

Wilmer Bloy (ETS 1956) Madison, WI, died January 10, 2026.

Esther Adams (GTS 1965) Loup City, NE, died August 26, 2024.

Paul F. McCleary (GBI 1956 & GTS 1972) Tempe, AZ, died October 2, 2025.

Vinton Beckstrom (GTS 1966) St Paul, MN died December 4, 2025.

Sakura Cherry Long (GBI 1958) Oakley, CA, died February 4, 2024.

Richard E. Davies (GTS 1967) Macon, GA, died January 18, 2026.

Carol Butler (GBI 1959) Hermitage, TN, died February 18, 2026.

Don Nickolson (ETS 1968) Washburn, WI, died January 2, 2026.

William Morton (GBI 195) Edina, MN, died September 10, 2025.

John A. Ortmeyer (GTS 1971 & G-ETS 1977) Snohomish, WA, died June 24, 2024.

Charles W. Strong (GTS 1974) Wausau,

WI, died August 22, 2025.

L. Rachel Berry (G-ETS 1977) Champaign, IL, died November 12, 2025.

Kenneth Brewster (G-ETS 1977) Rockwood, TN died November 24, 2025.

Tompsie K. Smith (G-ETS 1980) St. Marys, IA, died October 25, 2025.

C. John Weborg (G-ETS 1983) Walnut, IL, died December 13, 2025.

James R. Bentley (G-ETS 1983) Cathedral City, CA, died October 15, 2025.

Judith Mayo (G-ETS 1992) Ypsilanti, MI, died January 15, 2026.

Carol Wiley (COS) New Castle, IN, died March 15, 2025.

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Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary 2121 Sheridan Road Evanston, Illinois 60201

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Want to know what the Annual Fund supports?

Student scholarships are only one half of the equation when it comes to making theological education accessible and affordable. Our Annual Fund provides the resources students need to thrive once they arrive on campus. To show all the ways it supports the student experience, we’ve illustrated the life of Maria, a prototypical Garrett student. Scan the code and watch how the Annual Fund helps her answer her call to ministry! www.garrett.edu/give

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