Here’s a snapshot of some of our regular contributors.
Interested in joining us by writing a single post, a series, or possibly even becoming a regular contributor to the Emerging Scholars Network Blog? Please drop the Emerging Scholars Network an email or complete our writer survey to share your proposal(s).
Kevin Birth
Kevin Birth is a professor of anthropology at Queens College of the City University of New York. He studies cultural concepts of time in relationship to cognition, and has conducted ethnographic research in Trinidad and on the current leap second controversy. His publications and presentations cover a wide ranging array of topics including chronobiology and globalization, comparative calendars, timekeeping in Roman Britain, culture and memory, cognitive neuroscience, early modern clocks, and ideas about roosters in the Middle Ages. He is the author of three books: Any Time is Trinidad Time (University Press of Florida), Bacchanalian Sentiments (Duke University Press), and most recently Objects of Time (Palgrave Macmillan).
Christian Brady
Christian M. M. Brady is a scholar of ancient Hebrew and Jewish literature and an academic administrator. His academic research focuses upon the interpretation of the Bible in antiquity, especially the ancient rabbinic commentaries of the books of Lamentations and Ruth known as “Targum.” He has also written extensively on the topic of suffering and grace. Brady is a faculty member in the department of Modern & Classical Languages, Literatures & Cultures and is dean of the Lewis Honors College at the University of Kentucky. Prior to that he was dean of the Schreyer Honors College at Penn State from 2006-2016, director of the Honors Program (2003-2006) and the Jewish Studies Program (1998-2003) at Tulane University. He is an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church.
Deryck Chan
Deryck Chan is a civil engineer, currently undertaking his PhD studies in underground construction at Cambridge University. He has previously worked with Engineering Ministries International, a Christian charity that sends architects and engineers to serve the church in places with technical needs. He is passionate about food, languages, social justice, and living out the word of God in all walks of life.
Alice Brown-Collins
Alice R. Brown-Collins, Ph.D., is an ordained Minister and licensed Evangelist. Presently, she is the Associate Regional Director of Graduate and Faculty Ministries (GFM), Northeast and the area director for Black Scholars and Professionals (BSAP), InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Dr. Brown-Collins has a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She is a social psychologist and has held positions as assistant professor at Brown University (Black Studies) and Wellesley College (Africana Studies), as well as adjunct professor at Brandeis University. A lecturer, teacher, and preacher, she has conducted numerous seminars and workshops on families, married couples, missions, discipleship, college ministries, prayer, multiethnicity, race relations, and women as well as participated in the Veritas Forum at the University of Colorado, Boulder. In addition, she has missions experience in Ghana; Guyana, South America; Kenya; and Australia. She has participated in the urban missions project, Springfield, MA, 2013. Rev. Dr. ABC loves the Lord! She is the spouse of Rev. Boris E. Collins and they have two children; Jamal, 35 years old and Kateri, 26 years old, a daughter-in-law, Marisha, and, a bundle of joy, grandson, Shamar.
Kateri Collins
Kateri Collins has a B.A. in Child Studies and Psychology from Lesley University. She is a freelance artist who loves caring for children, especially her nephew Shamar. This year at Lesley University she will be pursuing a Masters Degree in Expressive Art Therapy where she can grow in her continual love for helping people by exposing them to drama, music, poetry and theatre. She has been an active member in the Black Women’s Support Group, Black Scholars and Professionals (BSAP), InterVarsity as well as previous president of the Multicultural Club at Lesley University. For many years she has watched the children at the InterVarsity Graduate and Faculty Ministry Regional Leadership Meeting and thoroughly enjoyed that. She has also been very active in helping to plan and execute the BSAP Northeast Conference in April for the past few years.
Hannah Eagleson
Hannah Eagleson is a writer/editor on staff with InterVarsity’s Emerging Scholars Network (ESN). She edits Scholar’s Compass (i.e., ESN’s collaboratively written devotional for academics) and Scholar’s Call. In addition to being the author of a growing number of ESN blog series (e.g., The Kingdom of God: Poems for Ordinary Time, Mentoring, Summer Quotations Series, What I Wish I’d Known About Graduate School), she has written excellent pieces for InterVarsity’s Graduate & Faculty Ministries (Helping Undergrads Find a Mentor) and The Well (Work in Progress: Finding the Shape of my Vocation). Note: What I Wish I’d Known About Graduate School: Surviving the Workload is among the top five of ESN’s most visited blog posts. Hannah holds a PhD in English literature, and she’s working on a novel about a dragon who gave up fending off knights to become a tea importer in eighteenth-century England.
Mark Eckel
Dr. Mark Eckel is adjunct professor for various institutions, President of The Comenius Institute (website), spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), hosts a weekly radio program with diverse groups of guests (1 minute video), interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video), teaches weekly at his church (video) and writes weekly at his website warpandwoof.org. His contributions to ESN’s blog include series on the Marks of a Christian Scholar, movies, and suffering.
Royce Francis
Dr. Royce Francis is a professor at the George Washington University. He leads the SEED research group: Strategic [urban] Ecologies, Engineering, and Decision-making. Currently, SEED is focusing on decision-analytic sustainability measurement in infrastructure systems, risk-based management of drinking water infrastructure rehabilitation and renewal, and integration of decision modeling with life cycle cost assessment methodologies for evaluating vulnerability of infrastructure systems to natural hazards. Dr. Francis is a member of the Association for Environmental Engineering and Science Professors, the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the Society for Risk Analysis where he serves as the 2012 Engineering Infrastructure Specialty Group (EISG) Chair.
Monica Greenwood
Monica Greenwood (pseudonym) waited impatiently for three years for the day she walked into her first graduate seminar in philosophy. Before that momentous day, she was an undergrad upperclassman studying philosophy at a state school known for its agriculture program. Today, she writes, studies, teaches, and her passion remains the same: the education of undergraduates, specifically underclassmen, in introductory philosophy courses. Monica’s Letter to a New Graduate Student has been an inspirational piece to a number of our readers and is part of our Graduate Student Journey Resource collection.
Mark Hansard
Mark is on staff with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in Manhattan, Kansas, where he ministers to Faculty at Kansas State University and surrounding campuses. He has been in campus ministry 22 years, 11 of those years in faculty ministry. He has a Master’s degree in philosophy and theology from Talbot School of Theology, La Mirada, CA, and is passionate about Jesus Christ and the life of the mind. Mark, his wife and three daughters make their home near K-State. Mark’s various contributions include an interview of the astronomer Jennifer Wiseman and a consideration of the Fruit of the Spirit in Academia.
Tom Ingebritsen
Tom is a retired Iowa State University biology professor and part-time staff person with InterVarsity Graduate and Faculty Ministries. He is the husband of Denise, the father of Eric, Tracy and Isaac and the grandfather of Savannah and Emma. His Christianity and Science series is based on an honors seminar he taught at Iowa State U.
Robert Kaita
Bob Kaita, recently retired from the Plasma Physics Laboratory and the Graduate Program of the Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University. Bob investigated techniques for heating plasmas to high temperatures, and developed instrumentation for measuring them. He also explored materials that could be used in future fusion reactors. His work is described in nearly four hundred and fifty papers. Bob is a fellow of the American Physics Society, and a recipient of the Kaul Prize for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research and Technology Development. He has supervised the research of many high school, undergraduate, and graduate students, including serving as the thesis advisor to fourteen Princeton doctoral students. Bob is a fellow and past president of the American Scientific Affiliation, and has served as the faculty advisor for the Princeton Graduate Christian Fellowship.
David H. Leonard
David Leonard teaches philosophy in the Atlanta area, is a freelance writer and editor, and is passionate about equipping Christians to discover their vocations. He has been published in Christianity Today, CASE Magazine, and the Southern Journal of Philosophy, and has spoken at conferences for the John Templeton Foundation, Global Scholars, and the Evangelical Philosophical Society. David holds the M.A. from Denver Seminary and the Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas. Follow him on Twitter @DrDavidLeonard.
Johnny Wei-Bing Lin
Johnny is a Senior Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Computing Education in the Computing and Software Systems Division of the U. of Washington Bothell and an Affiliate Professor of Physics and Engineering at North Park U. He is the author of the textbook A Hands-On Introduction to Using Python in the Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and the environmental ethics book The Nature of Environmental Stewardship. Johnny is a past Executive Council President of the American Scientific Affiliation, a network of Christians in the sciences. He has three children (Timothy, James, and Christianne) and one wife (Karen) who keep him busy and happy, not necessarily in that order.
Tamarie Macon
Tamarie Macon is a Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow at New York University. She studies Black fathers’ parenting and how they promote the adaptive emotional development of their young children. She also teaches courses in Applied Psychology. She completed her PhD in Education and Psychology from the University of Michigan. She previously studied at Rutgers University and worked on Capitol Hill.
Beth Madison
Beth Madison holds a PhD in soil microbiology from Kansas State University, and an MS in agronomy from the University of Kentucky. She completed her undergraduate work in plant and soil science at the University of Tennessee. Beth has been teaching at the university level for nearly 22 years. She served as assistant professor at Western Kentucky University before “retiring” to be a stay-at-home mom for nearly 10 years while adjunct teaching at Waycross College (University of Georgia system) and then at Union University. When her youngest son began school, she returned to full-time teaching as an assistant professor at Union University. Beth has been married for 25 years to an awesome and selflessly giving man who loves God and His creation deeply as a professor of biology, also at Union University. Their favorite activities include being outside in the woods or on the water almost any time of the year, and visiting with friends while eating good food. Her post If I Had to Do It Again: the Graduate School and Early Professor Years Edition is part of Scholar’s Compass: a devotional for academics, by academics.
Will Mari
Will Mari is a recent PhD graduate of the University of Washington’s Dept. of Communication. His areas of research include media history, the history of media technology, and journalism studies. He loves teaching at Northwest University in nearby Kirkland, Washington. Also, Jesus, Ruth, tea, and Hamilton in that order. He began his contributions to the ESN blog with a series on Processing your PhD.
Rick Mattson
Rick Mattson is a national evangelist and apologist for InterVarsity, speaking at over fifty campuses the past few years. He lives in St. Paul, MN with his family. As part of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Rick Mattson’s call is to strengthen and encourage Christian students and faculty in their faith, and invite seekers and skeptics to consider Christ for their lives. He studied at Bethel Seminary of St. Paul, MN, where he received his masters in the philosophy of religion. Rick’s committed to compassion, reason, and respect in his interactions with both “friend and foe” on campus. He’s also highly committed to InterVarsity’s value of multiethnicity. Rick loves talking with students and faculty about the great questions of life! What could be more fun??? At home, Rick’s a committed family man, serious golfer, and plays e-guitar in the band at his church. . . . And of course he spends a lot of time reading theology and philosophy 🙂
Meagan Medley
Dr. Meagan Medley’s school based work includes a focus in response to intervention (RTI), positive behavior intervention and supports (PBIS), crisis prevention and management, systems-wide data analysis, special education eligibility evaluation, and functional behavior assessment (FBA). Medley has published research concerning the response to intervention. Her current research interests include treatment integrity, educational practice with students with vision impairments and blindness, best practices in school-based service, school-based crisis, and international education. Medley spends her free time traveling, coordinating mission work with World Changers through Lifeway Ministries, and occasionally ringing a cowbell for her alma mater, Mississippi State University. Her Summer Snapshot: Research, Teaching, Missions is a part of the growing library of encouraging and insightful Summer Snapshots.
Joy Moore
Joy Moore lives in Tennessee and works at Union University, where she manages two coffee shops and a music venue and teaches creative writing. She graduated from the University of Arkansas with a degree in English and creative writing and holds an MFA from Pacific University. Her poems have appeared in Hunger Mountain, The South Carolina Review, Lake Effect, Serving House, and Prairie Schooner, where she won a Glenna Luschei award.
Jeff Neely
Jeff Neely is an assistant professor of journalism at The University of Tampa, where he teaches courses in newswriting, feature writing, multimedia journalism and literary journalism. His research has examined the role narrative and literary journalism can play in broadening our understanding of various issues and experiences life brings our way, from identity formation to environmental ethics. He has also studied how youth journalism programs, where young people tell their own stories and those of their peers, can help strengthen local communities. He is currently working with local non-profit outreach organizations to build a youth journalism program called Tampa Youth Voice. Prior to entering academe, Jeff worked as a writer and editor for various publications in and around the Tampa Bay area, as well as a case manager and resource development specialist for the Florida foster care system. His focus for the ESN blog is exploring the vocation of journalism, this will include an interview series of Evangelical scholars.
William Pennock
William Pennock is a graduate student in the AguaClara Program at Cornell University, where he is pursuing his passion of researching better drinking water treatment technologies. He works with Leonard Lion and Monroe Weber-Shirk on a research project to model and improve the design of baffled hydraulic flocculators with the goal of making AguaClara treatment plants more compact and efficient. When he is not researching, William likes to climb trees, mountain bike, and carve wood.
Heather Walker Peterson
Heather Walker Peterson has taught in the Department of English and Literature at University of Northwestern—St. Paul, contributes to the blog humanepursuits.com, and tweets @languageNfaith.
Galina Pylypiv
Galina Pylypiv is a senior Biomedical Engineering student and biomechanics undergraduate research assistant at the University of Akron. She is Vice President of the University of Akron Society of Women Engineers and leader of the InterVarsity International Student Ministry small group on her campus. Born in Ukraine and raised as a third culture kid in the US, she is interested in cross-cultural community that brings together the differing perspectives of culture, faith, and science. Her The Secret of Solitude is a part of the growing library of encouraging and insightful Summer Snapshots.
Scott Santibanez
Tito Scott Santibañez is an adjunct professor at Emory University and Trinity School for Ministry. As a volunteer physician, he has provided medical care for underserved populations for nearly 25 years. He also has a doctorate from seminary.
Kelly Seaton
Kelly Seaton lives in Durham, North Carolina (go Duke!), where she is an HIV vaccine researcher. She is a graduate of Messiah College and Penn State University-Hershey. Her cross-cultural experience includes studying abroad in Barcelona, Spain, as well as traveling to Haiti and South Africa. She loves the movies Emma and The Shawshank Redemption. Outside of work, she loves hanging with friends, playing volleyball, and any and all outdoors. Her post Finding a Postdoc in the Sciences: Nailing the Interview is the most visited ESN blog post.
Michael Stell
I am a PhD student in theology at Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. I am studying the theology of John Williamson Nevin, who taught in the seminary of the German Reformed Church in America in the mid-nineteenth century. He was also the president of Franklin and Marshall College and a friend to James Buchanan, the 15th president of the United States. I am currently a teaching fellow at CUA, teaching undergraduate theology and Church History classes. My goal is to teach at a college or university after completing my degree program. I am also the current vice-president of the graduate student association at CUA. Before life as a grad student (if that were an acronym it would be BLaaGS) I was a teacher and principal in secondary education at various Christian schools in the Northeast. My family and I currently live in Hagerstown, MD. Note: Michael’s contributions to the blog include a series on Returning to Graduate School.
S. Joshua Swamidass
A physician scientist, Dr. S. Joshua Swamidass is a professor of Laboratory and Genomic at Washington University in Saint Louis (http://swami.wustl.edu/). He obtained his PhD in Information and Computer Sciences and an MD from UC Irvine in 2009. Currently, he runs a scientific research group focused on designing computational solutions to key problems in drug development, biology, and medicine. He also advises and speaks for groups working to understand how to better integrate faith and science. This includes work over the last several years at churches and campus ministries (with Cru, Veritas, Intervarsity and Urbana). More recently, he serves with the AAAS as an advisor to the Science for Seminaries Program at Concordia Seminary in Saint Louis (http://www.scienceforseminaries.org/). He spoke at Urbana 15 about following Jesus in graduate school (https://blog.emergingscholars.org/2015/12/why-should-a-missional-student-ever-consider-gradschool/). Through this work, his message is that nothing in science diminishes the power, relevance, and importance of the Gospel. Nothing in science diminishes Jesus. Joshua wrote Finding Common Ground: Christians, Scientists, and History of Science for the blog.
Bob Trube
Bob Trube is Senior Area Director for InterVarsity’s Graduate & Faculty Ministry team in the Ohio Valley (Ohio, West Virginia, and Western Pennsylvania) and leads the ministry to graduate students and faculty at The Ohio State University. He resides in Columbus, Ohio, with Marilyn and enjoys reading, gardening, choral singing, and plein air painting. Bob is a significant contributor to book reviews on the ESN blog. His most visited review is of Christian Smith’s The Bible Made Impossible.
Andy Walsh
Andy has worn many hats in his life. He knows this is a dreadfully clichéd notion, but since it is also literally true he uses it anyway. Among his current metaphorical hats: husband of one wife, father of two elementary school students, reader of science fiction and science fact, enthusiast of contemporary symphonic music, and chief science officer. Previous metaphorical hats include: comp bio postdoc, molecular biology grad student, InterVarsity chapter president (that one came with a literal hat), music store clerk, house painter, and mosquito trapper. Among his more unique literal hats: British bobby, captain’s hats (of varying levels of authenticity) of several specific vessels, a deerstalker from 221B Baker St, and a railroad engineer’s cap. His weekly science post has explored a number of topics, including questions from those who read/follow the blog, under Science and Faith. As you have a question drop him a line 🙂
Joshua Wu
Joshua received his PhD in Political Science from The Ohio State University in 2015. His research examines the intersection of religion and politics, especially foreign policy, through statistical analyses of historical public opinion polls and survey experiments. In his dissertation, he examines how presidential use of religious rhetoric during foreign policy crises affects foreign policy public opinion. He currently works at a market research firm in Rochester, NY where his wife is a pediatric resident at the Golisano Children’s Hospital. They welcomed baby Evelina at the end of 2015 and attend Grace Road Church. Joshua is originally from Taiwan and has also lived in Singapore, Boston, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and London. His research website is joshuawu.com. His ESN blog post The Myth of the Evangelical Voter has been a significant conversation starter in the context of the 2016 presidential race.
The Urban Resident
David’s a res i dent (physician-in-training) that often bridges very dif fer ent worlds. Voca tion ally, his foci are in inter nal med i cine and pedi atrics. Geo graph i cally, he grew up in the sub urbs but now lives in the inner city. Eth ni cally, he’s Asian and Amer i can. Socially, he’s an intro vert that enjoys pub lic speak ing (mainly as a plat form for ideals). Polit i cally, he leans center-left but with largely fun da men tal ist Chris t ian moral ity. Aca d e m i cally, he’s stud ied engi neer ing, med i cine, and health pol icy. Faith-wise, he’s decid edly Christian. His Writing a Christian Personal Statement is among the top 10 most visited post on blog.
Tom Grosh
Tom enjoys daily conversations regarding living out the Biblical Story with his wife Theresa and their four girls, around the block, at Elizabethtown Brethren in Christ Church (where he teaches adult electives and co-leads a small group), among healthcare professionals as the South Central PA Area Director for the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA), and in higher ed as a volunteer with the Emerging Scholars Network (ESN). The Christian Medical Society / CMDA at Penn State College of Medicine is the hub of his ministry with CMDA. Note: Tom served with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA for 20+ years, including 6+ years as the Associate Director of ESN. He has written for the ESN blog from its launch in August 2008. He has studied Biology (B.S.), Higher Education (M.A.), Spiritual Direction (Certificate), Spiritual Formation (M.A.R.), Ministry to Emerging Generations (D.Min). To God be the glory!