STAFF
Dorothy Bass, Senior Fellow
Dorothy Bass received a Ph.D. in American Civilization from Brown University. She has taught at Wellesley College, University of Chicago, and Chicago Theological Seminary. In 1992 she became Director of the Valparaiso Project on the Education and Formation of People in Faith, a Lilly Endowment project that has developed resources on Christian faith and life. Among the books she has written or edited are Practicing Our Faith (Wiley, 2d ed. 2010), Receiving the Day: Christian Practices for Opening the Gift of Time (Jossey-Bass, 2000), Practicing Theology: Beliefs and Practices in Christian Life (Eerdmans, 2003) and, with Mark Schwehn, Leading Lives That Matter.
Joe Creech, Executive Director
Joe Creech received his PhD in history from the University of Notre Dame. He teaches history and humanities in Christ College at Valparaiso University and specializes in American cultural, political, and religious history. In 2005 he was named one of the notable "Young Scholars in American Religion" by the Center for the Study of American Religion and Culture. He is the author of Righteous Indignation: Religion and the Populist Revolution (Illinois, 2006). Contact Joe
Joe Goss, Associate Program Director
Joe Goss received an M.A. in philosophy from Loyola University Chicago. Prior to working with the Lilly Fellows Program, Joe worked for 12 years as Assistant Director of Valparaiso University's Core Program, an interdisciplinary humanities course. He also has taught in the First Year Program of Christ College (the Honors College), and philosophy and general studies courses at Valparaiso University. Joe is in addition the assistant editor of the Owl of Minerva, a scholarly journal which focuses on the work of the philosopher G. W. F. Hegel. Contact Joe
Agnes R. Howard, Senior Fellow
Agnes R. Howard (PhD, History, University of Virginia) is Assistant Professor in Humanities at Valparaiso University, where she teaches in Christ College, the honors college. Her academic interests include American religious history, Puritan New England, and the cultural history of pregnancy and birth. She is completing a book project on the culture of pregnancy, Showing: What Pregnancy Tells Us about Being Human, under contract with Eerdmans Publishing.
Thomas Albert (Tal) Howard, Senior Fellow
Thomas Albert Howard (PhD, University of Virginia) is Professor of Humanities and History and holder of the Duesenberg Chair in Christian Ethics at Valparaiso University, where he is affiliated with Christ College, Valparaiso’s humanities-based honors college. He is the author or editor of eight books, including The Pope and the Professor: Pius IX, Ignaz von Döllinger, and the Quandary of the Modern Age (Oxford UP, 2017), Remembering the Reformation: An Inquiry into the Meanings of Protestantism (Oxford UP, 2016), and (edited with Mark A. Noll) Protestantism After 500 Years (Oxford UP, 2016). Currently he is working on a history of interreligious dialogue and a general history of modern Christian theology; the latter is under contract with Princeton University Press.
Mark Schwehn, Founding Director
Mark Schwehn is Professor of Humanities in Christ College, the Honors College of Valparaiso University, where he has taught since 1983 and where he was dean from 1990-2003. In addition, he has taught at the California State University at San Jose (1969-1972), the University of Chicago (1975-1983), and served as Provost of Valparaiso University from 2009 to 2014. From 1967-1975 he held a Danforth Graduate Fellowship at Stanford University where he completed a PhD in history and humanities. His publications include Exiles from Eden: Religion and the Academic Vocation in America (Oxford, 1993), Everyone a Teacher (Notre Dame, 2000), and with Dorothy C. Bass, Leading Lives That Matter (Eerdmans, 2006).
Jenna Van Sickle, Program Director
Jenna Van Sickle is a graduate of Valparaiso University, where she earned her BS in mathematics and secondary education. She received an MA and a PhD in Mathematics Education from Columbia University. She has held teaching positions at Fontbonne University and Cleveland State University, where she was also the Director of the College Credit Plus Teacher Credentialing Program. Van Sickle has published articles in the fields of history of mathematics education, STEM education, and learner-centered instruction in mathematics. Additionally, she has created an innovative trigonometry curriculum that integrates technology to allow students to construct the trigonometric functions based on their historical development. Contact Jenna
NATIONAL BOARD
Alicia Córdoba, Aquinas College
Jason Crawford, Union University
Douglas Henry, Baylor University
Harry Nasuti, Fordham University
Alison Noble, Messiah University
Donna Nofziger, Pepperdine University
Caryn Riswold, Wartburg College
Maura Ryan, University of Notre Dame
John Sebastian, Loyola Marymount University
Gretchen Van Dyke, The University of Scranton
John Ware, Xavier University of Louisiana
Burton Webb, University of Pikeville