Wheaton’s academic centers enrich student education by providing significant experiences beyond the classroom, while also supporting and inspiring faculty to pursue areas of expertise and interest. These centers and institutes attract top scholars, invest in outreach and service to the world, and provide needed resources in the areas of scholarship, spiritual development and evangelism, and practical assistance.
Humanitarian Disaster Institute
Director: Dr. Jamie Aten
Founder and Executive Director of the Humanitarian Disaster Institute
Blanchard Chair of Humanitarian & Disaster Leadership
Humanitarian Disaster Institute founder and executive director Dr. Jamie Aten published A Walking Disaster: What Surviving Katrina and Cancer Taught Me About Faith and Resilience (Templeton Press) in January. The book weaves together Aten’s personal experiences and research, drawing out lessons about the power of the human spirit to endure trauma with courage. In February, HDI co-hosted a poverty simulation with HOPE International. Students were able to take part in an immersive experiential learning opportunity designed to help participants glimpse the difficulty inherent in a lifetime of poverty. The first class of the M.A. in Humanitarian and Disaster Leadership will graduate in August, after spending the summer completing internships with relief and development organizations around the globe. Student Leif Van Grinsven ’19, who is part of the accelerated M.A. program, was selected as a 2019 Humanitarian Crises, Refugees, and Human Rights Fellow, as a part of the Duke Global Policy Program. He will spend the summer as an intern in Geneva, Switzerland.
WHEATON.EDU/hdi
Marion E. Wade Center
Directors: Dr. Crystal Downing and Dr. David C. Downing
Co-Directors and Co-Holders of the Marion E. Wade Chair of Christian Thought
Marion E. Wade Center archivist Laura Schmidt ’03 presented a lecture in January on the early work of J. R. R. Tolkien, titled “Tolkien’s Beginnings: Friendship, War, Love, and Writing.” Dr. Crystal Downing presented “The Wages ofCinema: Dorothy L. Sayers’s Spiritual Montage” in March. The 2018-19 Hansen Lectureship was held by Dr. Jerry Root, professor of evangelism, who lectured on C. S. Lewis’s poem Dymer. Dr. Matthew Milliner ’98, associate professor of art history, will present the 2019-20 Hansen Lectureship series. As part of the Muriel Fuller Endowment for the Imagination and the Arts, Ballet 5:8 will perform in the fall The Space in Between, a ballet inspired by C. S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce. In preparation for the ballet, Dr. David C. Downing, co-holder of the Marion E. Wade Chair of Christian Thought, will present his inaugural lecture on The Great Divorce. Additionally, the Wade launched a podcast featuring interviews and discussions with leading scholars, authors, and figures related to the Wade’s seven authors.
WHEATON.EDU/wade
Wheaton Center for Faith, Politics & Economics (FPE)
FPE is pleased to welcome new board members: Bonnie Pruett Wurzbacher ’77, former Chief Resource Development Officer for World Vision International (2013-2017) and Sr. Vice Presidentat Coca-Cola (1984-2012); and Martha Holley Newsome ’87, CEO and President of Medical Teams International. FPE thanks outgoing board members Ken Elzinga and Kristin Colber-Baker ’86 for their generous and wise service. FPE held its inaugural Faith in the Marketplace Mentorship course this fall. Students had the opportunity to hear personal accounts of how Christian faith has affected the careers of successful practitioners who have served as entrepreneurs, presidents of corporations and investment companies, top managers for cutting-edge businesses like LinkedIn, and high-level government officials. FPE hosted Steve Preston, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on September 24 for a lecture on “The Financial Crisis of 2008: A View from the Inside.” Arthur Brooks, President of the American Enterprise Institute, lectured on his newly released book, Love your Enemies (BroadsideBooks, 2019), in April. During the summer, FPE will run its Iron Sharpens Iron: Southeast Asia program, during which students will see for themselves the relationship between public policy and international business while traveling to Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Singapore.
WHEATON.EDU/fpe
OTHER CENTERS AND INSTITUTES
Center for Applied Christian Ethics
HoneyRock—Outdoor Center for Leadership Development
Human Needs and Global Resources