Joe Bessler (former resident) is author of the forthcoming A Scandalous Jesus: How Three Historic Quests Changed Theology for the Better (Polebridge Press). Arguing that the risk of new interpretation contributes to theological renewal, the book explores how these quests opened historic questions about dissent and free public discourse, about human struggle and diversity, and about the power of language to disorient and reorient.

Bill Wassner (1981) is now Senior Pastor of Port Orange [Florida] United Church of Christ. His first Sunday was March 6, 2013. He previously served St. Peter's UCC in South Bend, Indiana.

Erica Brown (1996) will become the Chaplain and Pastoral Counselor at Blackburn College, Carlinville, Illinois, on April 1.

Emilie M. Townes (former resident) has been named dean of Vanderbilt University Divinity School, effective July 1, 2013. A distinguished social ethicist and pioneering womanist theologian who is an ordained American Baptist clergywoman, she will be the school's 16th dean. She is currently the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of African American Religion and Theology and associate dean of academic affairs at Yale Divinity School. Previously, she was the Carolyn Williams Beaird Professor of Christian Ethics at Union Theological Seminary. Read the press release.

On July 31, Don Pittman (1976) will retire from Phillips Theological Seminary as Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean and as the William Tabbernee Professor of the History of Religions. He has served at Phillips since 2000. Previously he taught in Taiwan as a missionary and at Brite Divinity School, where he also served as dean. From 1983-84, he was the acting dean of the Disciples Divinity House.

Michael Swartzentruber (2007) has been called to Middletown Christian Church, Louisville, Kentucky as Youth Minister. He began his ministry in January. Michael and Rebecca, his spouse, also embarked on the adventure of home ownership, buying their first house upon their move to Louisville.

Bill Wright (1995) is the author of "Negative Experience in Calvin's Institutes and Its Systematic Consequences," published in the January 2013 edition of The Journal of Religion. He teaches at Eureka College.

April Lewton (2004; trustee) will be one of the plenary speakers for the 2014 Quadrennial in Atlanta. She will speak on the theme, "I see you with hands of justice." The other speakers are: Sharon E Watkins, Nohemí Pagan, Penny Ziemer, and Cynthia Hale.

Sympathy to Katherine Raley (2008) on the death of her father, Mike Raley, on January 26 in Columbia, South Carolina. Mr. Raley died at home in hospice care after a battle with brain cancer. He was 64. A PhD graduate of the University of Georgia in counseling, he had a 20-year career at the SC Commission on Higher Education, including as the Director of Academic Affairs & Licensing. A memorial service is planned for January 31.

Garry Sparks (2001) was interviewed on the public radio program, Interfaith Voices, on December 13, 2012, about the Mayan Long Count Calendar and the influence of colonial Christian millennarianism as the root of the 2012 "doomsday" predictions.