Disciples Scholars commence a lifetime of service and connection, in addition to beginning MDiv, MA, or PhD degree programs at the University of Chicago Divinity School. They receive full tuition, free housing, and stipendiary awards that allow for immersive preparation. Several scholarships honor individuals and extend legacies of thought and action. 

New Scholars

Entering MDiv student Annika Fuller is the M. Elizabeth Dey Scholar. She is a 2025 graduate of the New College of Florida. The UCC-related college has a nontraditional curriculum, which allowed her to major in Psychology and Religion while also continuing to pursue music performance. She studied in Germany during her final term. She has been a lifelong member of Palm Lake Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Florida, active in regional camps and the regional youth council, and a HELM Leadership Fellow.

Ella Johnson is a first-year MDiv student and has been named The Martin Family Scholar. She was the valedictorian of the 2024 graduating class at Texas Christian University, where she majored in Religion and Politics. A leader of Disciples on Campus at TCU, and involved at University Christian Church and Galileo Church in Fort Worth, she was also a HELM Leadership Fellow and a Be the Neighbor intern. She was raised in the Heart of the Rockies Christian Church in Fort Collins, Colorado.

MDiv student Fiyori Kidane has been named the inaugural recipient of the Jim and Peggy Powell Scholarship. She served from 2023 through this spring as the People-to-People Coordinator for Disciples Overseas Ministries. She is a 2019 graduate of Texas Christian University and a former HELM Leadership Fellow. After graduation, she served as a Global Mission intern in Greece, where she worked with refugees. Fiyori is a member of Allisonville Christian Church in Indianapolis, the Powell’s own congregation.

Allison Nash, beginning the dual degree MDiv/MSW program, is the Oreon E. Scott Entering Scholar and a 2022 BA and MA graduate of Earlham College in English and Education. Until this summer, she served as a librarian at the St. Louis Language Immersion School. In St. Louis, she was active at Union Avenue Christian Church. Her home church is Park Christian Church in New Bedford, Indiana. Serving as a Disciples Peace Intern in summer 2024 catalyzed her decision to apply for MDiv studies. (Not pictured.)

MA student Brandon Roberts has been named the Henry Barton Robison Scholar. Brandon is a 2025 honors graduate of Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, where he majored in History and Educational Studies. His interests are in biblical studies and critical theory; he has already given several conference papers. Originally from Portland, Oregon, he became a member of the Gerlaw Christian Church while at Knox. He is an accomplished musician and his spouse, Marli Messner, is a poet.

The William N. Weaver Entering Scholar will be MDiv student Hayden Skaggs, a 2025 honors graduate of Eureka College, where he studied Sociology and Religion. He was an intern at Eureka Christian Church and as a Be the Neighbor intern. He was a Lincoln Academy of Illinois Student Laureate, a HELM Leadership Fellow, a Phillips University Leadership Fellow, and a campus leader at Eureka. Last summer, he walked the Camino de Santiago across northern Spain.

Continuing Scholars

Rachel Abdoler, a PhD student in the History of Christianity, is spending several months in Rome and Cairo on a Fullbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad fellowship, underwriting her work on medieval Christian texts written in Arabic, many of which are housed in collections in the Vatican and in Egypt. She is the Barbara and Clark Williamson Scholar. (Not pictured.)

Delaney Beh, a third-year MDiv student, continues as the M. Ray and Phyllis Schultz Scholar. They served this past summer as the sabbatical intern for alumnae Thandiwe Dale-Ferguson at First Congregational Church in Loveland, Colorado.

Entering her second year in the MDiv program, Grace Dearhamer is the Drum and Tenant Scholar. She spent the summer working with the National Council of Churches disaster relief and recovery programs in the Philippines.

MariaIsabelle Garcia, a second-year MDiv and DDH scholar, was an intern at Allisonville Christian Church in Indianapolis this summer, working with alums Sarah Zuniga and Beau Underwood, and is doing her field placement at University Church. She is the Dr. Geunhee and Mrs. Geunsoon Yu Scholar.

Second-year MDiv student, Hart Lang, is the Edward Scribner Ames Scholar. He has an MFA from Rutgers University-Camden and came to DDH from Gilead Church in Chicago.

The Rolland & Laura Frances Sheafor Scholar is Tristan Spangler-Dunning, a third-year MDiv student. He spent last summer working on a history of the Pension Fund. His field education placement is with the Proclamation Project (?).

Katie Varon, second-year MDiv and Head Resident, is the William Barnett Blakemore Scholar. Katie spent the summer working with the National Council of Churches disaster relief and recovery programs in the Philippines.

The Bernard F. and Annie Mae Cooke Scholar is Emma Yeager, a second-year MA student, studying themes of ecology in medieval theology and literature, with an interest in museum work. This past summer, she interned with the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, formerly known as the Oriental Institute.

The William Daniel Cobb Alumni/ae Scholarship enabled nine current and recent Scholars to attend the 2025 General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Memphis, Tennessee: Fiyori Kidane, Allison Nash, Hayden Skaggs, Grace Dearhamer, Katie Varon, Tristan Spangler-Dunning, Virginia White, Isabelle Garcia, and Morganne Talley. They participated in business sessions, educational opportunities, and worship – and made connections with alums.

Six individuals have been named new Disciples Divinity House Scholars. They enter MDiv and MA programs at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Clockwise from the top left, they are:

Ella Johnson (MDiv) was the valedictorian of the 2024 graduating class at Texas Christian University, where she majored in Religion and Politics. A leader of Disciples on Campus at TCU, and involved at University Christian Church and Galileo Church in Fort Worth, she was also a HELM Leadership Fellow and a Be the Neighbor intern. She was raised in the Heart of the Rockies Christian Church in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Brandon Roberts (MA) is a 2025 honors graduate of Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, where he majored in History and Educational Studies. His interests are in biblical studies and critical theory; he has already given several conference papers. Originally from Portland, Oregon, he became a member of the Gerlaw Christian Church while at Knox. He is an accomplished musician and his spouse, Marli Messner, is a poet.

Annika Fuller (MDiv) is a 2025 graduate of the New College of Florida. The UCC-related college has a nontraditional curriculum, which allowed her to major in Psychology and Religion while also continuing to pursue music performance. She studied in Germany during her final term. She has been a lifelong member of Palm Lake Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Florida, active in regional camps and the regional youth council, and a HELM Leadership Fellow.

Allison Nash (MDiv) is a 2022 BA and MA graduate of Earlham College in English and Education. She has been serving as a librarian at the St. Louis Language Immersion School. In St. Louis, she was active at Union Avenue Christian Church. Her home church is Park Christian Church in New Bedford, Indiana. Serving as a Disciples Peace Intern in summer 2024 catalyzed her decision to apply for MDiv studies. Allison plans to pursue the dual MDiv/MSW degree program and has already been accepted by the Crown School.

Fiyori Kidane (MDiv) served from 2023 through this spring as the People-to-People Coordinator for Disciples Overseas Ministries. She is a 2019 graduate of Texas Christian University and a former HELM Leadership Fellow. After graduation, she served as a Global Mission intern in Greece, where she worked with refugees. Her home congregation is Allisonville Christian Church in Indianapolis.

Hayden Skaggs (MDiv) is a 2025 honors graduate of Eureka College, where he studied Sociology and Religion. He has been preparing for leadership in congregational, multi-religious, and academic contexts, including as an intern at Eureka Christian Church and as a Be the Neighbor intern. He was a Lincoln Academy of Illinois Student Laureate, a HELM Leadership Fellow, a Phillips University Leadership Fellow, and a campus leader at Eureka. This summer, he walked the Camino de Santiago across northern Spain.

This fall, they will join nine continuing scholars, five new ecumenical residents, and seven returning residents.

Donald Aubrey Leak, entering class of 1960, died July 21 in the Seattle area. He was 89.

Born in Indiana on September 20, 1935, Don earned his BS degree at the Indiana University. He met Joyce Weigel, a fellow student at Indiana University, and they married in 1957. He continued to Divinity School, becoming a Disciples Divinity House Scholar in 1960 and earning his BD from Chicago Theological Seminary. During his career served as an administrator for religious and nonprofit organizations, including for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle and for the YMCA. He and Joyce retired in the Seattle area and remained active as a DDH alumnus. He is survived by his wife and their two sons, David and Bruce.  

The National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) is a bilateral partner of the Week of Compassion through Global Ministries and ACT Alliance. As their disaster response to a devastating typhoon transitioned from emergency relief to long-term recovery, the partnership deepened to include an internship that places Disciples seminarians alongside their recovery team to learn directly from NCCP’s work and accompany communities as they rebuild. MDiv students and DDH Scholars, Grace Dearhamer and Katie Varon, recently arrived in the Philippines to work and learn for 6-8 weeks.

Grace comments, I am eager to engage with communities on the front lines of environmental and social justice, learning firsthand from their experiences and resilience.This experience will be instrumental in shaping my vocational path. Katie, who was able to participate in ACT Assembly in Indonesia last fall, notes: I am attracted to the specificity of this program because it showcases an intentional goal of equipping emerging Disciples leaders to connect our faith and our actions by learning from people who are already doing so.

Morganne Talley, 2025 MDiv graduate, was ordained to the Christian ministry on July 26 at Timberlake Christian Church in Lynchburg, Virginia. She is wearing a stole that her family commissioned for her. Stephanie McLemore, also an alumna and Morganne's undergraduate chaplain at the University of Lynchburg, preached. McLemore is now Director of Religious Life and University Chaplain at Denison University in Ohio. Student colleagues, Tristan Spangler-Dunning, Isabelle Garcia, and Delaney Beh were among participants. Bill Spangler-Dunning, Regional Minister in Virginia, presided.

Edward H. Kolbe, entering class of 1956, died July 10 in Lincoln, Nebraska. He was 91. A congregational pastor for forty years, he was a specialist in evangelism and an enthusiast of reading, gardening, football, current events, public television, and TCU's Horned Frogs. He dubbed himself "Boy Recruiter" and regularly sent students to DDH.

Ed Kolbe was born in Cypress, Texas, on June 8, 1934, to Louis and Emilie Kolbe. In 1956, after graduating from the University of Houston, he entered the University of Chicago as a Disciples House Scholar. “I was the last Disciples student of Dr. W.E. Garrison while he was teaching religion and philosophy at the University of Houston,” Mr. Kolbe remembered. (W.E. Garrison had served as the second dean of Disciples Divinity House from 1921-28.) “This was the catalyst for a lifetime of influence of Disciples House in my life.”  

Ed served churches in Wichita Falls, TX; Warrensburg, OH; Bedford, IN; Lincoln; Corvallis, OR; Seattle; and Arlington, TX. He earned a DMin at Christian Theological Seminary. He and Mary Ruth Judd married in 1961; she died in 2017. Mary Ruth taught nursing at universities and community colleges. During their fifty-five years of marriage, led educational tours to Israel and Europe, and volunteered in many clubs and organizations. Ed was active in Kiwanis wherever he lived, and served three separate terms on the DDH Alumni/ae Council.

He is survived by three children, Ruth Cooper (Brian), Charles Thornton-Kolbe (Jennifer), and Tom Kolbe (Laura Salem), and six grandchildren. In 2019, his family joined with him to establish the Edward H. and Mary Ruth Judd Kolbe Fund in celebration of his 85th birthday and DDH's 125th year.

Entering DDH Scholar Fiyori Kidane has been named the inaugural recipient of the Jim and Peggy Powell Scholarship. From 2023 until recently, Fiyori served as the People-to-People Program Coordinator for Global Ministries. After graduating from Texas Christian University in 2019, she served as a Global Mission Intern with Perichoresis, a program of the Evangelical Church of Greece, where she worked with migrant and refugee communities and in administrative support. Fiyori will be one of six new entering DDH Scholars this fall.

This scholarship honors the ministry and leadership of James L. and Margaret Powell and expresses their lifelong desire to find, support, and educate leaders for the church to serve the world. Much of Jim's ministry in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) was through Church Extension, which he served as President. After retirement, Jim worked extensively with DDH to undergird and embolden its mission.

The scholarship, which will help ensure full tuition, stipend, and housing support, was spurred by the Powells' children, Drew, Than, Elisabeth, and Laura, and by family friend Gaylord Yu. Other family members, colleagues, and friends joined to raise the $250,000 endowment. The Powells were delighted to learn that Fiyori Kidane, who is a member of Allisonville Christian Church in Indianapolis, their own congregation, has been named the first recipient.

Marissa Ilnitzki, a Disciples House Scholar and June graduate of the MDiv and MSW programs, was honored with the 2025 Joseph Gray Rhind Award at the Divinity School's pinning and hooding ceremony on June 6. Each year a recipient is selected from MDiv graduates for their excellence in training and promise for religious leadership.

The following comments are adapted from the award presentation. Marissa's MDiv cohort knows her as a deep listener, a skilled interlocutor, and a committed friend: as one who pays close attention to others and in whose presence they feel seen, heard, and respected. At Northwestern Hospital, where Marissa trained and continued to work shifts as a hospital chaplain, patients experienced a sense of dignity and understanding among her abundant gifts for spiritual care. Her care for persons and communities is matched and sustained by her lively intellectual curiosity, courage, and love for the arts.

Her skill and insight were powerfully articulated in her MDiv thesis, “A Postcolonial Image: What Hospital Chaplaincy Can Learn from the Art, Theory, and Practice of Improvisation.” In the thesis, Marissa paired her training in improvisation (including at Second City) with research into its use in social work at Hull House, and the felt similarities with moments of jointly crafting theological and care giving responses to illness, grief, and change. She advocates for chaplains and other caregivers to use improv exercises to “ground themselves in humility, remind themselves of the limits of their knowledge, take in new information, and trust that each person has something unique and beautiful to contribute to our mutual understanding.”

Ilnitzki is pictured in the center, with a fellow DDH scholar, Justin Carlson, and resident, Halley Haruta.

Virginia Johnston White was ordained to the ministry in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) on May 31 in DDH's Chapel of the Holy Grail. Gathered for the joyous celebration were family members, friends, and colleagues from local, regional, general, global, and ecumenical manifestations of the church and from the academy. William Schweiker preached; he is the Edward L. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor of Theological Ethics at the Divinity School, a United Methodist minister, and Virginia's dissertation advisor.

After a welcome by Dean Kris Culp, the service was convened through the words and prayers of Colton Lott and Cynthia Lindner. Virginia's mother, Rev. Mary Lu Johnston, gave the ordination prayer. Participants included Associate General Minister Yvonne Gilmore, Executive Director of Week of Compassion Vy Nguyen, Bethany Fellows Director Aneesah Ettress Veatch, Regional Minister Rick Hamilton, and representatives of Virginia's sponsoring and home congregations, Root + Branch in Chicago and University Christian Church in Austin, Texas. The service culminated with Virginia--newly ordained, fitted with the signs of the office, and joined by her father, Ted White--presiding over communion and giving the benediction. Crowning the service was a glorious postlude of Widor's Toccata from Symphony No. 5 by guest organist Patrick Scott.

Four generations of Head Residents were present for the final Monday dinner of the academic year. Sarath Pillai (served 2021-22), a historian of modern India who is now the A. Kenneth Pye Visiting Assistant Professor of South Asian Studies at SMU, had returned to visit. Justin Carlson (2022-23) and Kylie Winger (2023-25) will graduate in June with MDiv degrees. Katie Varon, a rising second-year House Scholar and MDiv student, has been named the next Head Resident. DDH is grateful for their leadership.