Lilly Fellows Program 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, Program 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). To contact Joe, click here.
Joe Goss, Assistant 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 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. To contact Joe, click here.
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 as 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, Associate Program Director
Jenna Van Sickle is a graduate of Valparaiso University, where 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. To contact Jenna, click here.
Noteworthy News
May LFP Update
The Current LFP Update for May 2023 is now available. Click here.
Registration is now open for the 2023 National Conference
Registration is now open for the 2023 National Conference, "Contemplating Integral Ecology for the Common Good," on October 20-22 at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, MI. Click here for more information and to register.
Registration is now open for the 2023 Administrators Workshop
Registration is now open for the 2023 Workshop for Senior Administrators on the topic, "Fostering Hope in a Polarized Age," October 19-20, at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, MI. Click here for more information and to register.
Announcing the winner of the 2022 Arlin G. Meyer Prize
We are pleased to announce Gordon Johnston, Professor of Creative Writing at Mercer University, as the winner of the 2022 Arlin G. Meyer Prize in Imaginative Writing for his book of poetry, Scaring the Bears. For more information and to see the finalist for this prize, click here.
Lilly Network of Church- Related Colleges and Universities
If you are interested in learning more about membership in the Lilly Network of Church-Related Colleges and Universities, please contact us here.
New edition of Leading Lives that Matter released
In their second edition of Leading Lives That Matter, editors Mark Schwehn and Dorothy Bass compile a wide range of texts—from ancient and contemporary literature, social commentary, and philosophy—related to questions of vital interest for those who are trying to decide what to do with their lives and what kind of human beings they hope to become. Leading Lives that Matter has been an important text in many of our fellowship and grant programs, and it contains excellent resources. Click here for more information and an excerpt.
