The Rev. Dr. Lisa Schrott, pastor of The Presbyterian Church of Okemos in Okemos, Mich., will visit campus on the week of March 2 as part of the ����vlog����’ Struthers Visiting Pastoral Study Leave Program. She will speak at the University’s weekly Chapel Service at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, March 3.

Schrott grew up in Bowie, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C., where she was a member of Christian Community Presbyterian Church. She graduated from Lafayette College in eastern Pennsylvania with a degree in biology. 

While attending Lafayette, she was ordained as a ruling elder and served on session at the Lafayette College Church. She says she had her “first taste of the connectional nature of the PC(USA) while serving as a young adult advisory delegate at the 1986 General Assembly in Minneapolis.”

Following college, Schrott earned an M.S. and Ph.D. in biobehavioral Science (Neuroscience) from the University of Connecticut. She then served on the faculty of the University of Minnesota Medical School, and as associate professor of pharmacology, toxicology, and neuroscience at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, La.

While in Shreveport, she was ordained as a deacon and served as a ruling elder on the session at First Presbyterian Church in Shreveport. She felt the call to ordained ministry as a pastor and enrolled as a student at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia. She graduated with honors in practical theology in May 2016 and has served as the associate pastor of pastoral care and congregation life at First Presbyterian Church, Hilton Head Island, S.C.

She and her husband, Brian McWilliams, have been married for more than 20 years, having met while she was studying in Connecticut and he was stationed at Groton, CT as a member of the U.S. Navy. He served in the submarine fleet.

The couple has lived in Colorado, Minnesota, Louisiana, Georgia and is currently South Carolina. They have visited all 50 states, enjoy theater and reading, and have a new telescope for stargazing. They also have a cat, Mr. Grendel.

The Pastoral Study Leave Program was established in 2005 by the late Rev. Dr. James R. Struthers of Stillwater, Okla., a long-time member of the University’s Board of Trustees. Struthers established the program to bring Presbyterian pastors to the U of O campus for personal and professional development.

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The Rev. Dr. Jen Bluestein, coordinator of generational leadership development for Grace Presbytery in Texas, will serve as a visiting pastor at ����vlog���� for the week of Dec. 1-5 as part of the Struthers Pastoral Leave Program. She will lead the University’s weekly Chapel service at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 2, in Munger-Wilson Chapel.

In her current role, Bluestein supports faith formation and leadership development efforts in churches throughout North Texas. She also serves as the project director for Renewed Grace, an initiative funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc. to promote the inclusion of neurodiverse children in worship. Prior to joining the staff of Grace Presbytery, she had served as a pediatric chaplain in Fort Worth and in children’s ministry roles in churches in Arkansas and Texas.

Bluestein holds a B.A. in psychology from Seton Hill University, a M.Div. from Phillips Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. in pastoral theology from Brite Divinity School. Her doctoral research focused on the construction of children’s agency in the context of trauma and mental health treatment and how this informs pastoral care practices.

Besides children’s ministry, she loves gardening, her spouse, two young adult children, and her dogs.

The Pastoral Study Leave Program was established in 2005 by the late Rev. Dr. James R. Struthers of Stillwater, Okla., a long-time member of the University’s Board of Trustees. Struthers established the program to bring Presbyterian pastors to the U of O campus for personal and professional development.

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The Rev. Dan Anderson-Little, a sixth-generation pastor who currently serves at First Presbyterian Church of Garland, Texas, will visit the ����vlog���� on the week of Sept. 8-12 as part of the University’s Struthers Visiting Pastoral Study Leave Program.

Anderson-Little has served churches in Detroit, Kansas City, St. Louis, and Dallas and has led inner-city, urban, suburb, and rural congregations. His current congregation in Texas is one of the most multicultural congregations in the PC(USA): it is 55 percent Anglo, 20 percent West African, 20 percent Pakistani, and 5 percent Hispanic. 

His congregation is currently working on developing a Hispanic outreach in the community which is 60 percent Spanish speaking. First Presbyterian Church worships in multiple languages and cultural styles and has a strong local and global mission focus.

Anderson-Little earned his bachelor of arts from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, his master of divinity from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, and his doctor of ministry from United Theological Seminary (United Methodist) in Dayton, Ohio. 

He has studied and served the church in England, Costa Rica, Zimbabwe, Lebanon, Cuba, Colombia, and Pakistan. He has preached on five continents. He is married to Linda, a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. They have three grown children and will become grandparents in November. When he is not serving the church, Anderson-Little loves cooking, binge-watching on Netflix, crossword puzzles, and listening to music.

The Pastoral Study Leave Program was established in 2005 by the late Rev. Dr. James R. Struthers of Stillwater, Okla., a long-time member of the University’s Board of Trustees. Struthers established the program to bring Presbyterian pastors to the U of O campus for personal and professional development.

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The Rev. Justin Warner (pictured, left) of New Jersey and the Rev. Skye Murray of Vermont will be visiting ����vlog���� in coming weeks as part of the University’s Struthers Visiting Pastoral Study Leave Program.

Warner will be on campus March 31-April 4, and Murray will be on campus April 7-11.

Warner is the transitional pastor and head of staff at the First Presbyterian Church of Rutherford, N.J., 10 miles outside New York City. He is originally from Marietta, Ohio, and holds a master of divinity (M.Div.) and master’s of art in Christian education and formation (M.A.) from Princeton Theological Seminary.

Warner also has a B.A. in Cognitive Behavioral Neuroscience from The College of Wooster. He is passionate about pastoral care and thrives in creative revitalization during transition seasons. In their free time, Warner and his spouse, Melany, enjoy concerts, Broadway shows, world travel, and various global cuisines.

Murray has spent the entirety of her 20 years in ministry as a pediatric chaplain, serving in both Louisville, KY with Norton Children’s and now in New Hampshire at Dartmouth Health Children’s. She resides with her family in the Upper Valley of Vermont, where she serves within the bounds of the Presbytery of Northern New England.  An avid supporter of local theater and arts education, she finds the best weeks are those that include a playbill.

In her 20 years of serving patients, families and staff at the hospital, Murray feels most fulfilled when the “interdisciplinary team comes together to help meet the spiritual and emotional needs of the families we serve.”

She regularly engages in staff education in crisis and bereavement support, caregiver resiliency and the importance of healthy boundaries. She is active in the Pediatric Chaplains Network, and the Association of Professional Chaplains, where she serves as a mentor for those seeking chaplaincy board certification.  

The Pastoral Study Leave Program was established in 2005 by the late Rev. Dr. James R. Struthers of Stillwater, Okla., a long-time member of the University’s Board of Trustees. Struthers established the program to bring Presbyterian pastors to the U of O campus for personal and professional development.

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The ����vlog����’ Office of Spiritual Life will present a Smithsonian Poster Exhibition from Feb. 3 through March 21 in the lower level of the Munger-Wilson Memorial Chapel.

The interactive poster exhibit titled, “Exploring the Diversity of American Religious Life through Sound,” is currently on view in the Chapel.

“Choirs singing. Monks chanting. The reading of religious texts. These are religious sounds. But so too are the creaking of church pews and the clanking of pots during the preparation of a communal meal,” according to the exhibition’s news release. “Sounds of Religion is a Smithsonian poster exhibition that explores how rituals and gatherings of religious communities create a complex soundtrack of religions in America that teaches how people behave, how they’re different, and how they’re alike.”

Sounds of Religion is organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service in cooperation with the American Religious Sounds Project of The Ohio State University and Michigan State University and made possible through the generous support of The Henry Luce Foundation.

Through the 12 posters, the exhibition examines what religious sound is, how it can define a community, and where it can be found—from houses of worship and the home to public spaces and in acts of protest. It also looks at how it can be affected by events like COVID-19. Viewers are invited to listen for sounds that have religious content, religious context, or can be heard in religious communities, and to think about how religion permeates the everyday experiences of American life.

Since 2014, students and faculty in Georgia, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and elsewhere have worked together to document the sounds of local religious life. The poster exhibition features recordings and images collected during their work. Through QR codes on the posters, viewers can listen to eight contemporary recordings that serve as an audio portrait of the rich and dynamic differences that make religious life in the U.S. unique.

Americans practice a lot of different religions—Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Wicca, Native American traditions, New Age traditions, and many more. Every tradition creates its own unique blend of music, prayer, voices, and silence, which together help define the beliefs and practices shared by the members of churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, and other places of spiritual devotion. The sounds of faith make some feel they belong, yet they may cause others to feel excluded. The American Religious Sounds Project suggests that listening for the sound of religions in America can help people understand the country more deeply and provides insight into religion itself.

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����vlog���� has received a grant of $4,877,803 from Lilly Endowment Inc., through its Ministry in Rural Areas and Small Towns Initiative. The grant will support the University’s efforts to help rural churches embrace their calling as anchor institutions within their communities.

The aim of the Ministry in Rural Areas and Small Towns Initiative is to provide resources to help churches in rural areas and small towns enhance the vitality of their ministries and strengthen the leadership of the pastors and lay leaders who guide them.

Building on the work funded with of previous Lilly Endowment grants, U of O will establish a program that focuses on cultivating, developing and sustaining a mutual relationship of support for rural congregations in the Presbytery of Arkansas, according to U of O President Richard Dunsworth.

“As a Presbyterian-affiliated university which exists in a rural place, we feel we have the unique perspective on the role anchor institutions can play, and we hope to bring our experience in this area to bear, as well as to reaffirm our commitment to partnering with and supporting congregations,” Dunsworth said. “This project will establish a regional hub to support rural congregations and will involve recruitment, curriculum and support, collaboration, and communication to develop and implement a renewed theological identity to engage communities and bring vitality back into their congregations.”

In 2020, the University established the Thriving in Rural Ministry Program through a grant of $997,322 from Lilly Endowment. The Thriving in Rural Ministry Program supports pastors of rural and minority-serving Presbyterian Churches throughout Arkansas. In 2023, a $966,099 grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., helped the University create the Thriving Rural Congregations Program to support rural congregations within the Presbytery of Arkansas.

The Rev. Phillip Blackburn, director of the Thriving in Rural Ministry Program at Ozarks, said the latest initiative will focus on supporting churches as anchor institutions through three interconnected areas: the creation of a learning network of partners from across North America to explore ideas and programs for rural congregations; engaging programmatic partners in the non-profit world to support regional congregations as they revitalize their connections to their communities; and thirdly, establishing an annual Rural ideas Conference.

“The conference will serve as an orientating gathering for our work, an entrance into our program and a place for our network to think alongside congregations and partners about important issues facing rural communities,” Blackburn said. “These three areas will create a self-reinforcing ecosystem to support rural congregations in our service area.”

����vlog���� is one of 20 organizations from across the United States receiving grants through the initiative, including colleges and universities, denominational agencies, church networks, and parachurch organizations, among others.

“Our hope is that these grants will provide much needed resources and support to rural and small-town churches to help them address their challenges and enhance and extend the many ways that they serve their communities, ” said Christopher L. Coble, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for religion.

Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion and maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. A principal aim of the Endowment’s religion grantmaking is to deepen and enrich the lives of Christians in the United States, primarily by seeking out and supporting efforts that enhance the vitality of congregations and strengthen the pastoral and lay leadership of Christian communities. The Endowment also seeks to improve public understanding of diverse religious traditions by supporting fair and accurate portrayals of the role religion plays in the United States and across the globe.

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The Rev. Kathleen Henrion, pastor of Glendale Presbyterian Church (GPC) in the St. Louis, Mo. area, will visit campus on the week of Oct. 7 as part of the ����vlog����’ Struthers Visiting Pastoral Study Leave Program. She will speak at the University’s weekly Chapel Service at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 8.

While on the campus, Henrion will be working on her forthcoming book, “A Soft Place to Land,” an invitation into Christian community that “embraces Jesus’ radical inclusion and lifts up the values of intergenerational community.” She is writing for Tehom Center Publishing as part of the Ministry from the Margins Co-hort.

Henrion grew up in Maumee, Ohio, the daughter of an engineer and an art educator. She first felt God calling her to ministry in the eighth grade. This call led her to study film production at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., and to receive a master’s of divinity degree from Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Va., with a focus on pastoral care.

She has pastored churches in Iowa, Michigan, and Missouri, as well as short-term work for churches in Ohio, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Virginia.

Henrion said she is inspired by the way our creator God, created each and everyone one of us in God’s own image.

“By coming to know ourselves as well as those who seem ‘other,’ we are better able to see God in all God’s fullness,” she said. “We are able to respond to this amazing gift of creation through our creativity.”

She enjoys adventures with her three young kids, trivia nights with her husband, and creating through embroidery, watercolors, and graphic design.

The Pastoral Study Leave Program was established in 2005 by the late Rev. Dr. James R. Struthers of Stillwater, Okla., a long-time member of the University’s Board of Trustees. Struthers established the program to bring Presbyterian pastors to the U of O campus for personal and professional development.

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The Rev. Jane Anabe, pastor and head of staff at The Presbyterian Church of La Porte, Indiana, will visit campus on the week of Sept. 23 as part of the ����vlog����’ Struthers Visiting Pastoral Study Leave Program. She will speak at the University’s weekly Chapel Service at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 24.

Anabe has served The Presbyterian Church of La Porte since 2021. Prior to that, she served churches in Mechanicsburg, Penn., and Murrysville, Penn. A graduate of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Anabe decided to pursue pastoral ministry after having lived and worked in Bolivia.

It was in Bolivia that she met and fell in love with her husband, Joaquin. Together they have three active school-aged children and two dogs.

In Bolivia, she also pursued children’s ministry, an area she has served in for many years in different capacities. In more recent years, Anabe’s experience in children’s ministry has come in handy as she has helped churches move from being “program churches” to thinking more inter-generationally and helping them understand what it means to fully include ALL God’s children. This is one of her passions in ministry.

In addition to life with her family and in ministry, Anabe holds a B.M. in cello performance and enjoys maintaining a small teaching studio. She also enjoys walking, riding bikes, and crafting when time allows. She is excited to spend time with U of O students and get to know them during her week as the visiting pastor at Ozarks.

The Pastoral Study Leave Program was established in 2005 by the late Rev. Dr. James R. Struthers of Stillwater, Okla., a long-time member of the University’s Board of Trustees. Struthers established the program to bring Presbyterian pastors to the U of O campus for personal and professional development.

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Micayla and Jacob Sharkey will join the ����vlog����’ Office of Student Life, University officials announced this week.

Micayla will serve as the University’s new director of student engagement and Jacob will be the residence hall director. Micayla will begin June 24, and Jacob’s first official day will be July 1.

The Sharkeys, who were married in 2018, are coming to Ozarks from Akron, Ohio, where Micayla served as an elementary school teacher and Jacob worked as a customer success and support manager for DonorSee, Inc.

Micayla previously served as coordinator of student care at Bluefield University in Virginia from 2018-2020. There she assisted in the planning of on-campus events for a student population of more than 500 students. She is a graduate of Liberty University with a B.S. in global studies and business administration.

Jacob, who earned his B.A. in psychology from Grove City College in Pennsylvania, was a resident director and assistant director of residence life at Bluefield University from 2018 to 2020. He has also been a secondary history and geography teacher as well as a director of fundraising and development for Discovery Academy. He has lived and worked overseas in Africa and South America.

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The Rev. Dr. Jim Freeman, pastor of the Broadmoor Presbyterian Church in Shreveport, La., will be the guest speaker during the ����vlog����’ Baccalaureate service at 4 p.m. on Friday, May 10, in Munger-Wilson Chapel.

The University’s Baccalaureate service is a long-standing tradition at Ozarks on the day preceding the Spring Commencement ceremony. It is a faith-based celebration that honors that year’s graduating class. The Senior Brick Ceremony will follow Baccalaureate.

Freeman has served as pastor of the Broadmoor Presbyterian Church since 2011. He graduated from Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas in 1983 with a B.A. in communications and political science. He received the master of divinity from Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia in 1990 and was ordained by Arkansas Presbytery.

He has served congregations in Pine Bluff, Little Rock, and Searcy, Arkansas. In 2003, he was installed as moderator of Arkansas Presbytery at a meeting held on the ����vlog���� campus. In 2015, Freeman received the Doctor of Ministry in the area of Gospel and Culture from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga. He has contributed material to The Arkansas Times and The Presbyterian Outlook, as well as the Feasting on the Word and Connections commentaries.

Among his hobbies are playwriting, and papermaking. He has two grown children, a daughter, Lindsay, and a son, William and is proud to claim Halle Bollman, Ozarks Class of 2024, among the extended family that he shares with his wife, the former Paulette VandenNieuwenhof, Ozarks class of 1980, whom he married in 2020.

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