Shana H. Chaplin has joined the Town Square Collaborative (TSC) at ����vlog���� as assistant director of community engagement. Her first day was Tuesday, Dec. 2.

TSC is a regional ecumenical initiative to serve and support rural communities, congregations, and their leaders.  

“I’m so excited to welcome Shana Chaplin as assistant director for community engagement,” said Rev. Phillip Blackburn, director of TSC. “Shana brings a deep knowledge of Arkansas and a love of the Church to her work, which will be focused on equipping and empowering rural congregations to engage their communities in innovative and collaborative ways.”

A graduate of University of Arkansas-Little Rock, Chaplin most recently served as the chief program officer at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute. 

“The opportunity to serve through the Town Square Collaborative bridges my deep passions for local community, mutuality through collaborative partnerships, civic engagement and faith,” Chaplin said. “Rural churches and congregants are ideally positioned to lead in community, building civic connectedness and enhancing quality of life for their neighbors.”

Before joining the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute, Chaplin was the executive director for the Arkansas Governor’s Advisory Commission on National Service & Volunteerism (2016-2023), the director of program services and public affairs for March of Dimes (2009-2011); and founding director for the Arkansas State Court Appointed Special Advocates Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) for the Arkansas Supreme Court (1996-1998).

Earlier this year, Chaplin was named Arkansas Public Administrator of the Year by the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Public Affairs. She was also named to the 2024 Arkansas Money & Politics C-Suite list and the 2023 Arkansas Business 250 Most Influential Leaders list.

Chaplin was born in Genado, Arizona, on Navajo Indian Reservation where her father was teaching while finishing his master’s degree. She grew up in Japan as a missionary child.

She and her husband of 36 years, Paul, have adult twin daughters, Lindsey Chaplin Woelfel and Emery Chaplin Lunsford.

Outside of work, Chaplin enjoys reading, cooking, hosting dinner parties and family events, flower arranging and volunteering at Providence Park, a nonprofit for the unsheltered.

Based on the U of O campus in Clarksville, Ark., TSC was made possible by a trio of grants to the University from Lilly Endowment Inc., totaling more than $6.8 million from 2021 to 2024. 

For more information about TSC, please visit its website at

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The Rev. Sara Anne Berger has joined ����vlog���� as the assistant director of the Thriving Congregations Program. Her first day at Ozarks was April 23.

Berger will work with director Rev. Phillip Blackburn to assist the University in directing the Lilly Foundation’s recent $1 million Thriving in Ministry grant to support congregations within the Presbytery of Arkansas. The primary aim of the initiative is to help congregations thrive in their communities by rediscovering their core theological identity.

“I am excited to join the great work already being done by ����vlog���� and Thriving in Ministry program, and looking forward to connecting with congregations all over the Arkansas Presbytery and learning more about the needs, assets and wonderful gifts of rural congregations and communities,” Berger said. “I’m looking forward to connecting with them myself, and helping to facilitate connections between the University, the students and rural congregations and communities. I have felt so welcomed by the administration, staff, and students here at the University and look forward to getting to know the folks who learn and work here.”

Berger most recently served as minister of word and sacrament at Grace Presbyterian Church in Little Rock, Ark., from 2020 to 2024. Before that she served as minister of word and sacrament at First Presbyterian Church in Natchitoches, La. (2016-2020) and at Whitmire Presbyterian Church in Whitmire, S.C. (2011-2016). She was ordained by the Presbytery of Middle Tennessee in September of 2011.

A native of Franklin, Tenn., she earned an undergraduate degree in history from Presbyterian College in South Carolina and earned a master of divinity and master of Christian education from Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Va.

Outside of work, Berger enjoys reading. “I usually have a few books I’m working on at once—typically a lot of high fantasy and history. Since I am commuting to the University from Little Rock, and will be traveling around Arkansas to be in rural communities, I am open to any audio book recommendations for the drives.” She has also taken three semesters of American Sign Language and enjoys getting to practice signing with anybody who is willing to practice with her.

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The Rev. Deanna Hollas will present a lecture titled, “Unmasking the Powers Behind Gun Violence,” at ����vlog���� at 7 p.m., Tuesday, March 8.

Hollas’ visit to campus is made possible by the Cecil and Ruth Boddie Farmer Chapel Guest Speaker Endowment. The event will be held in the Munger-Wilson Chapel and is free and open to the public.

Attendance will be limited due to Covid protocols and mask-wearing and social distancing will be required. Guests should pre-register at

Hollas is the Gun Violence Prevention Ministry Coordinator with the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship and a founding member of the Everytown for Gun Safety Interfaith Advisory Council. In her role with the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship, Hollas empowers and equips individuals and congregations across the Presbyterian Church (USA) denomination to embody Jesus’s call to love God and love neighbor by being informed and active in ending gun violence.

“Theologian Walter Wink understood that there are invisible forces that shape and determine human existence,” Hollas said. “When we unmask these powers, they lose their influence and create the space for us to make conscious decisions about how we want to live.” 

Hollas said that in her lecture she will lead the audience in an exploration of the hidden forces behind the gun violence epidemic and how we can respond and live into one of the “Greats Ends of the Church — Exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world.”

Hollas is also a spiritual director and co-founder of Retreat House Spirituality Center in Richardson, Texas. She holds a master of divinity from Perkins School of Theology as well as a diploma in the art of spiritual direction from San Francisco Theological Seminary.

Hollas will also be speaking at the University’s Tuesday Chapel Service at 11:30 a.m. on March 8. Her sermon is titled, “Walking in the Path of Jesus,” based off the texts: Isaiah 2:2-4 and Luke 6:27-36.

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The Rev. Jesus Juan “Jesse” Gonzalez, pastor of Gethsemane Presbyterian Church in Fort Worth, Texas, will visit ����vlog���� on the week of Sept. 13-17 as part of the University’s Pastoral Study Leave Program.

Gonzalez (pictured above with his son, Obed, a 2017 U of O graduate) will lead the University’s weekly Chapel Service at 11:30 a.m. on Sept. 14 in Munger-Wilson Chapel.

Gonzalez is pursuing a doctor of ministry at Austin Presbyterian Theological Society.  He is presently working on his dissertation titled, “Missional Church Movement.”

A native of Mexico, Gonzalez earned a bachelor’s degree from Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Mexico and a master’s degree from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

He has served Presbyterian churches in Mexico, Texas, North Carolina and Arkansas. He and his wife, Bertha, have three sons, Obed, Jesus and Abner, and four grandchildren.

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. Since its inception, more than 30 pastors have taken part in the program.

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The Rev. Phillip Blackburn of First Presbyterian Church in Fort Smith, Ark., has been named the director of the new Thriving in Ministry program at ����vlog����.

Established through a grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc., the program supports pastors of rural and minority-serving Presbyterian Churches throughout Arkansas. The program will be based out of Munger-Wilson Chapel on the Ozarks campus.

Blackburn will remain co-pastor with his wife, the Rev. Tasha Blackburn, at First Presbyterian Church in Fort Smith. He will begin his duties with the Thriving in Ministry program at Ozarks on April 15.

“I am proud to work with ����vlog���� to help congregations in the Presbytery of Arkansas think anew about their ministry and work in their communities,” Blackburn said. “The generosity and vision of the Lilly Endowment for Religion offers us new pathways to think about rural ministry and I can’t wait to get started.”

The Thriving in Ministry program is designed to assist and support rural pastors in areas such as launching new churches, serving communities of color, and serving small membership churches. In essence, Blackburn will serve as the “pastor to the pastors.”

“We are excited and grateful to have Rev. Blackburn take the reins of the Thriving in Ministry program,” said U of O President Richard Dunsworth. “Phil brings a wealth of experience coupled with an unwavering commitment to his colleagues throughout the Presbytery of Arkansas. I look forward to reflecting on the program in a few years and celebrating the journey.” 

Blackburn said he will strive to “collaborate with congregations to consider the work to which Jesus is calling them.”

“I believe we will be able to ask interesting questions and devise innovative ministries to empower congregations, regardless of location, size or resources, to take a step forward as the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to each other and in their communities,” Blackburn added.

Raised in Oklahoma City, Blackburn graduated in 1997 from the University of Kansas with degrees in history and religious studies.  He received a Master of Divinity from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in 2001, and a Master of Theology from the University of Edinburgh (UK) in 2002. 

He served for two years as a Lake Fellow in Parish Ministry at Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis before serving eight years as the solo pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Lincoln, Ill.  Since 2012, he and Tasha have served as co-pastors of First Presbyterian Church in Fort Smith.

In addition to his ministry in Fort Smith, Blackburn has served as board chair of the Donald Reynolds Crisis Intervention Center from 2014 to 2015. He has also served on the board of Next Step Homeless Services and is a current board member of the United Way. 

Earlier this year, Ozarks received a $997,322 grant from the Lilly Endowment to establish the Arkansas Presbytery Thriving in Ministry Consortium program on campus. The program’s purpose is to “help pastors thrive in congregational leadership and thus enhance the vitality of the congregation they serve.”

The Lilly Endowment’s Thriving in Ministry initiative supports a variety of religious organizations across the nation as they create or strengthen programs that help pastors build relationships with experienced clergy who can serve as mentors and guide them through key leadership challenges in congregational ministry.

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Retired U.S. Navy Commander and Chaplain Bruce Williams, a 1943 ����vlog���� graduate and one of the University’s oldest-living alumni, will speak about his life during a special virtual alumni event on Thursday, March 18.

Williams, who turned 100 last August, will be speaking about his journey to Ozarks, his time there and life after Ozarks.

The event is presented by the University’s Office of Alumni Engagement and begins at 6 p.m. It can be viewed on Zoom at this link:

Originally from Sharon Hill, Penn., Williams left his home to attend what was then The College of the Ozarks in September 1939. More than 80 years later he fondly remembers arriving at Ozarks, where he met Virginia Lou Laster, his wife of 68 years. They had two daughters, Jan and Ginger.

Williams joined the U.S. Navy as a student when World War II started. He was ordered to continue his studies at Ozarks since the Navy would need officers. Upon graduation, he served on active duty as a line officer during World War II through 1946. Williams remained in the Inactive Naval Reserve as a line officer while attending Princeton Seminary.

He was ordained in February 1949 as a Presbyterian minister. Williams was called to serve as pastor for Buckingham Presbyterian Church in Berlin, Maryland. The Williams stayed at Buckingham for five years before they returned to active duty in the Naval Reserve as a chaplain in November 1952. They transferred to the regular Navy Chaplains Corp on September 20, 1955, the same day his youngest daughter was born. Williams continued to serve as a Navy chaplain and ended his Naval career with 33 years, 3 months, and one day as a line officer and chaplain.

In addition to his time in World War II, Williams served in both the Korean and Vietnam wars while Virginia raised their two girls. Upon retirement from the Navy as a commander in August 1975, he trained for a year in a hospital in Houston, Texas, to become a hospital chaplain. He served as a chaplain at the Texas Department of Corrections facility-Clemons Unit in Brazoria, Texas, retiring in 1986. While at Clemons, he also served as interim pastor and pulpit supply in several churches in Texas. Since retiring in 1986, he has continued to serve the local Presbyterian Churches within 100 miles as they need.

After the death of his beloved Virginia, he married the Rev. Tracy Julian. They continue their ministry in local Presbyterian Churches, currently serving the First Presbyterian Church, Brazoria, Texas.

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Officials from Lyon College and ����vlog���� have begun discussions of possible opportunities for strategic partnerships between Arkansas’ two Presbyterian-affiliated universities.

Leadership from both U of O and Lyon, located in Batesville, have begun to discuss what a strategic partnership between the two institutions might look like and have appointed steering committees made up of trustees to explore further. 

Sherilyn Poole, chair of the ����vlog���� board of trustees and a retired higher education professional, captured the future of private church-related education stating, “It is imperative that institutions like ours prepare for the enrollment crash or cliff that is predicted in the near future.  We know the college-going population will shrink up to 15 percent in the next five years, creating an ever-increasingly competitive market for institutions, especially private church-related institutions.”   

Perry Wilson, chair of the board of trustees of Lyon College, an attorney from Little Rock, and third-generation Lyon trustee, commented, “The prospect for small church-related institutions is challenging.  With our shared history, exceptional legacy, and financial strength, we wonder if our future is stronger working together. Our fiduciary duty requires us to explore every opportunity that ensures premier, private, church-related liberal arts education in Arkansas.”

The two colleges are among the oldest institutions of higher education in Arkansas. Ozarks was founded in 1834 in Cane Hill, Ark., and Lyon (formerly Arkansas College) was founded in 1872 in Batesville, Ark.

The institutions have explored possibilities in the past with a studies commissioned twice in the prior century, first in 1946 when Vanderbilt University produced an in-depth study of opportunities and again in 1977 when Cresap, McCormick and Paget, Inc., identified opportunities to “act jointly to strengthen their academic programs, student services and administrative support functions.”  

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����vlog���� will receive a nearly $1 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to establish a program that will support pastors of rural and minority-serving Presbyterian Churches throughout Arkansas.

The grant is part of Lilly Endowment’s Thriving in Ministry, an initiative that supports a variety of religious organizations across the nation as they create or strengthen programs that help pastors build relationships with experienced clergy who can serve as mentors and guide them through key leadership challenges in congregational ministry. 

The $997,322 grant will help the University establish the Arkansas Presbytery Thriving in Ministry Consortium program on campus. The program’s purpose is to “help pastors thrive in congregational leadership and thus enhance the vitality of the congregation they serve.” 

The program will be launched during the summer of 2021 and will be designed to assist and support rural pastors in areas such as launching new churches, serving communities of color, and serving small membership churches. The funding includes a new program director position who will serve as the “pastor to the pastors.”

University President Richard Dunsworth said the Thriving in Ministry program is a natural fit for the University, which has been affiliated with the Presbyterian Church since its establishment in 1834 in Cane Hill, Arkansas.

“Today, ����vlog���� is in a position of responsibility and obligation of Christian service to step into this place of need within the Presbytery and provide a leadership role back to the Presbytery that will build bridges and foster pastoral development,” Dunsworth said. “This program is designed to support leadership and change-management programs to enable pastors to learn how to develop their own personal leadership and networking skills.”

Dunsworth said the new program stems from a planning grant that Lilly Endowment made to ����vlog���� earlier this year through Lilly Endowment’s Thriving in Ministry initiative. Thriving in Ministry is part of Lilly Endowment’s grantmaking to strengthen pastoral leadership in Christian congregations in the United States.

The planning grant led to a series of focus groups conducted by the University this past summer with pastors from around the state.

“Pastors serving rural congregations and minority communities describe an almost unfathomable set of demands on their time, intellect and faith,” Dunsworth said. “The amazingly talented and committed women and men who occupy the pulpits of our rural and minority-serving churches are under-resourced, tired and in need of personal and professional support. With a Thriving in Ministry grant, together, we will create a supportive foundation and network to renew the faith of pastors, and ultimately strengthen the congregations that ����vlog���� owes so much.”

Dunsworth said University’s long relationship with the Presbyterian Church and programs such as the University’s Struthers Pastoral Study Leave Program places the University in a strong position to provide a leadership role in this initiative.

The Struthers Pastoral Study Leave was established at U of O in 2005 by the late Rev. Dr. James R. Struthers of Stillwater, Okla., a long-time member of the University’s Board of Trustees. The program has brought more than 30 Presbyterian pastors to the U of O campus for personal and professional development in the past 15 years.

“We believe we are uniquely positioned to establish a Thriving in Ministry program and support these pastors,” Dunsworth said. “We have the experience and the confidence of pastors to create space for them to explore their gifts, develop new meaningful relationships and learn to manage competing demands on their increasingly scare time.”

Dunsworth said the University will begin the search for a program director in January.

Lilly Endowment is an Indianapolis-based private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly & Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, the Endowment 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. The Endowment maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and its home state, Indiana. Its grantmaking in religion focuses on supporting efforts to strengthen the leadership and vitality of Christian congregations throughout the country and to increase the public’s understanding of the role of religion in public life.

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����vlog���� Chaplain Rev. Jeremy Wilhelmi has been appointed by the Presbyterian College Chaplains Association (PCCA) to represent the group on the board of directors of the Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities (APCU).

Wilhelmi is filling an unexpired term on the board due to the departure of the current president of the PCCA. He will move up from vice president to president of PCCA and his term on the APCU board is schedule to run through February 2021.

The APCU is an independent, non-profit association that is dedicated to assisting the 56 Presbyterian-affiliated colleges and universities throughout the United States. U of O President Richard Dunsworth is the immediate past chair of the board.   

Wilhelmi has served as the chaplain of the U of O since 2016.

“I am honored to fill this role on the APCU board,” Wilhelmi said. “The APCU recognizes the important role chaplains play on their campuses. I hope my role will continue to strengthen those bonds along with strengthening the ties between our institutions and the Presbyterian Church (USA.) I look forward to good work ahead.”

A native of Hot Springs, Ark., Wilhelmi joined Ozarks in August 2016 after serving the previous three and a half years as associate pastor for youth ministry at Salisbury Presbyterian Church in Virginia. He has also served as a youth and family minister and camp director in North Carolina, Texas, and Arkansas, since graduating from Arkansas Tech with a degree in music in 2003 and from the Columbia Theological Seminary with a master of divinity degree in 2007. Wilhelmi and his wife, Whitleigh, have two sons, Beckett and Jasper.

As part of its mission, the APCU advocates the important, ongoing role that higher education plays within the Presbyterian Church (USA) and assists presidents in the development of strategies that fulfill their respective institutional missions.  APCU member institutions are eligible to participate in APCU-sponsored programs that include an insurance and risk management program, an international student exchange with institutions in Northern Ireland and a tuition exchange for children of faculty and staff members.

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The Rev. Dr. Eileen W. Lindner, a long-time national advocate for children, will speak at ����vlog���� on Monday, Feb. 10, as part of the Cecil and Ruth Boddie Farmer Chapel Guest Speakers Series.

Lindner’s talk is titled, “Is Childhood an Endangered Species?” and will begin at 7 p.m. in the Rogers Conference Center. The event is free and the public is invited to attend.

The Presbyterian pastor has worked on behalf of children for most of her professional life. She served as the director of the Child Advocacy Office for the National Council of Churches of Christ in the 1970s and was appointed by President Jimmy Carter as U.S. Commissioner for the International Year of the Child where she worked closely with the White House on child welfare policy during the Carter administration. In 2006, she wrote the book, “Thus Far on the Way: Toward a Theology of Child Advocacy.”

In her talk on the U of O campus, she will discuss how we can help ensure the wellbeing of children in today’s society.

“Today throughout the world children are subject to economic exploitation, trafficked for purposes of sexual abuse or as child soldiers and are subjected to rates of poverty and neglect that are unprecedented,” Lindner said. “Even in affluent countries, children today are often oversubscribed to tutoring, sports, drama, music and martial arts training leaving little time or opportunity for the essential developmental task of being children. As we increase our awareness and concern for the natural environment we might do well to consider the circumstances of the youngest cohort of humans and reconsider our priorities. Poet John Donne long ago lamented the plight of children who are “…weeping in the playtime of others.”  We will look together at the plight of children asking ourselves how we can best enable today’s children to live the lives for which they were created.”

Lindner, who earned her Ph.D. in church history from Union Theological Seminary, was ordained in the Philadelphia Presbytery in 1975. She has served in churches throughout the country, most recently as senior pastor at Presbyterian Church at Tenafly in New Jersey from 2009 to 2018. She currently serves as a consultant for the Presbyterian Foundation and Presbyterian Mission Agency.

Lindner served as the Deputy General Secretary for the National Council of Churches from 1986-2007. She also served as the Executive Presbyter of the Presbytery of the Palisades from 2007-2009.

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