GSRJ Featured Speaker Bios

Dr. C. Melissa Snarr

Prof. Snarr’s research focuses on the intersection of religion, social change, and political ethics. As a Christian social ethicist, she draws on a variety of methodologies, with special concentration in sociological and political theory as well as comparative religious ethics (focusing on Islamic political thought), to understand how religion transforms the world. She teaches courses ranging from "Modern Christian Political Thought" and "Religion and Social Movements" to "Religion and War in an Age of Terror" (comparative Muslim/Christian).

Dr. Snarr seeks to bridge the worlds of religious activists and academic ethicists to deepen the understanding of religious traditions and practices in order to enhance the work for justice. Her current book project, tentatively titled Interfaith Poverty in the United States, builds from fieldwork that asks how the interfaith movement attends to class issues, particularly the vulnerabilities of low-wage workers who are non-Christian. Her previous book, All You That Labor: Religion and Ethics in the Living Wage Movement (NYU 2011), drew on extensive participant observation to analyze and evaluate the contributions of religious activists in the living wage movement. She is also the author of Social Selves and Political Reforms (Continuum, 2007) as well as several articles in feminist ethics.

Dr. Snarr worships at East End United Methodist Church (a reconciling congregation) even while she still treasures her “little ‘b’ baptist” roots and connections to the Alliance of Baptists.

 

Rev. Dr. Stephanie Crumpton

Dr. Crumpton joined McCormick Theological Seminary in 2017 from Lancaster, PA, where she was assistant professor of Practical Theology. Prior to that she served as professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling at Hood Theological Seminary. Previously she was an adjunct professor at Chicago Theological Seminary, a lecturer at Candler School of Theology at Emory University, and a teaching fellow at Atlanta’s Interdenominational Theological Center. While in Georgia she served as a state court advocate and consultant on the Georgia Commission on Family Violence. Stephanie was ordained with ministerial standing in the United Church of Christ in 2013. She received a Doctor of Theology, Pastoral Care & Counseling, from Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia; a Master of Divinity from Johnson C. Smith Presbyterian Seminary at the Interdenominational Theological Center, Atlanta; and a Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Journalism from Oklahoma’s Langston University.

Her specialty is pastoral theological methodology, theories of personality development, historical and social dimensions of pastoral counseling, pastoral counseling as a specialized form of the church's ministries, family systems theory. Her major publications include:
A Womanist Pastoral Theology Against Intimate and Cultural Violence, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. "After the 911 Call: A Pastoral Theologian Reflects on Family Violence Advocacy," Cross Currents Magazine, Spring 2013

 

 

Rev. Dr. Traci C. West

Traci C. West, PhD is the James W. Pearsall Professor of Christian Social Ethics and African American Studies at Drew University Theological School (NJ). Her teaching, research, and activism have focused on gender, racial, and sexuality justice, particularly related to gender violence. In addition to many other publications, she is the author of Solidarity and Defiant Spirituality: Africana Lessons on Religion, Racism, and Ending Gender Violence and Disruptive Christian Ethics: When Racism and Women's Lives Matter. She is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church where she has been involved with organizing that centers the voices of Queer, Transgender, and People of Color in the struggle for LGBTQIA equality in the church.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Stephanie Krehbiel 

Dr. Stephanie Krehbiel is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Into Account, a nonprofit organization devoted to advocacy for survivors of sexual and spiritual abuse perpetrated in Christian settings. She works directly with survivors confronting churches and other religious institutions, accompanying them through reporting processes, investigations, media coverage, and public storytelling. As an advocate, she has worked with over a hundred individual survivors from a range of denominational backgrounds, from Catholic to Amish to nondenominational evangelicals. Her work has been covered in the New York Times, National Catholic Reporter, the Star-Tribune, and numerous smaller publications. Dr. Krehbiel holds a PhD in American Studies from University of Kansas with a concentration in Women, Gender, and Sexuality studies, and her work as an advocate began during ethnographic research on institutional violence against LGBTQ+ people in the Mennonite Church USA. 

As a collaborator with her Into Account colleagues, Dr. Krehbiel co-wrote a report based on the testimony of forty-four  survivors of sexual abuse, assault, and harassment perpetrated by Catholic liturgical composer David Haas, exposing coverups and complicity in the liturgical music industry as well as the Archidiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and contributing to Haas’s lifetime ban from the industry events he once used to target victims. Her posts for the Into Account organizational blog have covered topics such as Title IX regulation changes, the hidden dangers of organizational “lifestyle” policies, sexual abuse in collegiate sports, and the social consequences of institutional betrayal. She is a frequent guest speaker in university and seminary classrooms. 

 

Rev. Teresa Kim Pecinovsky, MEd, MDiv

Born in South Korea and raised in Iowa, Teresa had a brief stint as an ESL teacher in Japan, then landed in Houston, teaching early elementary and earning a Master of Education from the University of Houston. As a Vanderbilt Divinity School and Disciples Divinity House seminarian in Nashville, one of her most unexpected moments was reading Schleiermacher at 5 a.m. while pumping milk for her 4-week-old infant (don’t ask her what she remembers about Schleiermacher now.) 

For the past three years Rev. Teresa has accompanied patients, families, and healthcare colleagues through hospice chaplaincy. Mother God is her debut picture book published by Beaming Books. Teresa is also excited to be a contributing writer for the upcoming Shine Story Bible through MennoMedia and Brethren Press. She and her spouse have two adorable and exhausting young children. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jonathan Jordan

Jonathan Jordan (He/She/They) is Rochester drag performer Kyla Minx and Manager of MOCHA, a sexual health and community engagement program of Trillium Health for youth, Women, LGBTQ People of Color. Jonathan has been performing for over 15 years and working in Sexual Health for 10. Through both “jobs” Jonathan has been able to combine entertainment and education to connect with various communities through HIV/STI testing, outreach, and fundraising.