One Los Angeles school has experienced a “tectonic” decrease in suspensions, with more L.A. schools preparing to follow suit, as a result of the restorative disciplinary efforts of Joseph Luciani, a 2013 master’s graduate of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University. Luciani’ ...More
Author, scholar and Episcopal priest Lauren Winner opened the annual School for Leadership Training at Eastern Mennonite Seminary with succinct advice for those seeking to understand the changing dynamics affecting the 21st century American church. “It might be good news for your church ...More
Since 2003, over 2,000 desperate people have died trying to cross the harsh Sonoran Desert between Mexico and the southwest United States. This continuous death toll prompted the foundation of Tucson Samaritans, a humanitarian group which has drawn in Isabel Allen, an alumnus of EMU’s STAR program, and s ...More
Ebola is frightening – terrifying even – but bowing to the fear that Ebola can produce invites additional unrest and cultural destruction in societies already reeling from recent civil wars. Instead, a lasting solution will emerge from tapping the resilience and resourcefulness of the people themselves. These are the messages being spread by alumni of the ...More
The image of an experienced country doctor making house calls with a big black bag full of basic medical equipment has not completely disappeared. Even in a culture of increasing skepticism for physicians and of increasing medical costs, rural health care providers seem to be retaining their respected positions in society. Linford Gehman ’59, a doctor serving a rural population in nort ...More
A 35-year-old alumnus of Eastern Mennonite University started 2015 as a new bank president. Brian Plum became president and chief executive officer of Blue Ridge Bank of Luray, Va., on Dec. 17. Blue Ridge, founded in 1893, is a locally owned and community-based bank with 46 employees and branches in Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, Luray, McGaheysville and She ...More
A prominent black history author, musician and professor, Nikitah Okembe-RA Imani, PhD, will lead Eastern Mennonite University’s commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. during university chapel on Monday, Jan. 19, at 10 a.m. Okembe-RA Imani is chair and professor of the Department of Black Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He is also a veteran of more than 27 years o ...More
After spending the summer thousands of miles from her native Liberia and watching nervously from afar as Ebola swept through her country, sophomore Winifred Gray-Johnson wanted to take action when she returned to the Eastern Mennonite University campus. She never imagined that desire, born from hours of long-distance conversation with her family members and prayer over the sufferings of ...More
Eastern Mennonite University and Sichuan University of Arts and Science, located in central China, signed an agreement on Jan. 13, 2015, to “promote academic exchanges, scientific research cooperation, and communication between teachers and students.” The signing occurred during a one-day visit to the EMU campus in Harrisonburg, Virginia, ...More
It was 1994 when Konrad Wert ’01 arrived at Eastern Mennonite University for the first time, and he didn’t stay long. Iffy about college from the start, he left after his freshman year for a voluntary service term in Washington D.C. Once that ended, he returned to EMU, stayed a bit, then departed again to volunteer in California. A yo-yo pattern was developing. “I just didn ...More
