Mapping Spiritual Innovators
This webinar reports on the project “Mapping Spiritual Innovation” and the project’s national field study. In this context, “Spiritual innovation” refers to a set of actors at the forefront of faith and social innovation. Spiritual innovators creatively bring the assets of their spiritual and cultural traditions to bear, pursuing new models of faith and hope in action, generating broad-scale social and spiritual impact. Spiritual innovators may include leaders across clergy, lay-leadership, higher education, the non-profit, social impact, and social innovation sectors, and even volunteers among grassroots organizations and local activism.
The webinar will report on the state of spiritual innovation; discuss how we determined what spiritual innovation is; and what a better understanding of spiritual innovation means for the future of spiritual care in the United States.
This project is led by Chaplaincy Innovation Lab and Glean Network, in partnership with innoFaith and Faith Matters Network. The project is supported by the Henry Luce Foundation, with additional support from the John Templeton Foundation, Clal, Fetzer Institute, Hemera Foundation, Unitarian Universalist Association, and Wesleyan Impact Partners.
Please register here.
We’ll be joined by:
Elan Babchuck, Executive Vice President, Clal
Rabbi Elan Babchuck is committed to leaving behind a world that is more compassionate and connected than the one he found. In pursuit of that commitment, he serves as the Executive Vice President at Clal, the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, and the Founding Executive Director of Glean Network, which partners with Columbia Business School.
A sought-after thought leader, he has delivered keynotes at stages ranging from TEDx to the US Army’s General Officer Symposium, published in The Atlantic, The Guardian, Washington Post, and Religion News Service, and has a column for The Wisdom Daily. He is also the co-author of Picking Up the Pieces: Leadership After Empire (2023, Fortress Press), and contributed to Meaning Making – 8 Values That Drive America’s Newest Generations (2020, St. Mary’s Press).
He is a founding Board Member of Springtide Research Institute, which focuses on spirituality, mental health, and Gen Z, and a Founding Partner of Starts With Us, a movement to counteract toxic polarization in America.
Jen Bailey, Executive Director, Dan and Margaret Maddox Fund
Jen Bailey is the Executive Director of the Dan and Margaret Maddox Fund in Nashville, Tennessee. Prior to Maddox, Jen worked for 10 years at the intersection of faith, spiritual innovation, and healing as the Founder of Faith Matters Network, a national Womanist-led organization accompanying spiritually-grounded leaders on their journey to heal themselves and their communities. Since its inception, Faith Matters Network has served over 10,000 leaders through its programs and initiatives. She is Co-Founder of The People’s Supper, a global initiative that has hosted over 2,000 gatherings in 135 communities to foster conversation and collective healing across lines of difference.
Amy Lawton, Research Manager, Chaplaincy Innovation Lab
Amy Lawton completed her PhD in sociology at the University of Connecticut. Her research interests focus on the potential and paradox of religious pluralism in the United States, the cultural production of the sacred, and meaning-making in both religious and (non)religious belief systems. Her dissertation examined the practice of donor memorial ceremonies, which are memorial services held by medical schools to commemorate and honor whole-body anatomical donors.
Hannah Petersen, Research Specialist, Chaplaincy Innovation Lab
Hannah Petersen is a Research Specialist at the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab. Prior to joining the Lab and moving to the Boston area, Hannah completed a year-long Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in Dobrich, Bulgaria, where she provided English language instruction to 5th through 12th grade students at the St. Kliment Ohridski School of Arts. She graduated from Hamilton College in 2022 with a BA in sociology and minors in music and theatre, and she enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate with professors and fellow students at Hamilton on a variety of social science research projects. Hannah is looking forward to continuing her career in social science research and hopes to apply to sociology PhD programs within the next 2 years.
Michelle Scheidt, Senior Program Officer, Fetzer Institute
My work supports projects related to emerging forms of spirituality, spiritual community, and chaplaincy; network building among retreat centers; creating diverse opportunities for spiritual practice and individual spiritual growth; and connecting spiritual seekers with wisdom from the religious traditions. My research interests include spiritual formation, LGBTQ spirituality, and spirituality among people who identify as spiritual-but-not-religious.
Before coming to Fetzer, I served as a nonprofit administrator in Chicago, managing community-based programming with Metropolitan Family Services and the Claretian Missionaries. My background includes program development, strategic planning, nonprofit boards, and group facilitation. I’ve worked as a pastoral minister and have experience in pastoral counseling, leadership of worship, facilitating retreats, hospital chaplaincy, and facilitating conflict resolution. I have a Doctorate in Ministry from Chicago Theological Seminary; a Master of Arts in Pastoral Studies/ Intercultural Studies from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago; and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Marian University in Indianapolis. I am bilingual in Spanish and English and have worked in multicultural settings in the U.S. and Latin America.
