Dr. Meira Kensky named an inaugural ACM Mellon Academic Leadership Fellow
Coe College Joseph E. McCabe Professor of Religion and Director of Advising Meira Kensky is one of 10 faculty across Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM) institutions to be designated as an inaugural Mellon Academic Leadership Fellow. Funded by a $1.5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation, the ACM Mellon Academic Leadership Fellows Program is meant to familiarize humanities faculty with academic leadership at the highest level through immersion in the workings of upper-level academic administration on their campus. Leadership development is a central priority of the ACM’s current strategic plan.
The ACM describes the fellows as "tenured ACM faculty who have demonstrated leadership capabilities, a commitment to diversity and inclusive equity, and the potential to have a transformative impact through leadership at their current or future institutions." This two-year term begins in June 2023.
“Coe is extremely appreciative of the support that the Mellon Foundation and the Associated Colleges of the Midwest are providing to advance Dr. Kensky's work in this critical area,” said Coe President David Hayes ’93. “She is very deserving of this honor. Her presence and leadership on campus is excellently aligned with the goals of this worthwhile opportunity.”
Kensky is the author of Trying Man, Trying God: The Divine Courtroom in Early Jewish and Christian Literature, which was the inspiration for a conference on “The Divine Courtroom in Comparative Perspective” at Cordozo School of Law in New York. Currently, she is working on her second book, Go To Hell: Vicarious Travel with Peter and Paul in Earliest Christianity, under contract with Wm. B. Eerdmans, and a second book for Mohr Siebeck, Isopsychos: The Figure of Timothy in Early Christian Literature.
She was the recipient of Coe’s C.J. Lynch Outstanding Teacher Award in 2013. In fall 2018, Kensky was in residence as a teaching fellow at the Newberry Library in Chicago as the co-director of the Associated College of the Midwest’s Newberry Seminar in the Humanities.
“I am honored to have been chosen as an inaugural ACM Mellon Academic Leadership Fellow,” Kensky said. “This will give me the opportunity to meet and learn from my peers at other liberal arts colleges and to work on implementation of our new academic core, especially as it relates to diversity, equity and inclusion. I am extremely grateful for the important work the Mellon Foundation continues to do in recognizing scholarship and leadership in the humanities and the vital role humanities scholars play in academic institutions. I look forward to being able to continue my close work with academic affairs here on campus and to continue to serve the Coe Community.”
As contributors to senior leadership discussions, each Fellow will lead a discrete project or portfolio of responsibilities as identified by the host college’s senior leadership team.
Information used in this release was provided by the ACM.