Inside the Core We Celebrate Our Coordinators

Inside the Core this week we are celebrating our coordinators. We will start with our Core II coordinators because that is the area where there has been a change. For the last several years, Core Fellow Todd Stockdale has been serving as the coordinator of Core II . Prior to that, he served as coordinator of Core I and, as he sometimes points out, he is the only person to have ever served in both positions! Recently, he felt he wanted to share the responsibility of the position with a colleague, so Core Fellow Erin Zoutendam has graciously agreed to co-serve with Todd. Thank you, Erin, and welcome to the roster of our wonderful coordinators.

Erin has been teaching in the Core since fall of 2022. Her area of specialization is the medieval Christian mystics, and when I observed her class on Julian of Norwich, I was very impressed by the depth of her knowledge and her ability to engage students in a subject that might seem, at first glance, distant and challenging. Her passion for the subject, which she brings to the Core overall, enabled her to engage the class meaningfully and enjoyably. We are very happy that she will be serving with Todd, who has done such a wonderful job of leading our Core II faculty for these several years.

Our Core I coordinator is Elizabeth Redwine, whose home department, like my own, is English. Elizabeth also has been serving for several years; she is insightful, energetic and deeply committed to the course, her colleagues and the students. In the English Department, we have a joke that Elizabeth has invented the 32-hour day because of all she is able to accomplish so well. We are so grateful to have her leading our faculty for Core I.

As for Core III, we have another team of leaders, Mary Balkun, of the English Department and head of the Center for Faculty Development, and Deb Zinicola, of the Department of Educational Studies. Deb and Mary have the challenging but rewarding task of steering faculty who are applying to have their upper-level electives be cross-listed as a Core III. The standards for these approvals, decided finally by a committee led by the two coordinators of Core III, are quite stringent, and they ensure that all Core III classes follow the trajectory established in Core I and Core II of looking at questions of values and meaning in light of the Catholic intellectual tradition. It’s a demanding task, and we are very grateful to Mary and Deb for taking it on.

Though the chairs of the Signature Course Curriculum Committee (SCCC) are not strictly coordinators, I would be remiss not to mention our two co-chairs of the SCCC, once again, Mary Balkun and Angela Weisl, also of the English Department. They graciously agreed to serve, unanimously voted on by the committee, when the position of chair of the SCCC became available, and they have been a wonderful team of leaders for the Core. Angela came to us right from serving as chair of the English Department and, as I have said many times, I feel so fortunate she was able to step right from the one position to the other without missing a beat. Mary also brings so much energy to this as to all the many roles in which she serves on campus. Both Mary and Angela bring years of leadership experience to this position, and for this the Core is very grateful.

One of the trademarks of the Core leadership outlined in this little piece is collegial collaboration. Every one of these individuals puts others and what is best for the program, our faculty, and our students before their own egos or status. They are true servant leaders, giving generously and even joyfully of their time and energy. We could not do what we do in the Core without them!

Categories: Arts and Culture, Education