CCCU News
WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is pleased to announce the plenary lineup for the 2010 International Forum on Christian Higher Education, set for February 23-26 in Atlanta, Georgia. In line with “Critical Breakthroughs,” each speaker has had a profound impact in breaking through areas of education, science, racial reconciliation and humanitarian relief.
Richard Stearns is president of the U.S. offices of World Vision International. Stearns’ life demonstrates not only passion and commitment, but also humility, spontaneity, and a genuine desire to serve. As he works energetically to engage Americans in World Vision’s global mission, his insight and sense of humor inspire them to help transform our world. Stearns chronicles his journey from corporate CEO to advocate for those affected by poverty and injustice in his book, “The Hole in Our Gospel,” published by Thomas Nelson in March 2009. The book challenges readers to view the gospel as more than a private transaction between God and individual Christians.
Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., National Institutes of Health Director, is a physician-geneticist noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes and his leadership of the Human Genome Project. Collins is also known for his consistent emphasis on the importance of ethical and legal issues in genetics, and played a major role in the passage of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008. He has a longstanding interest in the interface between science and faith and has written about this in The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief (Free Press, 2006). Currently, Collins serves as the director of the National Institutes of Health.
Wendy Kopp, the founder and CEO of Teach for America, is working to build the movement of eliminating education inequity by enlisting the country’s most promising future leaders in the effort. What started as her senior thesis became the national corps of recent college graduates who commit to teach for at least two years in urban and rural public schools and become lifelong leaders in pursuit of educational excellence and equity. Kopp is the author of One Day, All Children: The Unlikely Triumph of Teach For America and What I Learned Along the Way.
Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum, the president of Spelman College in Georgia. Spelman College, long recognized as the leading educator of women of African descent, is now one of the most selective women’s colleges in the United States. Tatum is widely recognized as a scholar, teacher, race relations expert and leader in higher education. A clinical psychologist by training, her areas of research include racial identity development, and the role of race in the classroom. She is the author of “Can we Talk about Race?” “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” and “Assimilation Blues.”
Also, the CCCU is honored to announce two distinguished plenary guests.
John M. Perkins is the founder and president of the John M. Perkins Foundation in Jackson, Mississippi. A sharecropper’s son who grew up in New Hebron, Mississippi amidst dire poverty, Perkins fled to California at age 17 after his older brother’s murder at the hands of a town marshal. After converting to Christianity in 1960 he returned to Mendenhall, Mississippi to share the gospel of Christ. While in Mississippi, his outspoken nature and support and leadership in civil rights demonstrations resulted in repeated harassment, beatings and imprisonment. In 1989, Perkins, along-side other Christian leaders, formed the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) held its first annual conference in Chicago in 1989. CCDA has grown from 37 founding members to 6,800 individuals and 600 churches, ministries, institutions and businesses in more than 100 cities and townships across the country.
Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town Desmond Tutu led a formidable crusade in support of justice and racial conciliation in South Africa. Tutu was elected Archbishop of Cape Town in 1986, an office he held until his retirement in 1996. In 1996, he was appointed by President Nelson Mandela to chair the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a body set-up to probe gross human rights violations during apartheid. Tutu has been a visiting professor at Emory University in Atlanta, the Episcopal Divinity School in Boston and the University of North Florida, Jacksonville.
In addition, worship will be led by Christy Nockels. With her husband Nathan, Christy recorded five albums with Rocketown Records as Watermark. Christy and Nathan continue to serve at Passion Conferences and in 2008 moved to Atlanta to be a founding family of Passion City Church.
“In planning for the 2010 Forum, we were intentional in finding individuals who embodied the theme of ‘Critical Breakthroughs’ and who could speak to those of us within Christ-centered higher education on the important topics of today,” said Paul R. Corts, president of the CCCU. “The speakers for the Forum will challenge us to reflect on our currently held views, to make a positive contribution on social justice issues, and to be biblically faithful thought leaders for the church and Christ followers. We are honored to have such distinguished speakers, who are making a powerful impact for good in their respective fields, to lead us at the Forum in February.”
For more information about the 2010 Forum and to register, go to www.cccu.org/forum2010. The deadline for early registration is November 1, 2009.
The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is a higher education association of 180 intentionally Christ-centered institutions around the world. There are now 111 member campuses in North America and all are fully-accredited, comprehensive colleges and universities with curricula rooted in the arts and sciences. In addition, 69 affiliate campuses from 24 countries are part of the CCCU. The Council’s mission is to advance the cause of Christ-centered higher education and to help its institutions transform lives by faithfully relating scholarship and service to biblical truth.
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