Past Forum Sessions and Speakers
The Augustana Thought Leader Forum is a catalyst for insightful public discussion. Forum organizers believe than an informed and engaged citizenry is a valuable asset for the people in the region. Augustana believes it is ideally positioned to assert its intellectual resources through its great professors and accomplished alumni. View the upcoming Thought Leader Forum program.
Fall 2009
Violence in the Name of Religion
Dr. Murray Haar
Professor of Religion, Augustana College
Topic: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
DR. MURRAY HAAR is the Chair of the Department of Religion, Philosophy and Classics and teaches courses dealing with Judaism and Islam, the Holocaust and Religion, Politics and Violence. He has published a number of articles dealing with the implications for religious faith/theology after the Holocaust, the relationship between the Holocaust and the State of Israel, and the effect of the Holocaust on Biblical interpretation and exegesis from both Jewish and Christian perspectives. He is presently working on a book dealing with inter-religious political dialogue between Jews, Christians and Muslims, as well as between Israelis and Palestinians. In particular Dr. Haar is investigating the question of how believers from varying traditions can respectfully disagree without eventually trying to kill each other.
For some years Dr. Haar, along with Drs. Sandra Looney and Peter Schotten taught a Capstone course entitled: Light in the Darkness: Courage and Evil in the 20th Century. These three professors were invited to address a conference at Yad Vashem, the Israeli memorial to the Holocaust, based on the work they had done in this course. Dr. Haar has frequently traveled to Israel and was most recently there in March of this year following the recent Israeli-Hamas conflict. He has also taken students to Israel to help them understand the political and religious situation in the region.
Recognized as one of the College's most interesting, challenging and dynamic professors, he has received numerous teaching awards, among them: the Burlington Northern Award for Outstanding Teaching, (1988); the Thomas H. Brown Distinguished Service Award (1994); the John P. Kohlmeier Distinguished Teaching award, (2002); and the Richard Niebuhr Award for Outstanding Teaching, (2005). During 1990-1993, Dr. Haar served as the Stanley L. Olson Chair of Moral Values.
Dr. Haar holds a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies from Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia.
Kristin Zingler '07
Master of Theological Studies, Harvard University
Topic: Martyrdom in Al-Qa'ida's Jihad
KRISTIN ZINGLER graduated from Augustana in 2007, where she majored in religion. Her advisor was Dr. Richard Swanson, Professor of Religion. During her time at Augustana, she had the opportunity to study cultures and religions in Europe and India. Kristin is a 2009 graduate of Harvard Divinity School, where she received a Master of Theological Studies.
At Harvard, she studied terrorism and the intersection between politics and religion. Her particular area of focus has been on the political and theological aspects of religious martyrdom. She is currently researching the impact martyrdom has had on al-Qa'ida.
Ms. Zingler is working as a lead researcher for Next Chapters in Cambridge, MA. There, she is assisting in the establishment of a new university in the Boston area that will focus on current issues, globalization, and interdisciplinary studies.
Originally from Worthing, South Dakota, Kristin now lives in Boston, MA.
Dr. Patrick Hicks
Associate Professor of English and Writer-in-Residence, Augustana College
Dr. Peg Preston
Associate Professor of History
Topic: The Troubles in Northern Ireland
DR. PATRICK HICKS is Writer-in-Residence at Augustana College where he teaches courses on creative writing and Irish literature. He is the author of Traveling Through History (2005), Draglines (2006), The Kiss that Saved My Life (2007) and Finding the Gossamer (2008). His next collection of poetry, This London, is forthcoming with Salmon Publishing in 2011.
Dr. Hicks is one of an impressive cadre of young scholars at Augustana and one of the most popular on campus. Aside from being a dual citizen of Ireland and the United States, he is an advisory editor for New Hibernia Review and he is a frequent commentator on terrorism in Northern Ireland. His recent book, Brian Moore and the Meaning of the Past (2007), discusses the intersections between Irish history and literature. His creative and academic work has appeared in scores of international journals including, Ploughshares, The Utne Reader, Tar River Poetry, Glimmer Train, The National Catholic Reporter, Commonweal, Natural Bridge, The Christian Science Monitor, Irish Studies Review and many others. Dr Hicks has been a Visiting Fellow at Oxford, he has been nominated several times for the Pushcart Prize, and he recently won the Glimmer Train “Fiction Award for New Writers.” His poems have been anthologized in various publications and he has won a number of grants to support his work.
After receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree from Saint John’s University (MN) with distinction, Dr. Hicks earned a Master’s Degree at DePaul University, another Master’s Degree at Queen’s University of Belfast (Northern Ireland), and he received his doctorate from the University of Sussex in England. He was appointed Writer-in-Residence at Augustana College in 2007.
DR. MARGARET PRESTON is currently an Associate Professor at Augustana College where she has taught since 2001. She teaches courses on Western Civilization, Modern Europe, World War I and Modern Irish History. In recent years she has frequently taken students to Northern Ireland for a course that looks at the "Troubles."
Recognized as an outstanding teacher and scholar by students and colleagues alike, Dr. Preston is the recipient of a number of academic grants including those from Oxford University, the University of Notre Dame, Augustana College, Boston College and the Bush Foundation. She is also the author of Charitable Words: Gentlewomen, Social Control and the Language of Charity in Nineteenth-Century Dublin (Greenwood Press, 2004) and in 2009 she will have a chapter included in Ireland’s Great Hunger published by University Press of America. She is co-editor with Margaret Ó hÓgartaigh of the forthcoming Gender and Medicine in Ireland 1750-1950, Syracuse University Press. Dr. Preston has published articles in such academic journals as New Hibernian Review, The Historian and Eire-Ireland. In addition to a recent lecture at LaMoyne College in Syracuse, NY, sponsored by the Sanzone Center for Catholic Studies & Theological Reflection, Dr. Preston has presented her work at some two dozen national and international conferences. Currently, she is working on the work of South Dakota’s Presentation Nuns and the Avera McKennan Hospital Centennial history.
Dr. Preston received her bachelor’s degree from Loyola University, New Orleans; a Masters degree from University College Dublin and her Ph.D. from Boston College. Prior to coming to Augustana, Preston was an Assistant Dean at Boston College.
Spring 2009
What it Means to be Human: Spirituality, Technology & Disease
Dr. Maria Bell '84
Gynecological Oncologist, Sanford Health
Dr. Ann Milliken Pederson
Professor of Religion, Augustana College
Topic: Cancer: A metaphor for what is means to be human
DR. MARIA BELL specializes in Gynecologic Oncology at Sanford Health and is a professor and Director of Gynecologic Oncology at USD’s Sanford School of Medicine. In addition to her work at Sanford and at the School of Medicine, Dr. Bell is also part of the worldwide mission “Medicine for Humanity” to decrease mortality from cervical cancer.
An Aberdeen native who earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Augustana College and graduated from the USD School of Medicine, Dr. Bell served her Ob/Gyn Residency at the University of Chicago. She also earned a Gynecologic Oncology fellowship from the University of Alabama and is currently working on a Masters in Public Health from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.
Before returning to South Dakota, Dr. Bell was Director of Gynecologic Oncology at the Louisiana State Medical Center for four years. She is an active member of the South Dakota State Medical Association and previously served on the Committee on Medical Practice as a committee member and chair. She chaired the State Cancer Plan and is the Medical Director of the All Women Count program that provides pap and mammogram services for uninsured women. Dr. Bell is a member of the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families, an organization to help maintain women’s reproductive rights.
Throughout her career, Dr. Bell has been an active lecturer, educator and presenter at various professional gatherings and has published extensively in medical journals. She was inducted into the Augustana College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003 and has been the recipient of numerous professional awards, including the Golden Apple Award for medical school teaching in 1992 and most recently, the American Cancer Society’s Circle of Distinction Award.
DR. ANN MILLIKEN PEDERSON teaches courses in Christian theology, with particular emphases in religion and medical sciences, feminist theologies, and Lutheran constructive theology. She served as the Stanley L. Olsen Chair of Moral Values from 2002-2005, and received the Niebuhr Excellence in Teaching Award in 2002.
She is the co-author (with the Rev. Canon Dr. Arthur Peacocke) of The Music of Creation (Fortress Press, 2006) which is part of the Theology and Natural Sciences Series. She has also written two other books, God, Creation, and All That Jazz (Chalice Press, 2001), and Where In the World is God? Variations on a Theme (Chalice Press, 1998). In addition, Dr. Pederson has written extensively for the Encyclopedia of Science and Religion Macmillan Reference, USA, and has also authored chapters in three books and many articles in Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science, Word and World, and Dialog.
Dr. Pederson is also an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Section of Ethics and Humanities at USD’s Sanford School of Medicine. She co-teaches a capstone course with Dr. Mary Helen Harris of Sanford School of Medicine and Sanford Hospital entitled, The Ragged Edges of Life: Where Medicine and Religion Meet. Dr. Pederson is also a member of International Society for Science and Religion which promotes scholarship and dialogue within a multi-faith context.
After receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree at Montana State University, Dr. Pederson earned her Master of Divinity and Ph.D. from the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago.
Dr. Gene Hoyme '72
Chief Medical Officer, Sanford Children's Hospital
Topic: Personalized medicine in a post-genome era: Exploiting our similarities and differences
DR. GENE HOYME is Professor and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the Sanford School of Medicine of The University of South Dakota, Chief Medical Officer of Sanford Children’s Hospital, and Senior Vice-President for Children’s Services at Sanford Clinic in Sioux Falls. Until 2007, Dr. Hoyme served as Professor and Chief of the Division of Medical Genetics and Associate Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the Stanford School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California.
After receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree, summa cum laude, from Augustana College, he earned his MD from the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine. He completed his pediatric residency and clinical genetics and dysmorphology fellowship training at the University of California, San Diego. Prior to his duties at Stanford, he served similar posts on the faculties of the University of Vermont in Burlington, Vermont, and the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. Among his professional affiliations, he is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Pediatric Society, the American Society of Human Genetics and the American College of Medical Genetics. In 2007-2008, he served as the President of the Western Society for Pediatric Research.
Dr. Hoyme has served numerous leadership roles in regional and national clinical and research organizations in pediatrics and medical genetics. His research focuses on the delineation of human malformation syndromes and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. He has authored nearly 300 original articles, monographs, book chapters, research abstracts and a textbook.
Dr. Lon Kightlinger '77
State Epidemiologist, State of South Dakota
Topic: Health: A blessing, a human right, a personal and public responsibility
DR. LON KIGHTLINGER is South Dakota State Epidemiologist at the Department of Health. In this capacity he serves as principal disease monitor and disease investigator for the state. His main areas of interest are the prevention and control of parasitic and infectious diseases, especially diseases of children.
Lon Kightlinger's home town is Selby in northcentral South Dakota. He has an Augustana undergraduate biology degree and graduate degrees in public health from the Tulane University in New Orleans and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was awarded a Fulbright Grant to carry out his foreign disease research. He has published and translated many articles, chapters and books on public health issues.
Lon worked in Madagascar 1978 - 1998 as a public health missionary with the Lutheran Church (ELCA) on diseases and conditions including malaria, parasitic worms, malnutrition, tuberculosis, immunization, leprosy and sanitation. In 1998 he returned to South Dakota and has since worked with the Department of Health to improve the public health of South Dakotans. He lives in Pierre and has one son.
Fall 2008
Politics in America: Domestic and Global Issues
Nancy Erickson '84
Secretary of the United States Senate
Topic: Lessons Learned While Overseeing the U.S. Senate
NANCY ERICKSON was appointed Secretary of the Senate on January 4, 2007. She is the 32nd person, and sixth woman, to serve in that capacity.
It was Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, who offered Erickson the prestigious post. “I asked Nancy to be Secretary of the Senate because she is a committed public servant with a tremendous knowledge of the institution,” Reid said. “I have known her for years and am certain that we will all benefit from her hard work, her wonderful personality, and the experience she will bring to this critical position.”
Erickson began her career in Washington, D.C., in 1987 with the General Accounting Office’s audit sites at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Following her selection as a Presidential Management Intern (PMI) in 1988, she gained insight into management activities at the Department of Health and Human Service’s Health Care Financing Administration, which oversaw Medicare and Medicaid operations.
She concluded her rotations in the PMI program as a fellow in the office of Senator Tom Daschle, where she ultimately accepted a legislative staff position. During her 16 years on Senator Daschle’s staff, she held a variety of positions in the legislative, scheduling, and constituent outreach functions of the office. She was named Deputy Chief of Staff following Senator Daschle’s election as Democratic leader.
Erickson majored in government and history at Augustana, graduating magna cum laude in 1984. She earned a master’s degree in public policy from American University in Washington, D.C., in 1987.
In 2007, she received the Alumni Achievement Award from Augustana.
Dr. John J. Hamre '72
President and CEO, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Topic: Global Issues Awaiting the New President
DR. JOHN HAMRE was elected CSIS President and CEO in January 2000. Before joining CSIS he served as the 28th U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense. He was the Under Secretary of Defense (comptroller) from 1993-1997. As comptroller, he was the principal assistant to the Secretary of Defense for the preparation, presentation, and execution of the defense budget and management improvement programs. In 2007, Secretary Robert Gates appointed Dr. Hamre to serve as chair of the Defense Policy Board.
For 10 years Dr. Hamre worked as a professional staff member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. During this time he was primarily responsible for the oversight and evaluation of procurement, research, and development programs, defense budget issues and relations with the Senate Appropriations Committee.
He served in the Congressional Budget Office from 1978-1984, where he became Deputy Assistant Director for National Security and International Affairs. In that post he oversaw analysis and other support for committees in both the House of Representatives and Senate.
Dr. Hamre, a native of Clark, S.D., received his PhD in 1978 from the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. His studies focused on international politics and economics and U.S. foreign policy. He majored in political science at Augustana, graduating summa cum laude. In 1973 he studied as a Rockefeller Fellow at the Harvard Divinity School.
Dr. Joel Johnson and Dr. Brent Lerseth
Assistant Professors of Government, Augustana College
Topic: Reactions to the National Election
DR. JOEL JOHNSON received his PhD from Harvard University, where he also served as a Lecturer on Government.
He teaches courses in Political Philosophy, Politics and Literature, and Asian Politics. The primary focus of his research is eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American political thought.
He is the author of “Beyond Practical Virtue: A Defense of Liberal Democracy through Literature” (University of Missouri Press, 2007); “A Connecticut Yankee in Saddam's Court: Mark Twain on Benevolent Imperialism" (Perspectives on Politics, March 2007); and "Disposed to Seek Their True Interests: Representation and Responsibility in Anti-Federalist Thought" (The Review of Politics, Fall 2004).
Dr. Johnson serves as advisor to the department's honors program and to the Committee of Undergraduate Political Scientists (C.O.U.P.S.).
DR. BRENT LERSETH received his PhD from the University of California-Riverside and teaches courses in American Politics and Public Administration.
His courses include American Government, Congress, Public Administration, and Humans in Conflict. He is a Sioux Falls native and an Augustana graduate (1992). He has a wide range of research and teaching experience and interests including elections, state and local politics, the politics of community development in Sioux Falls, as well as issues related to free speech and mass media.
Dr. Lerseth is the representative for the Washington Semester Program and directs almost all departmental internships. His advising interests include helping students seeking MA degrees in public administration, industrial relations, and public policy studies.
Spring 2008
Islam and the West
Dr. Joe Dondelinger
Professor of Government/International Affairs, Augustana College
Topic: Jihad
DR. JOE DONDELINGER is the recipient of the Burlington Northern Foundation’s Faculty Achievement for Outstanding College Teaching, and the Frederick C. Kohlmeyer Distinguished Professorship for 2006-2008. In addition to his teaching duties at Augustana, Dr. Dondelinger lectures frequently at the Federal Executive Institute, the U.S. government’s Senior Executive Training Institute in Charlottesville, Va. Topics he has addressed include “From Russia to Bin Laden and Beyond,” and “From the Balkans, to Bin Laden, Baghdad and Beyond.”
A native of Luxembourg and a former member of that country’s United Nations delegation, he is proficient in six languages and considered an authority on international affairs.
Vice Admiral Lyle Bien (Ret.) '67
U.S. Navy
Topic: A Military Perspective
VICE ADMIRAL LYLE BIEN is a native of Hillhead, S.D., and majored in biology at Augustana. His distinguished Naval career includes 5,500 hours in fighter aircraft, 1,300 carrier landings, and 225 combat missions over South and North Vietnam. From October, 1990, to March, 1991, the former “Top Gun” flight instructor at the Navy Fighter Weapons School in Miramar, Calif., was assigned to the Naval Central Command in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
He served as the senior Navy strike planner under General Norman Schwartzkopff during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He has also served as the Naval advisor to General Colin Powell, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is the recipient of 23 medals and citations in recognition of his military service.
Dr. Jarret Brachman '00
Former Director of Research, Combating Terrorism Center, West Point (USMA)
Topic: Terrorism
DR. JARRET BRACHMAN studied government/international affairs at Augustana and graduated magna cum laude. In 2006, he received the Horizon Award from Augustana, an honor recognizing young alumni who have quickly demonstrated outstanding vocational achievement. He is an assistant professor in the department of social science at West Point Military Academy.
His expertise in terrorism has received coverage in the Washington Post, London Telegraph, Sydney Morning Herald and USA Today. He has appeared on CBS’ 60 Minutes, has been interviewed by Al Jazeera television, and has been featured on CNN and CNN International. His book, “Global Jihadism: Theory and Practice,” was released in May 2008, by Rutledge Press.