Martha was called to the Eden faculty in 1999 as Dean of the Chapel, coordinating the planning and leadership of chapel worship.

“Chapel worship is a strong tradition at Eden; the chapel is the place to be at 10 a.m. Mondays, Wednesday and Thursdays during the school year. If you miss Chapel, odds are you’ll miss something great, something people will be talking about in and out of class: a terrific guest preacher, a pick-up group leading contemporary praise music or playing bluegrass, a student taking part in worship leadership for the very first time and depending on the support of the community to make it through the experience.”

Martha’s faculty appointment in Contextual Education took place in 2004; it coincided with changes in Eden’s Field Education program mandated by curriculum revision. Martha’s move to Contextual Education was influenced by her involvement in Eden’s Cultural Immersion program: along with Dr. Clint McCann, she has led student trips to Central America in 2001, 2003 and 2005. “In my travels, I came across a t-shirt bearing the outline of the continents of the Western Hemisphere, except it was upside down to my North American eyes. South America was at the top. The t-shirt read, ‘The world looks diferenté desde aqui.’ That’s, ‘The world looks different from here.’”

“‘The world looks diferenté desde aqui’ seemed to me then and now the banner of what the Eden faculty envisions in Contextual Education. We want to give our students the skills and the experience to see how the world and God look different depending on where one stands. As our school and our world become more multi-cultural and multi-denominational, these skills and experiences become more important for effective and faithful church leadership.”

Martha is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ. She enjoys travel, reading, cooking, working out and walking her Boxer, Ivy, in her south St. Louis neighborhood.