Writer Bios

We couldn't offer The Well to our readers without the generous contributions of our writers. Read through their bios to learn from their stories and click through for links to the articles they have written. If you are interested in writing for The Well, explore our Writer's Guidelines.

Diane Schanzenbach

Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach is associate professor in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. She is an economist who studies policies aimed at improving the lives of children in poverty, including education, health, and income support policies. She’s not ashamed to admit that she met her beloved husband Max on Eharmony. They have three young children and live on Chicago’s north shore.

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Sara Scheunemann

Sara Scheunemann lives in Marion, Indiana, where she serves as the program coordinator for the John Wesley Honors College at Indiana Wesleyan University and teaches spiritual formation practica. During the summer months, she travels to Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, where she is a graduate student in their Christian Spirituality Program. She is a spiritual director and a runner, and she'd rather be found on a hiking trail than just about anywhere else.

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Kaitlyn Schiess

Kaitlyn Schiess (ThM, Dallas Theological Seminary) is a writer, speaker, and theologian. She is the author of The Liturgy of Politics: Spiritual Formation for the Sake of Our Neighbor and is a regular cohost on the Holy Post podcast with Skye Jethani and Phil Vischer. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Christianity Today, Christ and Pop Culture, Relevant, and Sojourners. Schiess is currently a doctoral student in political theology at Duke Divinity School. She lives in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo Credit: Kendra Sharrard)

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Taylor S. Schumann

Taylor S. Schumann is a survivor of the April 2013 shooting at a college in Christiansburg, Virginia. She is a writer and activist whose writing has appeared in Christianity Today, Sojourners, and Fathom. She is a contributor to If I Don't Make It, I Love You: Survivors in the Aftermath of School Shootings. Taylor and her family live in Charleston, South Carolina.

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Gweneth Schwab became a child of God as a young woman and was involved with the ministry of IVCF from her freshman year. She now works with the Faculty Ministry of InterVarsity in Illinois, having been a professor of English and Religion as well as a business owner. She has been married for 40 years to Bob, another IVCF alumni.

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Debra A. Schwinn, MD

Debra Schwinn is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine, and Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology & Genome Sciences, at the University of Washington in Seattle and is a practicing anesthesiologist. After a 21-year career at Duke University Medical Center, Debra moved in 2007 to the University of Washington in Seattle. During her career, Debra has held numerous faculty positions and had the opportunity to train and mentor many students, residents, and fellows. She and her husband, Bob Gerstmyer, have two teenage children and attend Bethany Presbyterian Church in Seattle. In her spare time, Debra plays the violin and enjoys 19th century Russian novels.

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Halee Gray Scott

Halee Gray Scott, PhD, is an author and global leadership researcher and consultant who focuses on issues related to leadership and spiritual formation. Her book, Dare Mighty Things: Mapping the Challenges of Leadership for Christian Women, is published by Zondervan. She teaches seminary courses in spiritual formation, theology, and leadership in seminaries across the country. She is a regular contributor to Her.Meneutics.com and her writing has appeared in Christianity Today, Christian Education Journal, Real Clear Religion, Relevant, Books and Culture, and Outcomes. She lives in Littleton, Colorado, with her husband, Paul, and their two daughters. When she’s not writing or teaching, she is usually baking challah bread, running, or doing Crossfit. She blogs at hgscott.com

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Love Lazarus Sechrest

Love Lazarus Sechrest is associate provost for program development and innovation and professor of theology at Mount St. Mary's University. Her scholarship is centered on womanist and African American biblical interpretation and New Testament ethics; she co- chaired the Society of Biblical Literature's African American Biblical Hermeneutics Section from 2012 to 2017 and gives presentations on race, ethnicity, and Christian thought in a variety of academic, church, and business contexts. She is the author of A Former Jew: Paul and the Dialectics of Race and Can "White" People Be Saved? Triangulating Race, Theology, and Mission. A second-career scholar, she previously worked as a senior manager in the aerospace industry at General Electric.

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Luci Shaw was born in London, England in 1928. A poet and essayist, since 1986 she has been Writer in Residence at Regent College, Vancouver. Author of over thirty-seven books of poetry and creative non-fiction, her writing has appeared in numerous literary and religious journals. In 2013 she received the 10th annual Denise Levertov Award for Creative Writing from Seattle Pacific University. Her most recent collection, Eye of the Beholder, was released by Paraclete Press in 2018.

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Dr. Amy Sherman directs Sagamore Institute's Center on Faith in Communities, a capacity building initiative for congregations and faith-based and community-based organizations. She has led several major Sagamore research projects including the first major study of faith-based intermediary organizations; the largest national survey of Hispanic church-based community ministries in the US, the largest survey ever of Christian women on their giving and volunteering patterns, and a six-city demonstration project on financial literacy for urban youth.

Dr. Sherman has been named by Christianity Today as one of the 50 most influential Evangelical women in the United States. Her book Kingdom Calling: Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good was named Book of the Year in the Christian Living category by Christianity Today in 2013.

She earned her BA in Political Science at Messiah College and her MA and PhD in international economic development from the University of Virginia. She volunteered for several years as a Senior Fellow with the International Justice Mission, is a member of Church of the Good Shepherd (ACNA) in Charlottesville, Virginia, and is a passionate UVA men’s basketball fan.

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Amy Whiteman Sherrill

Amy Whiteman Sherrill is a chemical engineer.

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Nicole Shirilla

Nicole Shirilla is a second year medical student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Prior to entering medical school, she was a high school religion teacher and the Assistant Director of the Notre Dame Vocation Initiative. She has her BA and MEd from the University of Notre Dame.

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Rev. Amy Shorner-Johnson

Amy Shorner-Johnson is the assistant chaplain and assistant director of religious life at Elizabethtown College. She is also a mom and wife and advocate. She Is an adventurer at heart and is most grateful for the work of spiritual direction.

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Sanyin Siang is Executive Director of COLE and Associate Adjunct Professor of Engineering at Duke.

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Emery Silva first fell in love with writing, then Jesus, then her sorority, and eventually InterVarsity’s mission to students. She planted Greek InterVarsity at Northwestern University in Chicagoland and enjoyed serving students for 16 years while juggling three kids and a husband. After a stint of MPD coaching, she became the Associate Director of MPD. Outside of InterVarsity, you can find her cooking up a storm for friends and family, biking by the lake, or taking the kids to the library, again.

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Pamela first discovered her love for teaching as a tutor, seeking to demystify accounting for fellow students. In preparation for a career in higher education, she completed a Master's in Accounting & Master's in Business Administration from Kent State University and earned the designation of CPA. She worked as an internal auditor at Banc One Corporation and taught accounting at Kent State University, Hiram College, Baldwin Wallace University, and Wayne College before finding her home at Cuyahoga Community College, a college that shares her passion and dedication to excellence in teaching.

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Ritu (rid'-thoo) Singh is a New Jersey native and the daughter of North Indian natives - specifically from Bengali, Punjabi, and Uttar Pradeshi descent. She has been on staff for 11 years overseeing staff directors, staff, and students in Greater Boston where she attended pharmacy school as a student. In her time in college, she stumbled upon InterVarsity and a calling that has led to both a costly and beautiful life. Currently still residing in Boston, Massachusetts, she is planned to oversee all Focused Ministries in New England and continues to serve as a leader in the SAIV movement.

Most of her free time has been spent with good friends eating good food and FaceTiming with her cute and maniacal niece. She has travelled a lot and is hoping to visit many more places on her bucket list in the future.

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Jay Sivits (1952-2019) served with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship for 35 years. She was the National Co-Director of Spiritual Formation & Prayer, which included being the Chaplain to the Leadership Team for the Graduate and Faculty Ministry Team of IVCF. Jay was also a Registered Nurse and a dear friend to many.

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Juliet Skuldt is a writer and editor living near Chicago. She has her MFA from Eastern Washington University and was formerly managing editor at The University of Wisconsin Press. She has taught art, writing, and Latin, as well as started an after-school arts program for elementary school children in her community. She founded and organizes Christian Advocacy now, a ministry to engage Christians around issues of human rights and persecution. Her fiction was shortlisted in the Fractured Lit Winter 2022 Fast Flash Challenge and has appeared in Every Day Fiction, SmokeLong Quarterly, The Wisconsin Academy Review, among others. Her faith writing has appeared in (in)courge and Open the Bible.

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Emily Smith is an assistant professor in the department of emergency medicine/surgery at Duke University and at the Duke Global Health Institute (DGHI). During the COVID-19 pandemic, she also became known as the Friendly Neighbor Epidemiologist through her social media outlets which reached over 3-4 million people per month during 2020-2021.

Before joining the faculty at Duke University, Dr. Smith spent four years at Baylor University in the department of public health and was a research scholar at DGHI for two years. Dr. Smith received her PhD in epidemiology from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at UNC Chapel Hill and a MSPH from the University of South Carolina.

Emily has been married to her pastor-husband for twenty years and they have two fantastic children and one spoiled golden retriever. On any normal day, you can find her outside gardening, reading in the hammock with a good cup of coffee, or trying to become a bird-watcher.

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