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.

Lisa Clark Diller

Lisa Clark Diller (PhD, Chicago) teaches early modern history at Southern Adventist University. She enjoys traveling with her husband Tommy, gardening in the “yarden” of her 100-year-old house and learning how to be about the business of the kingdom of God while at work in her urban Chattanooga, Tennessee, neighborhood.

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Susan DiMickele

Susan DiMickele is the author of Chasing Superwoman: A Working Mom’s Adventures In Life and Faith .(A preview of the first chapter of the book can be found here.) She has authored articles in both secular and faith-based publications and blogs daily. Susan has been a trial lawyer for nearly 15 years and a mother for more than 9 years. She lives in Columbus, Ohio with her husband and three children. In addition to writing, she loves reading, cooking, running, and hanging out with her kids.

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Amy Dixon is the author of three picture books — Maurice the Unbeastly, Sophie's Animal Parade, and Marathon Mouse — as well as a middle grade novel. When she's not writing, she is editing and marketing other people's books. She writes from her home in Clovis, California, where she lives on a steady diet of popcorn and coffee.

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Rob Dixon (DIS, Fuller Theological Seminary) is an associate regional ministry director with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA and senior fellow for gender partnership with the InterVarsity Institute. He is an adjunct professor at Fresno Pacific University and Fuller Theological Seminary and provides training on flourishing mixed-gender ministry partnerships for numerous organizations around the country.

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Emily Dolan is a graduate student in literature at the University of Connecticut. Her dissertation is focused on the role American women writers played in the shift from sentimental literature to realist literature following the Civil War. In her spare time she enjoys playing the piano, drinking tea at Starbucks, and watching bad BBC mini-series.

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Ann is a writer, doctor, and homeschooling mother of four in Colorado. She writes about faith, medicine, and the opportunities to minister in the liminal spaces where what we think we know has been stripped away. Someday she hopes to find time to finish a cup of tea before it gets cold. Ann blogs at Learning As We Go.

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Janine Giordano Drake

Janine Giordano Drake is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Great Falls (Great Falls, Montana) where she teaches US History, Global History, and Political Theory courses. She is coeditor of The Pew and the Picket Line: Christianity and the American Working Class (Illinios Press, 2016) and finalizing a manuscript on the demise of Christian Socialists in the US in the twentieth century. It is tentatively entitled, They Have Stolen Jesus From Us: Christian Socialism and the American Protestant Churches, 1880-1920. In her spare time, Janine runs, swims, and plays with her two daughters. She fantasizes about someday writing children's stories about girls in American history, and about someday learning to sew.

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Andrea E. is an assistant professor at a land-grant university in New England. Her research focuses on food safety and food microbiology. In her down time she enjoys hiking, reading, and writing about science, food safety, and faith.

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Hannah Eagleson

Hannah Eagleson loves to tell stories, and she loves to think about them. She has a PhD in English literature from the University of Delaware, and she writes literature curriculum for educational presses. She also writes poetry and is working on a children's novel about a dragon who runs a teashop in eighteenth-century London. When she has spare time, she likes to play her harps and travel.

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Terumi Echols is president and publisher of InterVarsity Press (IVP). She joined IVP in December 2017 as director of finance and fulfillment operations. In that role she managed the annual budget and oversaw the finance, accounting, distribution center, customer contact center, general services, and facilities teams.

Before coming to IVP, Echols worked for nearly two decades at Christianity Today International, most recently from 2014 to 2016 as the executive vice president and chief publishing officer, and as executive vice president and publisher from 2012 to 2014. While she was at Christianity Today, Terumi championed new product lines, diversified the list of contributors, and increased revenue.

Terumi graduated from Chadwick University with an MBA, is a member of the Illinois CPA Society, and received a certificate from Yale University School of Management on Publishing Print and Digital Media.

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Dr. Kim Gaines Eckert is a licensed psychologist in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where she maintains a private counseling practice and teaches as an adjunct at Lee University is the Clinical Director of the Lee University Play Therapy Center. Dr. Eckert holds undergraduate degrees from the University of Michigan, as well as a master's and doctorate from Wheaton College (IL). She is the author of Things Your Mother Never Told You: A Woman's Guide to Sexuality (InterVarsity Press Books, 2014), and Stronger Than You Think: Becoming Whole Without Having to be Perfect. A Woman’s Guide (InterVarsity Press Books, 2007) and blogs at drkimeckert.com.

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Sr. Jocelyn Edathil

Sr. Jocelyn Edathil SIC was born and raised in Philadelphia and reared in the Eastern Catholic tradition, namely the Syro Malankara Catholic Church. She went to Villanova University where she graduated with degree in Chemistry. She then went on to complete the MD/PhD dual degree program at Penn State, subsequently attending Temple University for Internal Medicine residency. Afterward she began formation with the Sisters of the Imitation of Christ (also known as the Bethany Sisters in India) and made her first profession of vows in August 6, 2016 in Elmont, New York. Currently she works at Temple University Hospital as Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine where she teaches medical students and residents. She is heavily involved in Ethics, Diversity, and Humanism in Medicine. She speaks on a variety of topics including vocational discernment and intercultural communication as well as current trends in social media.

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Tara Edelschick

Tara Edelschick (EdD, Harvard) is a teacher, a writer, mother of three, and grandmother. For three decades, she has worked as an educator, teaching public high school students in New York, graduate students at Harvard's School of Education, homeschoolers in Massachusetts, and incarcerated men taking college courses through the Emerson Prison Initiative. In her church, you can find her speaking at a women's conference or marriage retreat, teaching Sunday school, gathering mothers for prayer and Bible study, or leading retreats for families.

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Christina Barland Edmondson

Christina Barland Edmondson is a higher education instructor, organizational consultant, and co-host of the Truth's Table podcast. She is the coauthor of Faithful Antiracism and has served in a variety of roles in higher education including as the Dean for Intercultural Student Development at Calvin University. She is also a certified Cultural Intelligence facilitator, public speaker, mental health therapist, and a consultant in the areas of ethics, equity, and Christian leadership development.

Christina holds a PhD in counseling psychology from Tennessee State University, an MS degree in family therapy from the University of Rochester, and a bachelor's degree in sociology from Hampton University. Her writing has been seen and referenced in a variety of outlets including Essence.com, YourBlackWorld.com, and Gospel Today magazine.

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Gretchen Ellis is a freelance writer and copy-editor. She has a master’s degree in Theology from Wheaton College and a master’s degree in Hebrew Bible from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She also runs her own online crafting business out of her home. She currently lives in Madison with her husband Ryan, their two cats, and a house full of books. She is a lover of learning, tea, and deep conversations.

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Cristina Espinoza-Alguera

Cristina brings a wealth of industry experience to her current role on the Finance faculty of the University of Miami. She holds a PhD from Texas A&M University. In addition, she serves on staff with InterVarsity’s Graduate and Faculty Ministries working with U of M faculty to help them bring together their life in Christ and their awork. Cristina and her daughter — an avid horse racing fan — attended this year’s Kentucky Derby. Her son just completed his first year at BGSU in Ohio and is looking forward to his 2nd year.

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Beth Falker Jones

Dr. Beth Felker Jones, who earned her doctorate at Duke University, teaches systematic theology at Wheaton College. She is a regular contributor to The Christian Century and is currently working on a theology of conversion titled Converting Love: Conversion Among the Loci for Oxford University Press. Dr. Jones’s most recent book is Faithful: A Theology of Sex. She is also the author of Practicing Christian Doctrine: An Introduction to Thinking and Living Theologically, God the Spirit: Introducing Pneumatology in Wesleyan and Ecumenical Perspective, and The Marks of His Wounds: Resurrection Doctrine and Gender Politics.

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Lauralee Farrer

Lauralee Farrer is president and principal filmmaker of Burning Heart Productions ; an artist in residence of the Brehm Center for Worship, Theology, and the Arts ; and the senior editor of Fuller’s Theology, News & Notes. The film Praying the Hours — a decade-long endeavor — is her current project combining a feature-length drama alongside a series of eight half-hour episodes that personify the Benedictine hours of prayer through story.

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Pat Feldhake lived and worked at Cedar Campus, Inter Varsity’s training center in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, for twenty years. She currently serves as the K-12 guidance counselor in two rural schools in Cedarville and Pickford, Michigan. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in psychology and sociology from the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point and her master’s degree in counseling psychology from Wheaton Graduate School. She loves living in the wilds of the U.P. in a log home built by her husband Marty, and enjoys skijoring with her dogs, swimming, and hiking.

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Elizabeth Felicetti

Elizabeth Felicetti is an Episcopal priest and the rector of St. David's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia. She earned a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky where she studied creative nonfiction and poetry. Elizabeth also holds a Master of Divinity from Virginia Theological Seminary where she loved studying Old Testament and Biblical Hebrew and spent part of one summer in Sudan teaching Hebrew to Episcopal priests. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Christian Century, and numerous other magazines. When not actively serving St. David’s or writing, Elizabeth loves birding and playing the ukulele.

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