I am so honored to have started my three-year term on the board of the Eugene M. Burke Lectureship on Religion and Society. According to the website, the Lectureship “sponsors public lectures in which scholars, theologians, and religious practitioners address critical issues on the relationship between religion and society and on the religious dimensions of being human.” I’m really excited to help make these important conversations happen!

To share its origin story, as a Paulist priest, Eugene Burke initially came to the University of California, San Diego in his retirement to help with Catholic ministry. Along with leaders in the Lutheran and Episcopal communities, Burke outlined the scope of the lectureship in 1984, just before his passing. Hundreds of donations created the endowment needed to begin the Lectureship in 1985. Now, over thirty years later, they continue to provide some of the most important talks at the intersection of religion and human life.