Member Relations

Elmhurst College Hosts Networking Meeting for the Council for Health and Human Services Ministries

Elmhurst College alum Bill Johnson of the Council for Health and Human Service Ministries (CHHSM) in Cleveland, journeyed back to the College recently to meet with CHHSM leaders in Illinois. While on campus, he also met with several staffers, students and faculty members to network and discuss collaboration on educational issues.

Johnson, CHHSM's Vice President for Member Relations, hopes new partnerships can be built between CHHSM ministries, the College and Elmhurst students. He envisions new working relationships with retirement communities, health care organizations, child welfare advocates, and faith-based groups working with the aging, the homeless, formerly incarcerated persons, victims of abuse, and persons living with disabilities.

"I think there are countless, mutually beneficial partnerships that could be developed between the diverse CHHSM member ministries in greater Chicago and the College," Johnson said.

Kim Whisler-Vasko '88, coordinator in the College Chaplain's Office for the National Church Associates (NCA) of the UCC, helped host and plan the day's activities, which included talks by College Faculty members Frank Mittermeyer, director, and Cheryl Leoni, assistant director, of the Center for Health Professions, as well as by Cassandra Sheffield, '99, assistant director of the Niebuhr Center.

NCA was established to further support and strengthen the relationship between the College and the UCC, said Whisler-Vasko, noting the matter gained more urgency with approval of the Elmhurst College Strategic Plan 2009-2014. "We in the Chaplain's office have been working to further develop mutually beneficial partnerships as some of the 'work' of NCA," she noted, "in order to provide tangible examples to this ongoing-living relationship."

College students who have taken advantage of the opportunities afforded by the Niebuhr Center and the Center for Health Professions, made presentations as well, vividly illustrating the impact the centers have had on their lives, as well as the kinds of partnerships that could be fostered with CHHSM, the College and other groups.

Kristen Miller, a junior majoring in nursing and intercultural studies, and the first person in her family to attend college, spoke of her work through the Niebuhr Center and her desire to do service beyond nursing, including a study seeking to address the disparities in health care as it is provided in area hospitals. "One thing I learned is that culture determined what services they received," she said of immigrants and others she observed trying to get medical attention.

Ken Kellner, a junior pre-med student majoring in biology with a humanities minor, recounted the opportunities the Center for Health Professions helped him achieve, including devoting more than 100 hours to shadowing a family physician and doing medical research on multiple sclerosis in Germany. He acknowledged his classwork with one of the other participants at the meeting, Adjunct Professor David McCurdy, who teaches Theology, Ethics and Healthcare with the Theology Department. McCurdy is also Senior Ethics Consultant and Director of Organizational Ethics with Advocate Health Care, a CHHSM member.

Zayne Thompson McCullum, a religion and service major with a minor in philosophy, said the Niebuhr Center was the inspiration that drew her to the College and she spoke of her work with UCC ministries and her internships, including helping homeless women and children in Wheaton and working with a mission church to help the deaf and blind.

Also participating in the meeting were Rev. David Yochum of Whitewater, Wis., CHHSM's Midwest Regional Representative, and Illinois Conference UCC Interim Conference Minister, Rev. Phil Hart.

Hart spoke powerfully of the need for organizations to be nimble during transformational times in an Internet Age, and the pitfalls of not keeping up with the times. "I think innovation and collaboration are the new name of the game," Hart told the meeting in the President's Dining Room of the Frick Center. "Culture eats strategy for breakfast."

Other participants at the meeting included Bonnie Condon, Vice President for Faith Outreach with Advocate Health Care, Oak Brook, who chaired the Illinois CHHSM meeting; Eliana Casella, administrator of St. Pauls House, a Lutheran Life Community in Chicago, and its Pastoral Services & Volunteer Director, Rev. Matthew J. Smucker; Dale Lilburn, Chief Executive Officer of Plymouth Place, a retirement community in LaGrange Park; and Claude Robinson, Executive Vice President of External Affairs and Diversity at Uhlich Children's Advantage Network (UCAN), a Chicago child-welfare organization dedicated to building strong youth and families through compassionate healing, education and empowerment.

Excerpted from an article in Elmhurst College's National Church Associates newsletter written by Bob Rowley, Executive Director for Government and Community Relations at Elmhurst.