As the newly elected Chair of The Council of Colleges and Universities of the Christian Church (DOC), President Miller becomes an ex-officio member of the Board of Directors of the Higher Education and Leadership Ministry of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
According to a release from HELM, new members of the Board include:
Rev. Sandhya Rani Jha serves as Senior Pastor of First Christian Church of Oakland and Director of the Oakland Peace Center. Her passion is liberation ethics as an academic field and as a lived experience in urban communities. She recently published “Room at the Table: The struggle for dignity and unity in Disciples history,” a book about people of color in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Sandhya is co-moderator of the denomination’s Reconciliation Commission and an occasional consultant for Church Extension’s New Beginnings program. She joins the HELM board in the Class of 2015.
Rev. Dr. H. Ben Bohren is Regional Minister of the Christian Church of Northern California-Nevada. He came to that ministry after nearly 8 years as the Director of Church Relations for the Disciples National Benevolent Association. Prior to that he served 10 years as Director of Church Relations at Chapman University in Orange, CA. Prior to that, he served 20 years in pastoral ministry as senior minister at First Christian Church, Orange, CA; pastor at First Christian Church, Lebanon, KY; and student minister at Wintergreen and Beech Grove Christian Churches, Nelson Co. VA.
Dr. Scott D. Miller is the new chair of The Council of Colleges and Universities. He became president of Bethany College in 2007 after serving for over 10 years as President of Wesley College and seven as President of Lincoln Memorial University. He begins a two-year term as chair of the council.
Rev. Dr. D. Newell Williams begins a term as chair of the Council on Theological Education. He has been President and Professor of Modern and American Church History of Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University since 2003. A historian of the Stone-Campbell Movement, Newell is the author of numerous books and was co-editor of The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement. He served as Moderator of The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in 2008-2009.
