Our Team
Leadership
Wm. Andrew Schwartz
Executive Director
Dr. Wm. Andrew Schwartz is an American philosopher and activist. He currently serves as Executive Director of the Center for Process Studies (CPS), Co-Founder & Vice President of the Institute for Ecological Civilization (EcoCiv), and Associate Professor of Process Studies and Comparative Theology at Claremont School of Theology (CST). His research and teaching covers a wide range of topics, such as environmental philosophy, philosophy of religion, Asian and comparative philosophies, metaphysics, economic philosophy, philosophy of mind, philosophy of education, and more. However, his current work mainly focuses the application of process philosophy in understanding reality, understanding humanity, and understanding how best to organize systems of society for ecological civilization. He is author/editor of 7 books, including What is Ecological Civilization (2019) and The Metaphysics of Paradox (2018). As Executive Director, Andrew has overall strategic and operational responsibility for CPS, including development and implementation of the CPS mission, programs, and strategic vision.
Andrew M. Davis
Program Director
Dr. Andrew M. Davis is an American process philosopher, theologian, and scholar of the cosmological wonder. He is program director for the Center for Process Studies where he researches, writes, teaches, and organizes conferences on various aspects of process-relational thought. An advocate of metaphysics and meaning in a hospitable universe, he approaches philosophy as the endeavor to systematically think through what reality must be like because we are a part of it. He is author, editor, and co-editor of ten books including Mind, Value, and Cosmos: On the Relational Nature of Ultimacy; Process Cosmology: New Integrations in Science and Philosophy; and Metaphysics of Exo-Life: Toward a Constructive Whiteheadian Cosmotheology. Follow his work at andrewmdavis.info
China Project
Zhihe Wang
China Project Co-Director
Dr. Zhihe Wang, a former member of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, received his Master’s Degree in Western Philosophy from Peking University, China, his Ph.D. in Philosophy of Religion from Claremont Graduate University, USA, and is a leading figure in constructive postmodern movement in China. He has published numerous books and more than 160 articles. His recent books include Process and Pluralism: Chinese Thought on the Harmony of Diversity, Second Enlightenment (with Meijun Fan). He also helped establish more than 30 research institutes on process thought and constructive postmodern studies in China. As co-director of CPS China Project, his major responsibility is to charge the communication between the Western Process community and Chinese community by organizing international conferences, arranging lectures, translating process books, and Chinese visiting scholar program.
Meijun Fan
China Project Co-Director
Dr. Meijun Fan serves as the Co-Director of the China Project and is primarily responsible for overseeing Cultural Communication, the newspaper publication of the project. Additionally, she manages the Chinese visiting scholar program, conference program, and publicity efforts. Previously, Fan held the position of Vice-Chair and Professor at Beijing Normal University’s Philosophy Department. She completed her doctoral studies in Chinese traditional aesthetics and aesthetic education at the same university. Fan has authored six books and co-authored seven, including the notable work Cobb and China: An Intensive Study of Cobb’s Postmodern Ecological Civilization Thoughts. Her book Contemporary Interpretation of Chinese Traditional Aesthetic received the “Excellence Award in Philosophy and Social Science” in China in 1997. She has also published over 100 academic articles in Chinese and English.
Korea Project
Dongwoo Lee
Korea Project Director
Dr. Dongwoo Lee is a founder of EcoCiv Korea and an Executive Director. Dr. Lee is also a director of the Korea Project at the Center for Process Studies. He is an author of several books. His latest book, Imagining Post-Pandemic Meta-Church, which was published in South Korea in September, 2021 became the number one bestselling E-book in the Religious section at Ridibooks’ store. He earned the PhD degree at Claremont School of Theology. Dr. Lee’s major areas of expertise are comparative religion and philosophy, process thoughts, postcolonialism, poststructuralism, contextual studies, economics and ecological studies. He is currently located in Los Angeles, California. He enjoys hiking trails, cycling and watching movies with his wife.
Heeyoung Jung
Korea Project Assistant
Heeyoung Jung is currently a Ph.D. student in Process Studies at Claremont School of Theology. She received an S.T. M from Union Theological Seminary in New York and an M.Div from Drew University in New Jersey. She also holds a Th.M in systematic theology from Yonsei University and a B.A in Theology from Methodist Theological University in Seoul. Her academic interests and researches in Process studies are eco-theology, eco-feminist theology, feminist studies, religious philosophies, postmodern studies, comparative studies, and educations from a Korean woman perspective. Her research is highly cross-cultural, interreligious, and intersecting Western philosophy, theology, and Asian philosophies and religions, including Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism. She is currently an assistant to Ecological Civilization in Korea project and works on researching and translating books, articles, and newspapers to support the Korea project.
Whitehead Research Project
Brian G. Henning
Whitehead Research Project Executive Director
Dr. Brian Henning is Professor of Philosophy at Gonzaga University and Executive Director of the Whitehead Research Project. Dr. Henning holds a M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in philosophy from Fordham University. He has published three books and has published articles in Process Studies, International Philosophical Quarterly, The Modern Schoolman, and Ethics & the Environment. His 2005 book, The Ethics of Creativity, won the 2007 Findlay Book Prize from the Metaphysical Society of America for the best work of metaphysics published between 2001 and 2006. He is co-editor of the Contemporary Whitehead Studies book series through Lexington Books.
Joseph Petek
WRP Director of Research and Publication
Dr. Joseph Petek has been with the Center for Process Studies for over a decade. He is the Director of Research and Publication for the Whitehead Research Project and Associate Series Editor of the Critical Edition of Whitehead. He has co-edited three books on Whitehead: Rethinking Whitehead’s Symbolism (2017), Whitehead at Harvard, 1924–1925 (2020), and The Harvard Lectures of Alfred North Whitehead, 1925–1927: General Metaphysical Problems of Science (2021). His latest book is Unearthing the Unknown Whitehead (2022), which examines the significance of Whitehead’s Harvard lectures and other previously unknown archival materials.
Process & Faith
Sheri D. Kling
Director of Process & Faith
Dr. Sheri D. Kling is director of Process & Faith and interim minister of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Bradenton, FL. Sheri earned her Ph.D. in Religion: Process Studies from Claremont School of Theology. She is a theologian, teacher, songwriter and spiritual mentor who draws from wisdom and mystical traditions, relational worldviews, depth psychology, and the intersection of spirituality and science to help people find meaning, belonging, and transformation. Sheri is a faculty member of the Haden Institute, adjunct faculty with Claremont School of Theology, and the author of A Process Spirituality: Christian and Transreligious Resources for Transformation. She regularly delivers dynamic “Music & Message” presentations to groups, and offers courses, concerts, and spiritual retreats. She may be found online at sherikling.com.
Richard Livingston
Process & Faith IT Specialist
Dr. Richard Livingston is the Executive Director of the Cobb Institute, and a member of the Process & Faith Core Team. He received his PhD in 2015 from Claremont Graduate University, where he specialized in Philosophy of Religion and Theology. Richard taught as an adjunct instructor in philosophy and religious studies at four colleges in Southern California from 2011-2019, and has worked in IT since the early 1990s. He holds a Master’s Degree in Theology from the University of Chicago (2005) and a Bachelor’s Degree in Near Eastern Studies from Brigham Young University (2001).
Kathleen Reeves
Process & Faith Core Team Member
The Reverend Kathleen Reeves is the leader of the Spiritual Integration group, and a fundraising and social media consultant at the Cobb Institute as well as a core team member at Process & Faith. She is also a hospice chaplain and bereavement coordinator for a hospice in Riverside, California. She is a writer, artist and published poet. She holds a Master of Divinity in interfaith theology, and is an ordained interfaith minister. She has been active in interfaith peace, and is a member of the Inland Valley Interfaith Working Group for Middle East Peace. She is the President of the Upland Interfaith Council, and has held leadership positions in Unitarian Universalists congregations. Her community interfaith ministry led her to volunteer with Syrian refugees as they settled into their new country. Her deep connection with one special family is captured in her series of stories she wrote for the Huffington Post. She is a student of Japanese tea ceremony through the international Chado Urasenke Tankokai associations of the Urasenke school in Kyoto, Japan. Kathleen has also trained in Restorative Practice, and she follows an earth-based religion and belongs to The Order of Bards, Ovates & Druids. She is working on ways to build a process-relational community through small group ministry.
Jared Morningstar
Communications Director
Jared Morningstar is an independent scholar living in Madison, Wisconsin with academic interests in philosophy of religion, Islamic studies, comparative religion, metamodern spirituality, and interfaith dialogue. His work in these areas seeks to offer robust responses to issues of inter-religious conflict, contemporary nihilism, and the “meaning crisis,” among other things. Jared graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College in 2018 with degrees in religion and Scandinavian studies and currently works for the Center for Process Studies, the Cobb Institute, and the Psychedelic Medicine Association.
Common Good Film Festival
Jeremy Fackenthal
Director of the Common Good Film Festival
Dr. Jeremy Fackenthal is Director of the Common Good Film Festival and an independent documentary filmmaker and videographer. After completing a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Religion and Theology from Claremont Graduate University, he began using his philosophical background beyond the academy to raise questions and craft narratives. His love for moving images grew together over the course of his adolescence, from his first experience wielding a VHS camcorder to his first 40-minute documentary produced during his senior year in college. In recent years, Jeremy’s work has included video content produced for clients and shorter independent projects. In 2017 Jeremy shot and edited Spitting Fire, a short documentary on spoken word poetry as a means of personal formation for adolescents. His current ongoing project is a feature-length documentary on the life and work of Walter Benjamin and the possibility of art as a site for radical political action.
Jim Fahey
Assistant Director of the Common Good Film Festival
Jim Fahey is an emerging film critic and curator who works as the Assistant Director of the Common Good Film Festival. Born and raised in Bellevue, WA, Jim has a passionate interest in bringing challenging, high-quality cinema to the world, and aims to bring his knowledge and expertise to this year’s Common Good Film Festival. He has spent the past year building his resumé at the University of Edinburgh, where he completed a Master’s program in Film, Exhibition & Curation. During that time he served as a film critic for The Student, the longest-running student newspaper in the UK. He actively writes criticism at Airplane Mode, a film-review newsletter currently available for free on Substack.
Communications
Jared Morningstar
Communications Director
Jared Morningstar is an independent scholar living in Madison, Wisconsin with academic interests in philosophy of religion, Islamic studies, comparative religion, metamodern spirituality, and interfaith dialogue. His work in these areas seeks to offer robust responses to issues of inter-religious conflict, contemporary nihilism, and the “meaning crisis,” among other things. Jared graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College in 2018 with degrees in religion and Scandinavian studies and currently works for the Center for Process Studies, the Cobb Institute, and the Psychedelic Medicine Association.
Emeriti Co-Directors
David Ray Griffin
Faculty Co-Director (Emeritus)
Dr. David Ray Griffin is Professor of Philosophy of Religion and Theology, Emeritus, Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California, where he remains a co-director of the Center for Process Studies. He has published (as author or editor) 36 books in theology, philosophy, philosophy of religion, the relation between science and religion, and social and political issues. Author of Panentheism and Scientific Naturalism, God Exists but Gawd Does Not, and Protecting Our Common, Sacred Home: Pope Francis and Process Thought.
John B. Cobb, Jr.
Faculty Co-Director (Emeritus)
Dr. John B. Cobb, Jr. is an American theologian, philosopher, and environmentalist. Described by historian Gary Dorrien as one of the two most important North American theologians of the twentieth century, Cobb is the preeminent scholar in the field of process philosophy and process theology, and the author of more than fifty books. In 2014, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Cobb is a founding co-director of the Center for Process Studies and Professor Emeritus of Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate University.
Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki
Faculty Co-Director (Emerita)
Dr. Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki is Professor Emerita, Claremont School of Theology, Faculty Co-Director Emerita of the Center for Process Studies, and Director Emerita of the Common Good Film Festival (formerly, Whitehead International Film Festival). Among her many books are God Christ Church: A Practical Guide to Process Theology; The End of Evil: Process Eschatology in Historical Context; The Fall to Violence: Original Sin in Relational Theology; and Through a Lens Darkly: Tracing Redemption in Film.
Monica A. Coleman
Faculty Co-Director (Emerita)
Dr. Monica A. Coleman is John and Patricia Cochran Scholar for Inclusive Excellence and Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Delaware. She spent nearly fifteen years in graduate theological education at Claremont School of Theology, the Center for Process Studies and Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Coleman has earned degrees from Harvard University, Vanderbilt University and Claremont Graduate University. She has received funding from leading foundations in the United States, including the Ford Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Institute for Citizens and Scholars (formerly the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Foundation), among others. Answering her call to ministry at 19 years of age, Coleman is an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and an initiate in traditional Yoruba religion.
Philip Clayton
Faculty Co-Director (Emeritus)
Dr. Philip Clayton is Ingraham Professor of Theology at Claremont School of Theology and affiliated faculty with Claremont Graduate University. A constructive Christian theologian, Philip has been a leader in dialogues with science, contemporary philosophy, and religious traditions East and West. He is particularly interested in the evolving understanding of Christian faith in the 21st century, and the societal changes that are necessary for establishing sustainable forms of civilization on this planet.
Roland Faber
Faculty Co-Director (Emeritus)
Dr. Roland Faber is Kilsby Family/John B. Cobb, Jr., Professor of Process Studies at Claremont School of Theology, Professor of Religion and Philosophy at Claremont Graduate University, Faculty Co-Director of the Center for Process Studies (CPS), and Executive Director of the Whitehead Research Project (WRP). As Founder of WRP, he is the initiator of the series of International Conferences of WRP since 2007 and their publication, the co-editor of the Contemporary Whitehead Studies series, and co-initiator of the Critical Edition of Whitehead’s Works. Research and publications are developed at whiteheadresearch.org. Professional information is provided at faber.whiteheadresearch.org.