Exploring the Values of University Chaplaincy: An Interfaith Conversation

Join faith leaders Chaplain Tahera Ahmad, Dr. Kate Ott, Rev. Julie Windsor Mitchell, and Rabbi Jessica Lott for a thoughtful discourse regarding best practices and care for students and beyond.

Chaplain Tahera Ahmad is a dynamic Muslim scholar-practitioner who serves as the director of interfaith engagement, associate university chaplain, and associate chair of the women’s residential college at Northwestern University. She also serves as faculty at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. A renowned speaker, Ahmad has worked closely with the U.S. Justice and State departments leading both national and international workshops on cultural awareness of Muslims and religious diversity. Her undergraduate education is in Biochemistry, and her graduate work is in Theology. She studied Islamic Chaplaincy and Interfaith Dialogue program at the Hartford Seminary and received a graduate certification in the Women’s Spiritual Leadership Program and graduate certification in Classical Arabic, and Islamic Studies from Al-Diwan and Al-Azhar Cairo, Ijāzāt (certifications) in Tajweed (art of Quranic recitation) and has taught widely across the USA.

Rabbi Jessica Lott has worked in the Hillel world for over a decade, both on campus (at the University of Delaware, Temple University, and the University of Maryland) and at Hillel International’s headquarters, most recently as the Associate Vice President of Education at Hillel International and lead Educator for the Springboard Fellowship. Jessica is a graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in Jewish and Near Eastern Studies from Washington University in St Louis and a master’s degree in Social and Cultural Foundations of Education from DePaul University in Chicago.

Rev. Julie Windsor Mitchell is the Campus Minister at University Christian Ministry, sponsored by the United Methodist and Presbyterian Churches. She is an ordained pastor in the United Church of Christ. She came to Northwestern 23 years ago and has been in campus ministry ever since because she loves college students so much! Prior to UCM, she served as pastor of St. John’s United Church of Christ in Evanston. She is a graduate of Brown University and Harvard Divinity School. She loves to share stories about life, love, spirituality, and social justice. When she’s not hanging out on campus, you can probably find her traveling internationally (during non-pandemic times), camping with her husband and kids, riding her bike around Evanston, or doing burpees.

Dr. Kate Ott is the Jerre and Mary Joy Stead Professor of Christian Social Ethics, and Director of the Jerre L. and Mary Joy Center for Ethics and Values at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. She is the author of many publications, including Sex, Tech, and Faith: Christian Ethics for a Digital Age, Christian Ethics for a Digital Society, and Sex + Faith: Talking to Your Child from Birth to Adolescence. Ott’s primary research interests are in the areas of Christian social ethics, digital technology, sexuality, and gender, race and racism, professional ethics, and the moral agency of children and youth. Ott is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison (BA), Yale Divinity School (MAR), and Union Theological Seminary in New York City (DPhil).