Presenters and Contributors
University of the Incarnate Word
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Dr. Arturo Chávez
President and CEO, Mexican American Catholic College
Dr. Arturo Chávez is the President and Chief Executive Officer of MACC, the Mexican American Catholic College in San Antonio, Texas. He has been a member of the MACC faculty since the year 2000, and was appointed President in 2007. Since then, Dr. Chávez has led the organization into its current transition from a Cultural Center to a Catholic College that offers B.A. and M.A. degrees in Pastoral Ministry. The unique degree plans are offered bilingually to meet the growing needs of Latinos for higher education, especially for service in faith communities.
Dr. Chávez has worked for over 28 years in a variety of ministries. As a teacher, youth minister, a chaplain to the incarcerated, and a community organizer. He founded a nonprofit youth organization called JOVEN and was instrumental in establishing other faith-based partnerships to address the urgent needs of families who are poor and disenfranchised. His commitment to community-based activism, education, and peace-building continues through his ministry as a teacher, facilitator, and international speaker.
Nationally recognized for his efforts to combat racism and poverty, Catholic Charities USA recognized him as “…a national champion of the poor” with the 2010 “Keep the Dream Alive Award” in honor of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Additionally, he served on President Obama’s Council for Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
Dr. Chávez holds a B.A. in Religious Studies from the University of Incarnate Word, a Masters degree from Oblate School of Theology of the Southwest, and a Ph.D. in Religious and Theological Studies, from the University of Denver and the Iliff School of Theology, with a focus on the relationship between religion and social change.
Dr Sandra Guzman Foster
Assistant Professor, Dreeben School of Education
University of the Incarnate Word
sfoster@uiwtx.edu
(210) 832-3215
Dr. Sandy L. Guzman Foster is the Sister Theophane Power Endowed Chair and an Associate Professor in the graduate studies department in the Dreeben School of Education at the University of the Incarnate Word.
She conducts workshops on topics related to critical reflection, the 3Ds (discussion, debate, and dialogue), inclusive education, equity, diversity, and social justice.
She is a proponent of transformative learning education opportunities and is a strong believer in building bridges, not walls when it comes to racial, cultural, and interfaith understanding.
Sr. Martha Ann Kirk
Office: AD 341
Phone: (210) 829-3854
Email: kirk@uiwtx.edu
Sister Martha Ann Kirk, Th.D.
With a Th.D. in Theology and the Arts from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA, and Masters degrees from the University of New Mexico and Fordham University, she has been a professor of Religious Studies and of the Arts at the University of the Incarnate Word teaching over 7,000 students, writing six books, and visiting 32 countries often leading students. She is interested in furthering San Antonio’s flourishing as a City of Compassion within the global Charter for Compassion movement leading. Martha Ann is among the international group of certified facilitators for Compassionate Integrity Training. She is an SA2020 Ambassador encouraging progress towards a shared vision for a thriving San Antonio.
She has been the San Antonio Peace Laureate, the Texas Pax Christi Peacemaker of the Year, and recognized in various ways for building interfaith and intercultural bridges. She was included in the PBS “Women, War, and Peace” series as a “Teacher of Peace.” She promotes service learning within the UIW Ettling Center for Civic Leadership and Sustainability. As a Sister of Charity of the Incarnate Word, she serves as the Chair their International Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation Committee.
Dr. Dhawn Martin
Dhawn B. Martin is the Executive Director of the Source of Light (SoL) Center of San Antonio, an interfaith education and peace building center. Dhawn’s research interests focus on the intersections of faith commitments and political activism.
She is co-editor of the volume, Ecological Solidarities: Mobilizing Faith and Justice for an Entangled World (Penn State University Press, 2019). Her publications include, “A Cosmopolitical Theology: Engaging ‘The Political’ as an Incarnational Field of Emergence,” in Common Goods: Economy, Ecology, and Political Theology and “A Provisional Politics: Reclaiming Grace at the Intersections of Religion and Politics,” Crosscurrents, 64, no. 3.
She serves on the board of SACRD—San Antonio Community Resource Directory. Dhawn enjoys playing guitar, walking, and writing.
Director
Ettling Center for Civic Leadership & Sustainability (AD154 /CPO 382)
A Collaboration between UIW and CHRISTUS Health
University of the Incarnate Word
(210) 283-6423 (office)
Dr. Ricardo Gonzalez is the Director of the Ettling Center for Civic Leadership & Sustainability. The ECCLS conducts over 35 different programs and services to support the needs of local, regional and international communities, such as Spring Day of Service, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services-Naturalization Ceremonies, Cardinal Community Leaders Program and Garden Days, to name a few. Additionally, over 90 percent of all programs and services are in collaboration with an agency, department or organization. In keeping with Sr. Dot’s vision and mission, sustainability seemed a natural fit to ensure students understand the importance of social justice as it pertains to the ecological footprint and its impact on the communities we serve.
Dr. Gabriel T. Saxton-Ruiz
Professor of Spanish (Latin American Literature & Culture)
University of the Incarnate Word
Gabriel T. Saxton-Ruiz is Professor of Spanish (Latin American Literature & Culture) at the University of the Incarnate Word. Before coming to UIW, he was an Associate Professor of Spanish & Latin American Studies and Vice Chair of Humanistic Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.
He received his BA in Spanish and French from Virginia Tech, and his MA and PhD in Modern Foreign Languages from the University of Tennessee.
His research interests include twentieth and twenty-first century Latin American literature, popular culture studies, cultural gastronomy and representations of violence in various types of cultural productions.
He has published Forasteros en tierra extraña (2012), a study on contemporary Peruvian literature and political violence, and co-edited the monograph La narrativa de Jorge Eduardo Benavides: Textos críticos (2018). In 2020, he will publish Paciencia perdida: An Anthology of Peruvian Fiction with Dulzorada Press. Saxton-Ruiz is also the Editor-in-Chief of Stories FromPeru, an online magazine of Peruvian literature in translation into English. His scholarly articles and translations have appeared in diverse publications in the UK, USA, Cuba, and Peru including Words Without Borders, Revista Hiedra, Palabras Errantes and Revista Conjunto-Casa de las Américas.
Incarnate Word Music graduate (1976)
Melanie works nationally sharing both music of the African Diaspora and her delightful compositions. She stretches minds in the “Othering and Belong Institute” at UC Berkeley and stretches hearts with thousands of children in schools in Oakland, CA, where she lives.
She also works with Threshold Choirs, those who share with people in the journey from life and to life. Whether she’s leading stick pounding workshops, doing residencies with choirs all over the country, performing solo, or teaching Sound Awareness to sixth graders, baby boomers, or senior citizens, one thing is certain: her mission is to make sure you unlock the key to experiencing yourself in all your Glory.
Recently after the killing of George Floyd, she again sang an African-American Gullah lullaby, “Somebody’s baby just killed someone else’s baby, leaving somebody’s baby, cryin’. When will it all end?”
Deborah A. Quiñones, M. Ed.
Doctoral Student, Dreeben School of Education
University of the Incarnate Word
(210) 832- 5644
Deborah is the Dean of Academics at St. Anthony Catholic High School, a UIW Brainpower school. She holds a Texas Certification in Secondary Education and taught English Language Arts for twenty years in both public and private schools. She has also served as the Director of Curriculum and Instruction at St. Anthony's.
Her research concentration is in College Readiness and Remediation. Deborah believes in the importance of equitable opportunities for all students. Coaching teachers through curriculum and instruction to support holistic education by practicing relevance, relate-ability and reflection is her passion. She believes students must see themselves in their transformation and how they can be a part of a compassionate community by applying critical thinking skills to their everyday lives.
Deborah's greatest accomplishment in education was receiving the CCVI Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word Service Award In 2017. She promotes service learning projects by being an example of one who regularly serves at Haven for Hope, SA Food Bank, and in community gardens.
The Rev. Ann Helmke
City of San Antonio, Faith Based Office Liaison
The Rev. Ann Helmke is an ordained Lutheran (ELCA) minister who has been serving in San Antonio community for over 30 years. She has served in a congregational setting and is one of the co-founders of the San Antonio peaceCENTER 25 years ago, where she continues to serve in this all volunteer and interfaith organization as the animating director.
Ann also served for seven years as director of spiritual services at Haven for Hope, a San Antonio homeless transformational center. Since 2017, she has been serving as the "Faith Liaison" for the City of San Antonio in the Department of Human Services. In that role hundreds have been unified to work together in improving lives of families and communities most in need via relational coordination, intentional partnerships and network activation between the faith community, government agencies, nonprofits and community groups.
In her position as Faith Liaison, Rev. Helmke helps the City understand the concerns of its congregations and other faith-based groups, and vice versa. She explains that there are about 1,400 congregations in San Antonio of all kinds: Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Indigenous, and others.
Committed to community service and with the 25+ years of a committed core team with the San Antonio peaceCENTER, for last 10 years they have carefully nurtured within our grassroots the Charter for Compassion movement in San Antonio. In 2017 the Mayor and City Council officially declared San Antonio as a Compassionate City globally along with ~100 other cities by the signing into action of the Compassionate San Antonio Resolution.
Today that number of Compassionate Cities is near 450 to which San Antonio is a piloting leader in terms of the education of compassion as well as the policy and decision making of our civic leaders. Today the San Antonio peaceCENTER is doing-business-as Compassionate San Antonio to ensure that our Compassionate City survives and thrives beyond election cycles.
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