Nathan Kirkpatrick is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. Prior to joining the staff at Duke Divinity School, he served as a parish pastor in the Western North Carolina Conference. In his time at Duke, Kirkpatrick has directed the Course of Study school and worked with a variety of other programs for clergy and denominational leaders. He is active at all levels of denominational life, most recently chairing the Course of Study Task Force for the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry. Kirkpatrick is a graduate of Wake Forest University and Duke Divinity School.

Nancy James is a leadership development trainer who has developed dozens of customized learning experiences for corporations across the world. She has been associate dean for executive education at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business and more recently has been a human resource executive for the United States Postal Service. She has been a member of the faculty of the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) since 1995. At one time she managed CCL’s most popular program, Looking Glass Experience. James holds a Ph.D. in educational psychology from Mississippi State University and an M.B.A. from the Fuqua School of Business. She is a Eucharistic minister and lector in her parish in Greensboro.

Gretchen Ziegenhals is interested in the art of teaching and learning. For 10 years, she was a consultant and writer for the Lexington Seminar, a project that assisted Protestant theological seminary faculties with such issues. At Georgetown College in Kentucky, she was an adjunct instructor in English before she founded and directed the Women’s Studies Program. Prior to Georgetown, she was the assistant editor at The Christian Century. Gretchen is a graduate of Yale Divinity School and Williams College.