Alumni News
Mr. Bruce I. Carson (STH ’51)
Bruce Carson (STH '51) passed away on March 8, 2021. He earned a Bachelor of Sacred Theology in 1951.
Dismantling Racism: Lenten Devotion by Bishop LaTrelle Easterling (STH ’04)
The following article was originally published by UMC.org on February 24, 2021. Click here to read the original article.
The Council of Bishops invites the people of The United Methodist Church to a season of introspection and self-examination. Together this Lent, we will confess and fast from the sin of racism, discrimination, oppression and exclusion and feast on the beauty and blessing of the diversity of God’s Church.
Each week of Lent and every day of Holy Week, a United Methodist Bishop will offer a short devotion. These times of reflection will challenge and inspire us to follow Jesus through the wilderness, alienation, betrayal and even death. Along the way, we will confront the sin of racism, renew our faith, and remember the promise of Easter—that redemption, reconciliation and liberation is possible.
In 2020, the Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church vowed to focus intently on dismantling racism in the church and the world. This Lenten devotional series is another step in the journey of repentance, reconciliation and action in which we invite the whole church to participate.
Rev. Art Gordon (STH’16) Advocates for COVID-19 Vaccine at Boston Medical Center
Boston Medical Center invited community leaders to share their COVID-19 vaccine stories in an effort to promote the vaccine's efficacy and prevent infections. Rev. Art Gordon's (STH'16) powerful reflection can be viewed by clicking the button below.
Dr. Patrick Reyes (STH’11) Discusses New Book, “The Purpose Gap: Empowering Communities of Color to Find Meaning and Thrive”
Writing for Your Life hosted a book launch interview with Dr. Patrick Reyes (STH'11) for his upcoming book, "The Purpose Gap: Empowering Communities of Color to Find Meaning and Thrive." Watch the full interview below!
Ben Hires (CAS’00, STH’03, MET’08) is “Opening Doors” as the CEO at the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center
The following article was originally published by Bostonia on March 4, 2021, and was written by John O'Rourke. Photo by Cydney Scott. Click here to read the original article.
They are determined to use their experience, influence, and positions to help make their business, organization, and world a more inclusive place. They are breaking barriers—and then reaching back to help those behind them overcome the same hurdles. They are mentoring students or younger colleagues, hiring diverse candidates, offering opportunities, and ensuring that employees succeed and are promoted so that their workplace and their communities reflect the richness and talents of the country’s increasingly diverse population. They are BU alumni, faculty, and staff—of every race, ethnicity, age, and gender—and they are “Opening Doors” for the next generation.
Growing up in rural southern New Jersey, Ben Hires saw no other kids who looked like him. An orphan from South Korea, he was adopted at eight months by a white middle-class couple who later adopted a little girl, who is white. “It wasn’t until high school that I met one other Asian student, so the idea of diversity and other Asians never really entered into my sphere in childhood,” says Hires (CAS’00, STH’03, MET’08). “I did go to a school where there were Black kids, but my world was predominantly Caucasian.”
It wasn’t until he got to BU, Hires says, that he had a chance “to meet more people who looked like me, more Koreans, more Japanese.” Even so, he felt different: “I wasn’t actually Korean, right? You’ve got all these other people who look like you now, but their experience growing up with their parents was totally different. I still didn’t feel like I fit in, even in that group.”
Hires majored in philosophy and political science as an undergrad and later earned a Master of Theological Studies at the School of Theology and a master’s in arts administration at Metropolitan College.
As an undergrad, he volunteered as a BU Initiative for Literacy Development (BUILD) tutor at Mission Hill School and Franciscan Children’s in Brighton. Those experiences shaped the trajectory of his career, serving young people and their families, especially children in underrepresented communities.
He was a youth counselor at a therapeutic program and later became involved with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras intensive community program, whose goal was to develop future generations of classic musicians from communities of color. “That was a good introduction to an area of inequity—classical music—and looking at what are the barriers and what are some solutions that could remedy that inequity,” Hires says.
From there, he landed at Boston Children’s Chorus, founded by Hubie Jones (SSW’57), dean emeritus of BU’s School of Social Work, where he held a series of leadership positions in programs, external relations, and strategy. “The chorus was a place that talked a lot about institutional and structural racism and personal prejudice and the history of Boston, which obviously has a long history of racial strife,” Hires says. “I observed from the students their passion for diversity and equity and social justice.”
He put that experience to good use in his next role, as director of strategic partnerships at the Boston Public Library (BPL), where he worked with other local organizations and businesses to help promote the BPL’s mission of equity and inclusion, especially in Boston’s many diverse neighborhoods.
Last June, Hires became CEO of the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (BCNC), the largest Asian immigrant multiservice organization in Greater Boston.
Bostonia spoke with Hires about his new role, what sparked his lifelong interest in promoting equity and inclusion, and why it’s important for the city to have more leaders of color.
Q&A: WITH BEN HIRES
Bostonia: What attracted you to your current position at BCNC?
Hires: I had volunteered before at BCNC in its youth college access mentor program and was a member of a group formed to help advise the center’s Pao Arts Center, so I was familiar with the organization and its work. It was a perfect opportunity for me, because I’m much more connected to Asian culture after marrying my wife, Tina Lin (MET’13), who is from Taiwan. We have a three-year-old who has all these multiple identities, and the idea of being part of an organization that could help me raise my son, recognizing and valuing his background, was important to me. I had worked previously with inspiring leaders at all these other wonderful organizations and I just felt that push—that it was time that I could do what they were doing and that I could give back in a different way and be a leader of an organization.
Can you talk about the organization’s mission ?
BCNC has been around for 52 years, serving the Chinatown and wider Asian immigrant community. Its mission is to empower and build strong, healthy families through achieving economic success and being civically engaged in their community. We do that by supporting the educational enrichment of children. We have a childcare program, an afterschool program, and a youth leadership program. We’re a family-centered organization: we’re focused on children, and we have adult education and workforce development programs geared toward the parents and adults. So while the kids are being taken care of in our childcare program, the parents can be taking classes and thinking about their next steps in entering the workforce. We also provide family services and community engagement, through the Pao Arts Center, supporting and uplifting the Chinatown community, which has a history of land being taken away via urban renewal.
In terms of making Boston more diverse and equitable, we’re helping the Chinese immigrant community and many other immigrant communities be successful. Asian, and in particular Chinese, immigrants are one of the fastest growing groups in Boston and New England. We’re trying to help them land here, learn the language, help their children get integrated in the schools, and help them get into the workforce. Whether you’re an immigrant from China or an immigrant from Ireland, I think each of these communities at different times has faced barriers, and our organization is helping to level that playing field as much as possible.
You started at BCNC in June, as the pandemic was increasing anti-Asian sentiment in the United States because COVID-19 first surfaced in China. Many Asian Americans were reporting more verbal and physical abuse—how did your organization address that?
Our staff have been supporting families worried about discrimination and fearful of racism since last year. Many families have been experiencing mental health stresses caused by the xenophobia that has been taking place. Some families have been subjected to remarks or stares while taking public transportation. Our youth in particular were feeling that way at school, and we had some young people who wrote an open letter to their school leaders in Boston, Quincy, and Malden early on in the pandemic asking them to take a stand against anti-Asian sentiment.
At the same time, the businesses where many of our families work were impacted. Early on, before the quarantine went into effect, many people stopped coming to Chinatown. There was a perception that all Asians were infected or that there was a virus going around in the Asian community in Boston in particular, and people stopped visiting restaurants and other businesses in Chinatown. So they were also stressed out about losing their jobs. And that obviously carried into the full pandemic. We launched a community-wide initiative named We Love Boston Chinatown: A Resiliency Campaign, which created a poster campaign against Asian prejudice and put public art in the windows of local restaurants to increase their visibility.
It must be incredibly rewarding when you see the difference you can make in an individual’s life.
It’s amazing for me to see the generations of families that have come through BCNC. You’ve got grandparents whose kids have gone through the organization and now their grandkids are here. That’s really amazing and quite a testament to the work our team is doing. And I think about many of our first-generation students who are the first in their family to go to college and what that means to their families and themselves. It’s amazing how hungry these folks are to do well, be successful, make a better life. It’s all on them. We help, but it’s incredible how much dedication and resilience they have.
You’ve devoted your career to helping others achieve equity. What fueled your interest?
If I had never been adopted, if I didn’t have these two—at the time, strangers—take me home, I imagine my life would have been totally different, and for that I’m forever grateful for my parents. It’s unlikely that I would have had the same opportunities and relationships and that I’d be where I am now. Whatever I can do to help—particularly young people who, through no fault of their own, might need an extra hand to reach their full potential, I want to be part of that. People are so appreciative of that extra hand. It’s always nice to be a part of people’s lives in this way. I’ve benefited so much from being adopted and being able to grow up here and have the parents I have.
Who opened doors for you in your life, aside from your parents?
At BU, I had thought about going to law school, but I had doubts about whether that made the most sense. I had a professor, Alan Olson [a College of Arts & Sciences professor emeritus of religion and philosophy], who suggested the idea of doing a master’s in theological studies at the School of Theology. It was really because of him that I did that degree, and later on I audited a class at Metropolitan College called Arts World, taught by Rich Maloney, who was at the time the assistant director of the Arts Administration Program. I got to know him well and really liked his class. He encouraged me to enter the program. It’s because of those two professors I’m a triple Terrier, and those pathways got me into my work in the youth arts.
I was hired by David Howse, then the executive director of Boston Children’s Chorus, and worked with him for eight or nine years. He’s been a friend and mentor to me ever since. He’s now vice president of Emerson College and executive director of ArtsEmerson and is such a force around thinking about equity and the arts. I learned so much from him about being a leader and about understanding the issues of systemic racism and prejudice and how the arts can be a kind of connector in helping people try and understand these issues.
Boston has a history of not always being welcoming to immigrants. Do you see signs of improvement, and if so, where?
I’ve been in Boston for about 20 years and I’ve seen positive change, but at the same time we’re still dealing with some of the same challenges. But for the first time in Boston we will have an acting mayor who is a woman of color and a mayoral race that currently has three women of color running. The fact that the next mayor of Boston could be both a woman and a person of color is pretty significant. And the conversations and the protests we’ve seen around equity and race, I don’t remember them 20 years ago. So I definitely feel like there’s a lot more awareness and people across different backgrounds who are concerned about issues of racism, issues of immigration, issues of whether our communities are welcoming to people. That’s positive. At the same time, we know there are still highly segregated communities, there are still inequitable outcomes to the social determinants of health. We know there’s not a level playing field for people of color and for immigrants. On one level, our work at BCNC is helping tell that story about why that shouldn’t be the case.
You’ve said there needs to be more leaders of color not just in Boston, but throughout the country. How do we make that happen?
One of the things that I’m involved in, and I think a lot of people are doing now more than ever, is building a community among leaders of color in Boston. There have been a number of different coalitions and collaborations among organizations that are led by people of color that are talking and working together, and there wasn’t as much of that 5 to 10 years ago.
David Howse inspired me in 2016 to organize a leadership group I’ve dubbed the “A Team” (it was one of my favorite shows growing up). The “A” stands for Asian. David had a Black men’s leadership group and I said, “There should be one to support Asian leaders.” So the former CEO of BCNC, Giles Li, and some others we knew started meeting. We are still getting together and expanding the circle.
It’s important to build that network of leadership in Boston because we’re regularly in spaces where there aren’t people who look like us or there aren’t people who understand the communities that we’re working with and the issues that they’re facing. Being able to support each other at a leadership level goes a long way, and it builds that foundation for organizations to work more closely together. Some of the issues that we’re trying to tackle—it’s not any one organization that is going to solve these things. It’s going to be organizations in the same community working together, organizations across different neighborhoods working together, organizations from different sectors working together.
Prof. Luis Menéndez-Antuña Awarded Louisville Institute Sabbatical Research Grant
Assistant Professor of New Testament Luis Menéndez-Antuña has been awarded a Sabbatical Grant for Researchers by the Louisville Institute. The grant will allow Prof. Menéndez-Antuña to spend a year on sabbatical writing his proposed book, titled “New Testament Studies After the Cultural Turn. Thinking Biblical Literature in the Midst of Global Crises.”
“There are many things I would like to mention about this work but the most important would be the following one: in biblical studies, and theology at large, there is this tacit understanding that there is on the one hand ‘serious scholarship,’ and then ‘contextual scholarship,’” writes Menéndez-Antuña. “As the story goes, we have solid exegetical work on the one hand, and then we have derivative scholarship done by minority scholars who are concerned with specific contexts. This work not only challenges this assumption, it shows that biblical scholarship that takes present contemporary contexts seriously enhances our understanding of the biblical past.”
Prof. Menéndez-Antuña will be on leave completing work on this book from July 2021 through July 2022.
PhD Student shaunesse’ a. jacobs Publishes Article on Racial Disparities in Maternal Mortality Crisis
This article was originally published on the BU Institute for Health System Innovation & Policy website here.
Details Matter When Tackling the Public-Health Crisis of Maternal Mortality
By shaunesse’ a. jacobs
Giving birth is often one of the most transformative experiences in a person’s life. Communities shift in the most beautiful ways: families expand, individuals assume communal roles, and investing in the future becomes increasingly important. Yet, the beauty of birth becomes challenging in the United States. The country ranks 55th in the world based on the maternal care our healthcare system offers. These rates are even more staggering for Black communities, as Black women in the United States are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women. In fact, following the CDC’s Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System, Black women experienced the highest number of pregnancy-related deaths compared to all other racial/ethnic groups in 2011-2016.
These statistics inspire my research and the work I have been privileged to pursue through IHSIP this summer. I began the research process wanting to acquire medical records to determine if there were differences in care over the course of a person’s pregnancy that differed across racial/ethnic groups in a Boston hospital. Narratives in the medical records could reveal disparities in care and practices, which might offer health system design and implementation improvements that could be applied across the Boston area and the wider region. Later, the data findings and ideas for improvement could be used to build a computational policy simulation to demonstrate the impact of novel policy ideas both on health outcomes and on healthcare costs.
I assumed the trends in care would be apparent through the way notes were documented by clinicians and the number of follow-up visits a patient scheduled from awareness of conception through six weeks post-partum. While this was a sensible hunch based on the many news reports, social media posts, and CDC reports I had read on this topic, I discovered that the question was far more complex and the nuances matter.
Through meetings with experts in the field—Dr. Eugene Declercq, Dr. Brian Jack, and Dr. Michael Kogan—my faculty advisor Dr. Wildman and I came to understand the variety of public-health and clinical terms used to address maternal morbidity. To begin with, maternal mortality, severe maternal morbidity, and pregnancy-related death are distinct categories in medical records and measured differently. Social factors and health prior to pregnancy are factors. Age and education play important roles. Most importantly, post-natal and preventative care inform how a birthing person’s death is understood. My research expanded to incorporate different measurements and clinical terms. I also had to account for the ways these measures are articulated in national and state datasets. Individual narratives made me aware of the public health crisis, but the subtleties of definition, measurement, and reporting made me aware of the ways the issues swirling around maternal care and morbidity should be communicated with patients, clinicians, public health professionals, and the public.
While our research still seeks to understand the differences in how care is reported across racial/ethnic groups, we have also become aware of the ways that medical records and state and national datasets must be in conversation with one another. These conversations have the potential to improve health system design, public health engagement, and even computational policy simulations that might be used to guide policy decisions. With the right kinds of conversations and public communication, the delivery of care improves, the public’s support of relevant policy measures strengthens, and Black birthing people increase their chances of surviving and flourishing as parents of young children.
We hope our research contributes to the work of shedding light on the dearth of policy initiatives directed towards maternal care. By means of a better understanding of preventable problems that lead to negative birthing outcomes for mothers, especially Black mothers in the United States, we hope to support the development of new policies that directly improve maternal care practices, the reporting of maternal health statistics, and the experience of families.
About the Author
shaunesse’a. jacobs is a third year PhD student on the Constructive Theology and Ethics track at Boston University’s School of Theology. She is a recipient of the 2020 IHSIP Summer Student Research Award in collaboration with advising faculty member, Wesley J. Wildman, PhD. Her research broadly examines the ways communities use religious practices to cope with the injustices of the healthcare system, with special focus on the healthcare injustice of severe maternal morbidity for Black birthing people.
BUSTH Suite 108 Featured as BU Today’s Close-Up
February 16 photo by Jackie Ricciardi.
Dr. Quentin L. Hand (GRS ’60, STH ’60)
Quentin Lamoin Hand passed away peacefully at the age of 96. Loving family members had been at his side for the last days of his life.
Quentin was born and raised in the small northern Indiana town of Akron. He went to Indiana University where he graduated with honors in 1945, with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy. While at Indiana University. Quentin answered the call to the Methodist Ministry, and met and fell in love with Jane Denny. He and Jane were wed in 1944, beginning a 73-year long marriage, ending three years ago, when Jane passed away with Quentin by her side. They had two children, Terrill and Steve. Quentin's ministry spanned six decades. While still at Indiana University, he served as a Supply Pastor, filling a need created by the shortage of ministers during World War II. In 1948, he graduated, with distinction, with a Bachelor of Divinity from Garrett Biblical Institute in Evanston, Illinois. Quentin was the pastor for several small parishes in northern Indiana before moving to New Hampshire in 1951. There he pursued doctoral studies at Boston University, while also ministering to his congregations. In 1960, Quentin received his Doctoral Degree in Pastoral Care and Counseling. He accepted a teaching position in Pastoral Care and Counseling at the Candler School of Theology, Emory University, in 1961 where he served for twenty-seven years.
As one of the founding members of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, he was instrumental in establishing professional standards for pastoral counselors. Quentin was a voice for those on the margins. He advocated for ministry to all people, including those in the LGBTQ community, at a time that it was unpopular to do so. Upon retirement from Candler School of Theology in 1988, Quentin and Jane moved to Huntsville, Alabama, where he worked at the Key Pastoral Counseling Center. In 1994, they returned to the Atlanta area to live close to son Steve and his family.
In retirement, Quentin continued his ministry. He and Jane were active members of the Grayson United Methodist Church. Quentin served as a Stephen Ministry Leader; co-chairman of the Building Committee; and, Chi Rho Sunday School class teacher. He conducted Communion Services in the Church Chapel. During the 1999-2000 academic year, he and Jane lived in Mutare, Zimbabwe where he was a visiting professor of Pastoral Care at Africa University.
Family was extremely important to Quentin. He and Jane showed their devotion in countless ways: showing up for birthdays and graduations; hosting family trips to Alaska, Hawaii, Florida and South Carolina; and by consistently providing generous support. They traveled yearly to visit their daughter and her family in California, and were always excited to see nearby family in the Atlanta and Chattanooga areas. Quentin was happiest when surrounded by family.
Quentin was preceded in death by his parents and brother John, in addition to his wife Jane. He is survived by his sister Tamara Sriver of Rochester, IN; daughter Terrill Keeler and her husband Robin of Marina, CA; son Steve Hand of Lawrenceville; grandchildren, Stephanie, Sabrina and Matthew Hand, and Ian and Lari Keeler; great-grandchildren, Mandy Decker, Maddy and Storm Orick; and great-great-grandchild Kairi Rice.
Quentin will be remembered for his love of God and family, and for his compassionate service to others. In-person services (masks and socially distance) will be held at Grayson United Methodist Church, Saturday, March 13. A Service for Remembrances will be held at 10 AM and the Memorial Service at 11 AM. Reverend Phil De More will be the officiating pastor.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Grayson United Methodist Church or to Habitat for Humanity. Arrangements by Wages & Sons Funeral Home, 1031 Lawrenceville Highway Lawrenceville, GA 30046.
This obituary was originally posted here, by AJC (Atlanta. News. Now.).
Reverend James B. Fulmer (STH ’64)
James Benjamin “J.B.” Fulmer, 89, of Orlando, FL passed away on February 12, 2021. Born on September 29, 1931, in Newberry, SC, J.B.’s passion for music was fostered all his life. He was a soloist in numerous programs, had a weekly radio program titled “When Song Is Sweet” in high school, and enlisted in the South Carolina National Guard as a Bandsman playing the Baritone Saxophone in the 246th Army Band.
In college he pursued a Bachelor of Science degree in Christian Education while studying voice at Newberry College. He continued his graduate studies in voice and viola at Florida State University before completing his Master of Divinity degree at the Boston University School of Theology in 1964. He served numerous churches across the South as pastor, educator, choir director, church soloist, and section leader. In addition to his church leadership, J.B. recorded albums of favorite solos and arias from operas and oratorio, performed concerts and recitals, and sang baritone leads as Tonio in Pagliacci and Sharpless in Madama Butterfly with the Merritt Island Opera Company. Additional engagements included supporting roles in Susannah, La Rondine, and Camerata with the Orlando Opera Company.
J.B. further expressed his love of music by investing his time in the piano industry for more than 60 years. He was a member of the Central Florida Camellia Society and the Central Florida Bonsai Club.
He was preceded in death by his wife of 42 years, Dinorah Fleitas Farina Fulmer, and is survived by his children Benjamin (Arisa) Fulmer, Matthew (Renee) Fulmer, and Daniel (Kim) Fulmer; his stepchildren Lucretia (Gene) Head, Robert (Jennifer) Farina, Victor (Caron) Farina, Michael (Dawn) Farina; 20 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren.
A graveside service with military honors will be held at Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery, 400 Woodlawn Cemetery Road, Gotha, FL 34734, on February 27th at 11 a.m.
This obituary was originally posted here, by Dignity Memorial.