{"id":8488,"date":"2026-06-02T00:35:54","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T00:35:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.luthersem.edu\/story\/?p=8488"},"modified":"2026-06-02T14:52:57","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T14:52:57","slug":"faculty-and-staff-notes-summer-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.luthersem.edu\/story\/2026\/06\/02\/faculty-and-staff-notes-summer-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Faculty and Staff Notes, Summer 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Gracia Grindal \u201983 M.A.<\/strong>, professor emerita of rhetoric, published her latest book, \u201cWhat a Fellowship: Remembering Augsburg Seminary and the Lutheran Free Church,\u201d with Fortress Press last July. The book is, in large part, about a preceding institution of Luther Seminary. Also last year, a volume of her hymn texts for Old Testament Series A of the Revised Common Lectionary, with tunes by Roy Hopp, were published by Wayne Leupold Editions and presented at the Hymn Society\u2019s annual conference in Detroit. In October 2025, she was in Bodo, Norway, to hear a musical setting by<br \/>\nNorwegian jazz trumpeter Tore Johansen of her libretto, \u201cHymn of Grace,\u201d on the bicentennial of the emigration to America by Norwegians.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Mary Jane Haemig<\/strong>, professor emerita of church history, received an Award of Commendation from the Concordia Historical Institute for her article, \u201cPaul Gerhardt in America, 1743\u20132007,\u201d in Lutheran Quarterly.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Rahfat Hussain<\/strong> joined Luther Seminary as the new chief financial officer. Prior to joining the seminary in December, he was CFO at the Minnesota Historical Society and held various financial roles at the University of Minnesota. The CFO position is a shared role with Augsburg University.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Grace Pomroy \u201912 M.A.<\/strong> presented a workshop, \u201cFaith and Money: Expanding the Conversation,\u201d at the Stewardship Kaleidoscope conference in New Orleans in September; a webinar, \u201cTalking about Finances in Financially Fraught Times,\u201d in October for the American Baptist Home Mission Societies as part of their \u201cFaithful Finances in Fraught Times\u201d Series; a workshop, \u201cFunding Forward,\u201d in November as part of the Mosaix Triannual Conference; and a webinar, \u201cChanges in the Stewardship Landscape,\u201d in December to the ELCA Directors of Evangelical Mission as part of their Collaborative Conversations series.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Cody Sanders<\/strong>, associate professor of congregational and community care leadership, had his 2015 book, \u201cMicroaggressions in Ministry,\u201d translated into Japanese and published in Japan, and his 2017 book, \u201cA Brief Guide to Ministry with LGBTQIA Youth,\u201d published in an updated edition by Westminster John Knox Press in 2026. In addition, he published an article in the Journal of Pastoral Theology titled \u201cEcopneumastalgia: Longing for a Relationality of Spiritual Animacy within the Web of Life,\u201d and was guest co-editor of two special issues of the journal Christian Ethics Today, one on the topic of immigration and the other on ministry in an era of conflict and division. He also preached in The Memorial Church of Harvard University and provided spiritual care training for their staff in October. In November, Sanders traveled with members of the Seminary Relations team to the Chicago area to offer two spiritual care and mental health workshops, one for the public and the other for local clergy. In January, he was the keynote speaker at the annual \u201cConversations\u201d gathering for UCC senior pastors. Additionally, he gave workshops and sermons in churches across the Twin Cities.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Shamani Shikwambi<\/strong> joined Luther Seminary as interim dean of students and vice president for inclusion and belonging in November. He brings more than 15 years of experience in academic leadership in higher education, including roles as dean of students and dean of academics.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.luthersem.edu\/story\/issue\/summer-2026\/\">Read more from this issue of Story<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Updates from the seminary community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7905,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8488","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"issue-summer-2026","9":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - 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