|
Our Keynote Speaker
Michael J. Gerhardt, J.D.
Michael Gerhardt is currently the Samuel Ashe Distinguished Professor of Constitutional Law at UNC Law School. Prior to joining UNC this summer, he had taught for almost 15 years at William & Mary Law School. He is the author of several books, including the second editions of The Federal Impeachment Process: A Constitutional and Historical Analysis (University of Chicago Press) and The Federal Appointments Process (Duke University Press).
He is also the co-author of the first and second editions of a reader on constitutional theory, and has written more than fifty law review articles on different topics in constitutional law, federal jurisdiction, and the legislative process. He has consulted with members of Congress on a number of constitutional issues. He has also testified several times before the House and Senate, including as the only joint witness in the House Judiciary Committee’s 1998 hearing on the history of the federal impeachment process. More recently, he defended the constitutionality of the filibuster before the Senate Rules and Judiciary Committees, and testified before the House Judiciary Committee in opposition to proposed measures to strip certain claims relating to gay marriage and the First Amendment from federal jurisdiction. In addition, he served as a special consultant to the National Commission on Judicial Discipline and Removal, to the Presidential Transition in 1992-93, to the White House on the nomination of Stephen Breyer to the United States Supreme Court, and to the ethics committees of two hospitals.
Gerhardt has consulted extensively with the national media, and he served as CNN’s full-time impeachment expert throughout the impeachment proceedings against President Clinton. His honors include distinguished lectures at Princeton University and William & Mary, Drake, Cleveland State, and University of Montana Law Schools. In 2004, Professor Gerhardt served as a visiting fellow in the James Madison Program in American Institutions and Ideals at Princeton University. He has been a visiting professor at Cornell, Duke, and UNC Law Schools. At UNC Law School, Professor Gerhardt teaches classes on bioethics, constitutional law, the legislative process, and Congress and the Presidency; and he is coordinating a new Center at UNC on Law and Government. Professor Gerhardt will also be maintaining a relationship with the Institute of Bill of Rights at William & Mary Law School as a Research Fellow. He received his B.A. from Yale University, his M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, and his J.D. from the University of Chicago.
Our Panel Speakers
Kent Blevins, Ph.D.
Dr. Blevins, Professor of Religious Studies and Chair of the Faculty, joined the Gardner-Webb Department of Religious Studies and Philosophy in August, 1998. He earned a B.A. degree in Religion from Wake Forest University, and both an M.Div. and Ph.D. in Christian Ethics from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He served for over 15 years as a missionary, first with the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board (1982-1992) and then with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (1993-1998). During those years he taught at the Portuguese Baptist Theological Seminary in Queluz, Portugal, the Baptist Theological Seminary in Rüschlikon, Switzerland, and the International Baptist Theological Seminary in Prague, Czech Republic. He has served as pastor and supply preacher in many churches in the United States, Portugal, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic. He teaches courses in ethics, theology, philosophy of religion and science and religion at Gardner-Webb. You may reach Dr. Blevins at kblevins@gardner-webb.edu.
-----------
Joe Collins, Ed.D.
Dr. Joe Collins joined the Religion Department of GWU in the Spring of 2005, but he has been in the immediate area since the Summer of 1986. It was then that he answered the call to Elizabeth Baptist Church of Shelby to serve as Minister of Education. After more than thirteen years at Elizabeth, he served the Greater Cleveland County Baptist Association as Church Development Director, working with over eighty churches in various areas of church life including conflict resolution, youth ministry, education, organization, committee training, and missions. He received undergraduate and graduate degrees in English at East Carolina University (1978 & 1981), a Master of Divinity with Religious Education from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (1986), and a Doctorate in Adult Education from North Carolina State University (2004). His dissertation addressed the meaning of “calling” to adult Sunday School teachers in Baptist churches, and the area of calling and lay recognition of calling remains one of his primary research interests. You may contact Dr. Collins at jcollins@gardner-webb.edu.
-------
Our Moderator
Deborah Wittig, Ph.D.
Deborah Wittig is Associate Professor of Sociology at Gardner-Webb University and teaches in both the Department of Social Sciences and the School of Nursing. She was previously the Coordinator of Nursing Research and Continuing Nursing Education at South Dakota State University (1998-2000) and a Medical Missionary to Cameron West Africa (1998). She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology from Mississippi State University in 1998. Dr. Witting’s research interests centers on transcultural nursing and inequality. She has published in professional journals on topics regarding women’s issues, minority concerns, health care, and culture. You may contact Dr. Wittig at dwittig@gardner-webb.edu.
-------
Back to Top
|
