Ward and Hempowicz Join the UTS Board of Trustees
The Unification Theological Seminary welcomed two new trustees to the Board in April, Dr. Hugh Spurgin, UTS President announced. “We are looking forward to the energy and talents of Dr. Thomas Ward and Dr. Christine Hempowicz of the University of Bridgeport,” Spurgin said.
Christine Hempowicz is a higher-education administration professional employed by the University of Bridgeport as the director of sponsored research and programs and is a Certified Research Administrator. Her degrees include a Bachelor of Science in Medical Technology from the University of Kansas, a divinity diploma from Unification Theological Seminary where she also served as class- and then student-body vice-president, a Master in Education degree in1999 and a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Bridgeport (UB) in 2010. She is a member of Phi Kappa Phi honor society. In addition to serving on various UB committees, Hempowicz is a member of the National Council of University Research Administrators, for which she serves on committees and presents at regional and national meetings. As an adjunct professor, Hempowicz teaches at UB graduate courses in Research Methods and Grant- and Contract Writing.
She joined the Unification Church in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1979, and participated in the Marriage Blessing with Krzysztof (Chris) Hempowicz in 1982. Hempowicz has served as a leader in the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles (CARP) and in the Unification Church and served as a campus minister on three Midwest campuses. She and her husband served as educators for CARP in Uzbekistan from 1991 to 1994. In 1995, her husband was appointed to Unification Campus Ministry at the University of Bridgeport and then as state pastor. Hempowicz was a board member of Bridgeport International Academy from 2004 – 2010 and currently serves as district representative to the HSA National Council. The Hempowiczs are the parents of four grown children and reside in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Dr. Thomas Ward is Dean of the College of Public and International Affairs at the University of Bridgeport. Ward is a 1981 graduate of the Unification Theological Seminary. He received his Master of Religious Education degree from UTS in 2000. Ward has served as a member of the Dutchess County Human Rights Commission; the Connecticut Advisory Board on International Education and served as a special examiner for the Connecticut Department of Higher Education. He was a seminal thinker and architect of the educational project in the 1980s known as CAUSA, and traveled to dozens of countries as a lecturer during the closing years of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Ward writes and offers courses on International Conflict and Negotiation; Political and Economic Integration; and Peace and Conflict Studies. He was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa, Pi Sigma Alpha, Theta Kappa Epsilon and Phi Kappa Phi academic honor societies and has also been the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship. Ward says that he greatly values his time at UTS and the opportunity it provided him to learn Christian theology and history and to dialogue more meaningfully with Christian pastors and academics. “I will work with the Board to foster greater recognition for the role that UTS education should play in the preparing the next generation of pastors and I hope to help to identify UTS programs that can be made available through modalities such as distance learning,” Ward has told UTS administrators. Dr. Ward is the spouse of Alexa Fish Ward who serves as a Vice President of the Family Federation in the United States. She is Vice President of the Women’s Federation for World Peace North America. They have four adult children. Dr. Spurgin expressed his gratitude for the good service of three trustees who resigned recently: Dr. Katie Zahedi, Dr. Amy Cuhel-Schuckers and Chad Hoover.