To Associate Chaplain Shaun Whitehead, the liberal arts helps enable dialog and cultivate understanding by humanizing our different backgrounds. Shaun was raised in a traditional African American Baptist church in Chicago, learning early on about the importance that faith and spirituality should play in her life. She grew up being nurtured in a community which places much emphasis on the cultivation of understanding and on placing spirituality at the center of life. Church was not simply something to do on Sundays; it was a way of life. “I credit every gift and blessing I have received from my background and faith,” she says.

One of those blessings was the opportunity to attend McCormick Theological Seminary, where she received her Master of Divinity degree in 2003. That same year she was named associate chaplain at St. Lawrence in 2003, and last September she was ordained as a minister in the United Church of Christ.

“I strongly believe that the particular form of worship expressed by the African American church tradition is an excellent facilitator of multiculturalism and an asset to the diversity on campus,” Shaun says. She is the worship leader of the Progressive Christian Worship Service held in Gunnison Memorial Chapel every Sunday at 5:00 p.m.; she also co-directs the Gospel Choir with Director of Music Ensembles Barry Torres.

Additionally, Shaun co-teaches a First-Year Program (FYP) course with Dana Professor of Government Laura O’Shaughnessy. The course, Amazing Grace: The Black Church in White America, traces the history of the African American religious tradition in America from slavery through the present, “helping students expand their perspectives on a rich cultural and musical history that influences so many aspects of our lives today,” Shaun explains. Studying the musical Gospel tradition can show us much about the depth and rich heritage of the African American community “that perhaps other forms of expression simply cannot,” she says.