Joan Crist

Background

About Joan Crist

Experienced college educator with a demonstrated history of teaching excellence and innovation, as well as community service. Skilled in leading small, discussion-based and service-based courses with diverse students in Philosophy, Interfaith Leadership, Social Justice, and Classical Latin, with a focus on student engagement and development of core skills, I served as Professor of Theology at Calumet College of St. Joseph in Whiting, Indiana, for fifteen years. I have also served as Director of Religious Education at St. Joseph Catholic parish in downtown Hammond, a religious educator at St. John Bosco middle school, and in a volunteer capacity as coordinator of ecumenism and interreligious affairs for the Diocese of Gary. I helped to incorporate service-learning more fully into the Social Justice course, and oral examinations into the General Education curriculum. My interfaith and social justice involvements include the Northwest Indiana Interreligious Initiative for Peace in the Middle East, the Midwest Muslim-Catholic dialogue, the Northwest Indiana Regional Planning Commission 2040 Implementation Committee, service project partnerships with Hammond Public Schools, the Interfaith Federation, the Downtown Hammond Council, and most recently a collaboration with FAITH Farms, an urban farm in Gary, on student service-learning and grants, including the Legacy Foundation’s Neighborhood Spotlight development process. I currently serve as a Title I aide and Latin instructor at the Hammond Academy of Science and Technology.