2021–22
Autumn Quarter 2021
Julia Wattacheril, MD, MPH
On Oct. 26, 2021, Dr. Wattacheril examined the question, “What does God think about creation?” and explored themes of wholeness and suffering.
Watch the lecture. (SPU credentials required.)
Julia Wattacheril, MD, MPH, is a clinician investigator, transplant hepatologist, and director of the adult nonalcoholic fatty liver disease program at Columbia University Irving Medical Center-New York Presbyterian Hospital. As a Christian, her passion for faith and work integration began in medical school in Houston at the Baylor College of Medicine. After moving to New York City, she completed the Gotham Fellowship at the Center for Faith and Work and continues to develop innovative ways to implement spiritual tools to help health care providers and the patients they serve. She has a particular heart for connecting with people at the fringes of any sphere but particularly in academic medicine.
Winter Quarter 2022
Joseph Graves Jr., PhD
On Jan. 31, 2022, Dr. Graves examined the ideas that “Racism, Not Race: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions (About Christianity)”
Watch the lecture.
Joseph Graves Jr., PhD, is an evolutionary biologist and geneticist. His research concerns the evolutionary genetics of postponed aging and biological concepts of race in humans. With over 60 papers and book chapters published, he has appeared in six documentary films and numerous television interviews on these general topics. He has been a principal investigator on grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and the Arizona Disease Research Commission. His books on the biology of race include The Emperor’s New Clothes: Biological Theories of Race at the Millennium (Rutgers University Press, 2001, 2005) and The Race Myth: Why We Pretend Race Exists in America (Dutton Press, 2004, 2005). He is also featured in the ABC-CLIO volume on Outstanding African American scientists.
Spring Quarter 2022
Jovonia Taylor-Thibert, MBA
On May 4, 2022, Jovonia Taylor-Thibert examined the question, “How Humans Create.”
Watch the lecture (SPU credentials required.)
Jovonia Taylor-Thibert, MBA, is the director in the Amazon Robotics Team, focused ergonomics innovations and designs into the company’s technology. Prior to this, she was the 767 Chief Program Engineer for The Boeing Company in Commercial Airplane (BCA) division, and during more than 15 years at Boeing, she was in several different engineering areas. She was Boeing’s focal for the Women in Aerospace (WIA) organization for three years. In 2013, she was a recipient of the Black Engineer of the Year Awards (BEYA) Modern Technology Leader; in 2014, she received the Women of Color in Technology (WOCT) Award Recipient in Community Service. In 2018, she received the 2019 Science Spectrum Trailblazer award at BEYA. She has BS in Electrical Engineering, a BA in Music, an MS in Electrical Engineering, and an MBA.