Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary’s Mockler Center for Faith & Ethics in the Public Square held its inaugural Joanna Mockler Leadership Awards Dinner on October 27, 2002 at the Omni Parker House in Boston.
This special evening was held to celebrate the legacy of Joanna Mockler—the leader and philanthropist who founded the Mockler Center—and four extraordinary women who, like Joanna, have been successful in finding “unique opportunities to love and care for others” using the power of business, science and technology, media, arts and government, and work in ministry, community, justice, and education to transform the lives of the poor and marginalized, and bring faith and ethics to the public square.
We are profoundly grateful to all our sponsors: Title Sponsor – Tom and Nancy Colatosti; Presenting Sponsors – Rev. Dr. Diana Curren Bennett, Herb and BJ Hess, The Loring Family, and Eventide Asset Management; Table Sponsors – Bethel AME Church, Red-Thread, Grace Chapel, and the Stubblebine Family. All proceeds from the dinner will be used to support the Mockler Center and annual scholarships for Gordon-Conwell students.
About the Awards
Joanna Mockler’s strong faith, humility, and wisdom have inspired women around the world for generations. The awardees are, in Joanna’s words, leaders that “seek to know God intimately, to love and serve God faithfully, and who in their work is daily directed and enabled by God to be a generous steward of the spiritual gifts and physical resources God has entrusted to them”.
Award Categories
The Joanna Mockler Leadership Awards recognizes women who lead with faith and ethics in four cross-cutting thematic areas:
Business, Finance, and Economics
Examples are business leaders, investors, advisors, researchers who have redefined capitalism, business, and investment practices by placing social and environmental values on equal terms with financial value, and who work on business and economic policy solutions that consider long-term public benefit, especially how to use markets to address the climate crisis.
Science, Technology, Environment, and Health
Examples are scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, activists who design, or make accessible, technologies that can solve problems in global human health and the environment, and who use faith and ethics to guide technological progress.
Ministry, Community, Education, and Justice
Examples are ministers, church administrators, educators, theologians, lawyers, or community leaders in any area who use their faith, knowledge, and platform to advocate and provide for the needs and voices of the poorest and marginalized in society.
Media, Journalism, Arts, and Government
Examples are women in public office at any level, journalists in national and international media outlets, writers, and artists who use their platform to challenge the dominant narrative, restore ethics and civility in public discourse, and use their platforms to heal society while speaking truth.
The Mockler Center exists to explore and promote biblical ethics, values, and insights for today’s workplaces and to bring helpful insights and experiences from workplace laity to the church and its leadership.
Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary exists to advance Christ’s Kingdom in every sphere of life by equipping Church leaders to think theologically, engage globally, and live biblically.
Awards Criteria
The award recognizes women who lead with faith and ethics in the public square, as demonstrated by:
Inspires and empowers other women
Makes ethical decisions
Creates enduring social change
Focuses on both being and doing, contemplation and action
Loves people
2022 Award Winners
Gloria White-Hammond
Kristin Colber-Baker
Tish Harrison Warren
Rosalind Picard
Business, Finance, and Economics Award
Kristin Colber-Baker
Corporate Board Director for Fresh Del Monte, with decades of global leadership experience as both a CFO and a Talent executive, particularly in the area of Global Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, for Mars, and other iconic consumer brands in Fortune 100 public, private equity, and family-held companies.
Ministry, Community, Education, and Justice Award,
Gloria White-Hammond
Founder and Executive Director of My Sisters Keeper, a women-led humanitarian and human rights initiative that partners with diverse Sudanese women in their efforts toward reconciliation and reconstruction of their communities. She is co-founder and co-pastor of Bethel AME Church with her husband, and the Swartz Resident Practitioner in Ministry Studies at Harvard Divinity School. Gloria retired from the South End Community Health Center after 27 years as a dedicated pediatrician.
Science, Technology, Environment, and Health Award
Rosalind Picard
Professor at MIT Media Lab, Co-founder and Chief Scientist Empatica, Co-founder Affectiva. Authoring the book Affective Computing, which started the field, and pioneering many new technologies to measure and communicate emotion using face, voice, physiology, and combinations of behaviors, especially using smartphones and wearables. Picard has also been a leader of initiatives MIT-wide creating new technologies for health and wellbeing.
Media, Journalism, Arts, and Government Award
Tish Harrison Warren
Priest in the Anglican Church in North America, and author of Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life (Christianity Today‘s 2018 Book of the Year) and Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work, or Watch, or Weep (Christianity Today‘s 2022 Book of the Year and 2022 ECPA Christian Book of the Year). Tish writes a weekly newsletter for The New York Times and is a columnist for Christianity Today. Her articles and essays have appeared in Religion News Service, Christianity Today, Comment Magazine, The Point Magazine, The New York Times, and elsewhere.
Follow-Up Webinar with Author Kadi Cole
Event attendees received a copy of Kadi Cole’s book titled Developing Female Leaders. The Mockler Center is please to have hosted “Lifting the Lid on Developing Female Leaders in Ministry: A Fireside Chat with Author Kadi Cole” in December 2022. Visit the event page to learn more and watch the recording.
Event attendees received a copy of Kadi Cole’s book titled Developing Female Leaders. The Mockler Center is please to have hosted “Lifting the Lid on Developing Female Leaders in Ministry: A Fireside Chat with Author Kadi Cole” in December 2022. Visit the event page to learn more and watch the recording.