Established on 01.07.2019 by Mike '79 & Mary '79 Lee, Ron '81 & Karen Lee, and Sue Riley  †

Rev. Carl H. Lee, Campus Pastor at Concordia from 1961 to 1995, and his wife Ann formed a deep friendship with Daniel and Sandra Sue Riley. Both of these couples experienced their sense of spiritual presence in a variety of ways including through poetry, art, music, nature, literature, and profoundly through their friendship with each other.

As a result of overwhelming student appeal for a campus pastor, Rev. Lee became the first at Concordia in 1961 to hold such a position. Students had been pushing for a campus pastor feeling that they needed someone outside of the administration and faculty to serve their needs. Lee had an extraordinary gift for being highly perceptive and for understanding student issues. In creating this lectureship, the Donors seek to honor the enduring legacy of Pastor Carls student-focused campus ministry.

The purpose of the Lee-Riley Lectureship in Faith and Learning Endowed Fund is to inform and enrich the student and faculty experience by providing a lecture series that will foster their individual development, encourage acceptance and community involvement, and provide insights on how to weave faith throughout their lifes journey. Visiting speakers ideally will bring forth new, unique, and relevant topics that address popular student issues and concerns and/or world and environmental events that challenge our students' thinking and provide context for their faith journey, while helping them appreciate the diversity of other faiths and beliefs.

The endowment provides funding for honoraria and expenses related to the speaker(s) and/or general expenses related to the lectureship. To date, the Lee-Riley Lectureship in Faith and Learning Endowed Fund has provided funding for the following speakers:

February 13, 2023  (7 p.m.)
“Believing and Belonging: Race, Ethnicity, and the Acts of the Apostles"
Speaker: Dr. Eric Barreto
Location: Knutson Campus Center

Join Dr. Barreto as he discusses the importance of belonging as a modern struggle, especially in the church, drawing upon texts in Acts that give us an imagination for the shape and power of belonging.

Dr. Barreto currently serves as the Frederick and Margaret L. Weyerhaeuser Associate Professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary. He holds a BA in religion from Oklahoma Baptist University, an MDiv from Princeton Seminary, and a PhD in New Testament from Emory University. Before coming to Princeton Seminary, he served as associate professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary and also taught as an adjunct professor at the Candler School of Theology and McAfee School of Theology.

As a Baptist minister, Barreto has pursued scholarship for the sake of the church, and he regularly writes for and teaches in faith communities around the country. He has also been a leader in the Hispanic Theological Initiative Consortium, a national, ecumenical, and inter-constitutional consortium comprised of some of the top seminaries, theological schools, and religion departments in the country. He is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature and the National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion. 

Jackson leads the Social and Environmental Determinants of Health Equity Research group in the Epidemiology Branch of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences with a joint affiliation with the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. Jackson investigates physical and social environmental factors that impact disparities in sleep health and subsequent risk of cardiometabolic dysfunction. Her research has been presented at national as well as international scientific conferences and published in academic journals like JAMA Internal Medicine and SLEEP as well as major media outlets such as U.S. News & World Report and The New York Times. Her areas of research interest are in ADHD, 18q- syndrome, autistic spectrum disorders, and educational neuroscience.

February 6, 2023
Speaker: Cole Arthur Riley
New York Times Best-Selling Author and Poet
"This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us"

November 9, 2021
Speaker: Valarie Kaur
Renowned Civil Rights Leader
"See No Stranger: Revolutionary Love as the Call of our Times"

February 5, 2020
Speaker: John Noltner
Photographer and Peace Activist 
"A Peace of My Mind, Exploring the Meaning of Peace One Story At a Time"

March 26, 2019
Speaker: Barbara Brown Taylor
New York Times Best-Selling Author
"Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others"