Kristin Kellen appointed director of SEBTS Ed.D. program
WAKE FOREST, N.C. (BP) – Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary has announced the appointment of Kristin Kellen as director of its Ed.D. program. Associate professor of biblical counseling at Southeastern and an alumna of the Ph.D. and Ed.D. programs, Kellen has faithfully served as the associate director of EdD studies for the past two years.
“Dr. Kellen is an incredible blessing to Southeastern,” said Southeastern President Danny Akin. “She is a wonderful colleague and friend. She is an excellent teacher and gifted administrator. I believe she is the right person to lead this important program, and I am excited about its future under her leadership.”
Kellen has been teaching since 2016. After receiving her Ph.D. from Southeastern, she went on to pursue an Ed.D. in order to better serve her students as a professor. Kellen has distinguished herself as an excellent teacher and leader and is eager to continue the work begun by her and and Tate Cockrell, former director of the program.
“Dr. Cockrell has done a phenomenal job leading the D.Min. program, and so it was very helpful for the Ed.D. to come up under him and be steered in a very similar direction,” Kellen said, expressing her appreciation for Cockrell’s leadership over the past two years. “He has grown the program tremendously. He’s made a lot of great decisions, and they’ve had a huge return on investment.”
Cockrell said he was “thrilled” by Kellen’s promotion.
“It has been a privilege to work alongside her as she demonstrates academic excellence, administrative giftedness, and a passion for students,” he said. “She has distinguished herself in the role of associate director, and I know she will do the same as she leads the Ed.D. program into the future.”
As a terminal professional degree, the Ed.D. equips experts in their fields to more skillfully communicate their knowledge.
“The Ed.D. is unique in that it walks the middle line between an academic-focused Ph.D. and a practice-focused D.Min.,” Kellen explained. “As a professional degree, it produces both solid academics and solid leaders and educators.”
In addition to training academics to teach professionally, the Ed.D. is particularly primed to equip leaders in non-academic organizations and institutions who will inevitably find themselves teaching others.
“In order to lead, you have to be leading someone,” Kellen said, “which means you have to relate to people and relate to people well. You have to understand what motivates them, you have to understand where their gaps in knowledge are, and you have to understand how to get them from point A to point B. That’s learning theory. That’s education.”
Kellen also noted the Ed.D. program’s unique position to prepare missionaries as teachers, providing them with a strategic access point into countries historically closed to many.
SEBTS Provost Scott Pace called Kellen “a gifted administrator, teacher and practitioner with academic expertise and ministry experience.”
“Her versatile set of gifts and skills, combined with her passion for students and the Great Commission, are perfectly suited to direct this strategic program that equips our students for a variety of ministries and leadership opportunities,” Pace said.
Luke Stamps named affiliated faculty at Gateway
ONTARIO, Calif. (BP) – R. Lucas Stamps, professor of Christian theology at Anderson University’s Clamp Divinity School, will join the Gateway Ph.D. faculty as an affiliate faculty member beginning in the 2024-2025 academic year.
“We are excited to have a scholar of Dr. Stamps’ caliber teaching our doctoral students,” said Adam Groza, president of Gateway Seminary.
“Dr. Stamps is committed to both academic excellence and faithful ministry in the local church. He is committed to strengthening Southern Baptist churches and our collective efforts for evangelism and missions.”
Stamps earned master of divinity and doctor of philosophy degrees at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a bachelor of science in history at Auburn University. In addition to teaching theology at Clamp, Stamps is a founder and director of the David S. Dockery and Timothy F. George Center for Baptist Renewal and serves as a fellow for the Research Institute of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
“Dr. Stamps has already contributed much to Southern Baptist theological education, and we are excited to have him now contributing to Gateway Seminary’s Ph.D. program,” said David Rathel, director of the Academic Graduate Studies program and associate professor of Christian theology at Gateway.
“He will bring many of the qualities he has exhibited in his work with the Center for Baptist Renewal – academic excellence, Christian charity, doctrinal fidelity – to Gateway’s doctoral students.”
Stamps’ research interests focus on the Trinity, Christology, historical theology and Baptist history and theology. He served as a co-editor of “Baptists and the Christian Tradition: Toward an Evangelical Baptist Catholicity” alongside Matthew Y. Emerson and Christopher W. Morgan and “Thomas F. Torrance and Evangelical Theology: A Critical Analysis” with Myk Habets. He also contributed to “Trinitarian Theology: Theological Models and Doctrinal Application.”
At Gateway, affiliated faculty teach seminars in the Ph.D. and Th.M. programs, serve as faculty advisors for students working on dissertations and theses, and participate in Gateway’s academic community while maintaining a primary faculty role at their own institutions. Other current affiliated faculty include David Howard, professor of Old Testament at Bethel Seminary and Christopher W. Morgan, dean of the School of Christian Ministries at California Baptist University.
