Who We are

Jac joined Duke and the Kenan team in August 2022.

As a Program Coordinator, they help facilitate and plan a range of Kenan programs for students and the public, such as The Ethics of Now conversation series, a Focus Program cluster for first-year undergraduates, and the emerging Prison Engagement Initiative.

Jac holds a BA in comparative literature from Barnard College. They have a commitment to and background in anti-carceral work and have worked for organizations in the nonprofit, legal and prison education fields.

jac.arnade-colwill@duke.edu

John Biewen is a longtime audio journalist, documentary maker, and educator. He is the producer and host of the award-winning podcast, "Scene on Radio."

"Scene on Radio’s" 2017 series exploring the history of white supremacy, "Seeing White," and its 2020 series on American democracy, "The Land That Never Has Been Yet," were each nominated for a Peabody Award. Biewen is also a two-time winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Award for outstanding coverage of the disadvantaged.

Before joining Kenan, he directed the audio program at the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) at Duke University. Previously, John reported for NPR News, American Public Media, and Minnesota Public Radio. John is co-editor of the book, "Reality Radio: Telling True Stories in Sound," published by the University of North Carolina Press.

Alexandra Cooper serves as Associate Director for Evaluation and Assessment within the Purpose Project.  She supports the Project in making question of character, purpose and meaning signature features of the Duke community by gathering evidence about the Project's programs and their effects and by working with Project team members to examine and understand what that evidence shows us about what the Project does and can accomplish.

Prior to joining the Purpose Project she worked at Duke's Social Science Research Institute, first as its Administrative Director and subsequently as its Associate Director for Education and Training.  She has guided and directed a wide range of collaborative educational programming and services and devoted  effort to a wide range of research projects, supporting both quantitative and qualitative data collection, management, analysis, and reporting.  Prior to coming to Duke, she held faculty positions at Lafayette College and the University of North Carolina - Charlotte.  She holds a B.A. in Political and Social Thought and in French from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill.

Aaron R. Crouse joined the Kenan Institute for Ethics team in January 2022. He holds a Master of Divinity from Duke University with interests in theology and ethics, political theology, and theories of justice. He has worked in higher education in various capacities at Duke with DukeEngage, Residential Life, and Bass Connections. Prior to joining Kenan, he worked as a student services specialist at North Carolina Central University. He is a native of Chicago’s southside, and currently lives in Durham.

Christian Ferney oversees university-wide ethics initiatives, ethics curriculum development, and the KIE alumni network. In a previous role, he managed many of the Institute’s co-curricular programs, such as Team Kenan and Project Change. A native of Portland, Oregon, he has lived in Durham since 2003. He holds a BA in sociology from Linfield College and an MA (2005) and PhD (2009) in sociology from Duke University.

christian.ferney@duke.edu
919-660-3096

Ada Gregory develops a variety of KIE programs related to student life and community engagement, runs the DukeEngage in New York program, and facilitates faculty involvement in projects across the Institute's portfolio. Ada graduated from Duke (BA/MA) and went on to work at the state and local levels for 20 years influencing policy and practice related to victims' rights, violence against women, and criminal justice reform. She returned to Duke in 2006 and worked in several capacities, including as director of the Duke Women’s Center and chief administrator for the university’s signature institutes and initiatives, before joining the Kenan Institute for Ethics in 2018.

ada.gregory@duke.edu
919-660-2444

Katherine Jo works with The Purpose Project, developing and designing programs, curriculum, and pedagogy that engage students in questions of meaning, purpose, and character. She also leads programs for graduate and professional school students, including Teaching on Purpose and Race and the Professions. Her scholarly interests include philosophies of liberal learning, pedagogy for ethical formation, and faculty vocational identity. She has previously worked in career development, undergraduate advising, and faculty development. She holds a BA in Sociology from Harvard University, an MA in Philosophy of Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a PhD in Philosophy of Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Inga Peterson is the Associate Director of Operations for DukeEngage. She has been developing and managing programs and cross-functional teams at Duke for the majority of the past eleven years, five of which she spent as an assistant director for programs with DukeEngage. Most recently, she served as the Vice President for Campus Engagement for the Duke Alumni Association, where she was the senior administrator responsible for the campus-facing programs and functions of the 175,000-member Association. Prior to coming to Duke, Inga working in academic advising and student affairs at the University of Chicago, Harvard, and Boston University, and developed and managed international community development programs with the Academy for Educational Development, the Harvard Institute for International Development, and the United States Peace Corps. Inga lives in Durham with her son and Yorkie mix.

Laura joined the Kenan Institute for Ethics in November 2023.

As Research Associate, she supports new institute collaborations at Duke University, particularly with the Native American Studies Initiative (NASI), and provides event support. She also serves as editorial assistant for Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal, which as of 2023 has its editorial home at the Kenan Institute for Ethics.

Previously, Laura spent nine years at UNC-Chapel Hill, the last six of which she worked on the development team at Carolina Performing Arts (CPA), one of the nation’s Major University Presenters. Laura is a graduate of Davidson College, and she lives in Durham.

Sarah Rogers joined the Kenan Institute for Ethics as Assistant Director for Communications in December 2021.

She attended Duke University as an undergraduate, earning a BA with a double major in English and Medieval and Renaissance Studies. She studied abroad with the Duke in Berlin program, and, after graduating, she won a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant grant to Germany, and worked in a secondary school in Berlin. After returning to the United States, she continued her studies as a graduate student in the English Department at Duke University, where she TAed, taught undergraduate courses in academic writing and literature, and earned an MA. She earned a Certificate in Digital Communication from the UNC Hussman School of Media and Journalism in 2020.

In her former position, as Assistant Director for Public Programs and Communications at the Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University, she organized events and served as a central communications hub, writing web content and promoting engagement with labs, programs, and initiatives through newsletters, social media, websites, and other channels.

John Rose is Associate Director of the Civil Discourse Project. In addition to helping coordinate the Civil Discourse Project's programming, John teaches courses in Happiness and Human Flourishing, Christian Ethics, Conservatism, and Political Polarization. His research concerns the tradition of virtue ethics and Christian theology. Originally from Iowa, John holds a BA in religion from Wabash College, an MTS from Duke Divinity School, and a PhD in Theology from Princeton Theological Seminary.

john.rose@duke.edu
919-660-3180

Jesse Summers is the Associate Director of the Purpose Project and an adjunct Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Duke University. Previously, he was an Academic Dean in Trinity College.

He received his PhD in Philosophy from UCLA, his MPhil in philosophy from University College London, his BA in philosophy, political science, and French from the University of Kansas, and his sense of humor from a latchkey childhood watching age-inappropriate comedy.

His book Clean Hands? Philosophical Reflections on Scrupulosity, co-authored with fellow Fellow Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, came out from Oxford University Press in 2019.

dtoole@div.duke.edu

Hillary Train is program director at the Kenan Institute for Ethics. She oversees program implementation across the institute’s priority areas and is responsible for the planning and successful execution of KIE’s major events.

Hillary worked previously as the interim director of DukeCreate in 2022, a program offering free arts enrichment activities for students and staff. She has also coordinated research colloquia, concerts, and major conferences for Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts and has worked closely with Jeremy Begbie, Distinguished Research Professor at Duke Divinity School, to coordinate multi-year research projects and public-facing events. Prior to moving to Durham, Hillary was a program coordinator for Baylor University’s Interdisciplinary Core, an Honors College program serving over 700 students. In this role, Hillary recruited and advised students, coordinated program events, and liaised with faculty, administration, and students on all facets of university life – including assessment and retention; course development and curriculum equivalencies; and co-curricular enrichment opportunities.  She also taught a course for first-year students called “The Examined Life.”

Kristin serves as a point person for faculty-led DukeEngage group programs, supporting faculty and staff in program development and implementation. She also directs and organizes the DukeEngage Academy, as well as faculty and staff development and training.

Kristin has a background in education and worked in admissions and program evaluation at the University of British Columbia for several years before returning to NC to coordinate faculty support and student development efforts for Duke’s academic service-learning program. She lives in Durham, and amidst herding the people and animals in her life, tries to squeeze in a few minutes reading and connecting with nature.