Jennifer Snow Named Director of Extended Learning

Church Divinity School of the Pacific has named Jennifer Snow, associate for discipleship ministries in the Episcopal Diocese of California, to a dual position as director of extended learning and assistant professor of practical theology.

“Jennifer Snow is well positioned in background and sensibilities to take on the leadership of our extended learning program,” said the Very Rev. Mark Richardson, CDSP’s president and dean. “She brings a probing, analytic intellect and collaborative spirit to her work. I am delighted that she will be guiding the planning and implementation of our extended learning initiatives.”

Snow, who holds a Ph. D. in religion from Columbia University, is the author of “Protestant Missionaries, Asian Immigrants, and Ideologies of Race in America.” She has also written several articles on religion, immigration, and faith-based activism.

Snow, who was previously deputy director of Progressive Christians Uniting in Los Angeles, said she is excited by the opportunity both to develop CDSP’s distance learning offerings and online pedagogy, and to teach in a seminary classroom.

“Being extended learning director will be really interesting because I love the challenge of both identifying people’s needs and then finding the people who can fill them,” Snow said. “I can continually meet people and say ‘Oh that sounds interesting. I bet we can make a great course out of that.’

“For the practical theology part, I love teaching and being able to teach in a faith-based institution is very exciting to me,” she added. “I am looking forward to teaching people who are deeply committed to their own faith journeys, and to creating an environment in which people’s discernment is respected and is part of the classroom context.”

Snow will arrive at CDSP as the seminary is reshaping its extended learning program, currently known as the Center for Anglican Learning and Leadership (CALL). While the program’s mission—“to bring the broadest possible Anglican theological education to the widest possible audience using the best educational technology available”—will not change, its offerings and approach to online education will.

“I wanted to develop a better pedagogy for the people teaching the course so they have all of the resources availability to create exciting courses,” Snow said. “People who are really good teachers in person can become really good teachers online, but it’s not the same.”

Richardson said Snow’s arrival is well timed. “It is commonly understood that our church and our bishops are in a dynamic phase regarding how they will support needs for theological education to serve the future of the church” he said. “CALL is very well positioned to offer creative options to enhance the classic approaches taken to theological education.”

Snow, who begins work in June, is married to the Rev. Teresita Valeriano, a Lutheran minister. Their son, Taal Charles, is almost two.