Follet, Lund-Gill Chairs Named

A librarian and a workplace consultant, Kaetrena Davis Kendrick has joined Dominican University’s School of Information Studies as this year’s Follett Chair. 

Davis Kendrick will teach a course within the SOIS and deliver the spring Follett Lecture. 

Chosen as Academic/Research Librarian of the Year by the Association of College and Research Libraries, she is the founder of Renewals, a company that provides coaching, consultation and facilitation services aimed at building workplace wellbeing and uplifting employee morale.

Dr. Don Hamerly, director of the School of Information Studies, said the guidance Davis Kendrick can provide based on her background in employee morale research is valuable given the current challenges facing library employees across the country, like book ban demands and the introduction of laws that target the very work of librarians.

“My mission is to inspire authentic collegiality, promote well-being, share gifts of creativity, and cultivate empathetic, engaged leadership in the workplace,” Davis Kendrick said.

Dr. Craig A. Ford, Jr., assistant professor of theology and religious studies at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, was named Lund-Gill Chair in the Rosary College of Arts and Sciences this year.

The Lund-Gill Chair is selected annually to teach a course that addresses themes and issues at the heart of the liberal arts and sciences.

Ford is a professor of Christian ethics, race, gender and sexuality, and ecclesiology, and will teach at Dominican during the spring semester.

A scholar and activist, he leads workshops on racial, sexual and gender justice, working with parishes, universities and professional organizations.

“In coming to Dominican, my hope is to show how truly wide the Catholic imagination can be when we think about some of today’s most controversial issues,” Ford said. “More importantly, I hope to learn from the students how their own identities and experiences meaningfully participate in widening that imagination as well.”