The Life Worth Living Network offers fellowships to encourage undergraduate education on enduring questions about the shape of flourishing life. We connect faculty and graduate students who seek to design and facilitate courses that equip students for the lifelong process of discerning the good life. Together, we envision an educational landscape in which students and faculty learn alongside each other how to ask and respond to life’s biggest questions.

We're delighted to introduce our Project Team and Senior Advisors.

To learn more and apply for our 2024 cohort, click here.

The Life Worth Living Network is administered through the Yale Center for Faith & Culture and is supported by a generous grant from the John Templeton Foundation.

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Project Team

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Abdullah Antepli

Duke University

Imam Abdullah Antepli is a globally-acknowledged scholar and leader of cross-religious and cross-cultural dialogue in American higher education and in the non-profit world. His Muslim Leadership Initiative helps young Muslim American leaders understand Judaic and Israeli studies and cultivates compassion in the face of fear and hate. He has built multiple organizations that facilitate religious and spiritual life on America’s college campuses, sowing seeds of understanding between religions, while upholding their cultural integrity and dignity. He writes regularly on religious and cultural issues, contributing his vibrant voice in national and international media on this crucial area of public affairs. As a Muslim-American Imam and one of the few scholars bridging faith, ethics and public policy, Professor Antepli offers the academic world an important element of intellectual, ethnic, religious and cultural diversity.

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Daniel Chua

University of Hong Kong

Daniel KL Chua is the Chair Professor of Music at the University of Hong Kong. Before joining Hong Kong University to head the School of Humanities, he was a Fellow and the Director of Studies at St John’s College, Cambridge, and later Professor of Music Theory and Analysis at King’s College London. He is the recipient of the 2004 Royal Musical Association’s Dent Medal, a Corresponding Member of the American Musicological Society, and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. He served as the President of the International Musicological Society 2017-2022.

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Drew Collins

Yale University

Drew Collins received his PhD in theology at the University of Cambridge, working with David Ford on the Christian theology of religions, the theology of Hans Frei and the 20th century ecumenical movement. After receiving his BA in Religious Studies from Yale College and his MDiv from Yale Divinity School, Drew moved to London to serve as the University Program Manager at the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, overseeing a global network of nine universities collaborating on research and teaching on the intersection between the secular forces of globalization and religious faiths.

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Matt Croasmun

Yale University

Matthew Croasmun is Associate Research Scholar and director of the Life Worth Living program at the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School and lecturer of Humanities at Yale University. He also serves as faith initiative director at Grace Farms Foundation and as staff pastor at the Elm City Vineyard Church. He received his B.A. in Music from Yale College, an M.A.R. in Bible from Yale Divinity School, and a Ph.D. in Religious Studies (New Testament) from Yale University. He is author of The Emergence of Sin: the Cosmic Tyrant in Romans (OUP, 2017), Let Me Ask You a Question: Conversations with Jesus (Upper Room, 2018), co-editor of Envisioning the Good Life: Essays on God, Christ, and Human Flourishing in Honor of Miroslav Volf (Cascade, 2017), and co-author with Miroslav Volf of For the Life of the World: Theology that Makes a Difference (Brazos, 2019).

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Joshua Forstenzer

University of Sheffield

Joshua Forstenzer is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Co-Director of the Centre for Engaged Philosophy at the University of Sheffield. Prior to that, he was the Vice-Chancellor's Fellow for the Public Benefit of Higher Education at the University of Sheffield. He has help visiting appointments at the European Parliament, a the Harvard Kennedy School, and Tufts University. He is the author of Deweyan Experimentalism and the Problem of Method in Political Philosophy (Routledge 2019).

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Angela Gorrell

Rev. Dr. Angela Williams Gorrell is a public theologian and the author of always on: practicing faith in a new media landscape and The Gravity of Joy: A Story of Being Lost and Found. Dr. Gorrell speaks, consults, and writes about joy, meaning, finding the life worth living, and the intersection of spiritual and mental health. You can learn more at www.angelagorrell.com and find her on instagram @angelagorrell. Dr. Angela and her sister, Coach Stef, co-host The Grief Sisters podcast.

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Katherine Jo

Duke University

Katherine Jo works with The Purpose Project at Duke, where she develops programs, curricula, and pedagogy that engage students in the question of how to live well. In addition to teaching undergraduate courses, she also leads Teaching on Purpose, which prepares doctoral students for their future roles as educators of undergraduates. Her scholarly interests include philosophies of liberal learning, the ethical dimensions of teaching, and the place of religion in higher education.

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Andrea Kasper

NORTH Consulting

Andrea RC Kasper, EdD and Senior Educational Consultant at NORTH Consulting, has been shaped by her life as a dancer, living in five countries, multiple cultural identities, Judaism, and as a parent, child, partner, sibling & friend. She is passionate about travel and meeting people and this comes through in the heart of her professional work - nothing matters but the relationships you build, the trust you extend, and how you help others achieve their aspirations.

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Ryan McAnnally-Linz

Yale University

Ryan McAnnally-Linz (PhD, Yale) is a systematic theologian and Associate Director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. He works at the intersection of theology, ethics, and cultural criticism. His interests include (but are by no means limited to) the theological ethics of humility, the place of eschatology in Christian thought and life, biblical theology, the philosophy of Charles Taylor, and understanding the work of his many teachers. Ryan co-authored Public Faith in Action (Brazos), a Publishers Weekly Best Book in Religion in 2016, with Miroslav Volf, and he co-edited The Joy of Humility (Baylor University Press, 2020) and Envisioning the Good Life (Cascade, 2017). His scholarly articles have appeared in Modern Theology, The Scottish Journal of Theology, and elsewhere.

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Garrett Potts

University of South Florida

Garrett W. Potts teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on interfaith leadership as well as the role of religion and spirituality in the workplace. In particular, his courses apply the Life Worth Living framework within a business and healthcare context to promote an empathetic engagement with individuals’ religio-cultural backgrounds. His primary areas of research include spiritual caregiving, moral injury, work as a calling, and servant leadership.

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Evan Rosa

Yale Center for Faith & Culture

Evan Rosa is Assistant Director for Public Engagement at the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. A communications professional with over 15 years of experience in digital communications, media production, content marketing, and strategy, he leads YCFC's public outreach efforts, including website development, audio and video production, email and social marketing, and advancement. He produces, edits, and regularly hosts YCFC's podcast, For the Life of the World. Prior to joining YCFC in 2019, he was Director of the Biola University Center for Christian Thought, where he also taught undergraduate philosophy. There he developed the media platform, The Table, and hosted The Table Audio, a podcast featuring interviews and narrative journalism.

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Connie Steel

Yale University

Connie joins the Life Worth Living Initiative in conjunction with the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning’s Education and Program Assessment team. Her role includes building evaluation plans for an international network of faculty, designing and implementing professional development for teaching, and developing data management systems to track and report on longitudinal outcomes. Connie earned a doctorate in English with specialization in the History of Rhetoric at the University of Texas at Austin. She was awarded a Mellon Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Fellowship at Carnegie Mellon’s Eberly Center, and a Social Science Research Council (SSRC) Pre-Dissertation Development Fellowship. Her research interests include the poetics of the term ‘human rights’ in English anti-slave trade campaigns and the theological aesthetic tensions of monuments to Scottish Covenanter martyrs. Connie’s ten years’ experience in program management includes faculty development and graduate student mentorship for core and writing flag courses. Her teaching in the humanities spans offerings such as “Life Worth Living,” “Intro to Reading, Writing, and Research,” “Rhetoric of American Identity: Gender, Race, Ethnicity,” “Principles of Rhetoric,” and “Literature and Artificial Intelligence.”

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Casey Strine

University of Sheffield

I study the history, literature, and cultures of the ancient Near East (known to most as the Middle East) with a specialization in ancient Israel and Judah, the two societies that produced the texts known widely as the Old Testament. I first taught Life Worth Living at Sheffield in 2016. I'll teach it in the 2023-24 academic year for the seventh time.

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Miroslav Volf

Yale University

Miroslav Volf is the Henry B. Wright Professor of Systematic Theology at Yale Divinity School. He is author/editor of more than 20 books, including Exclusion & Embrace—which was named one of the best 100 books of the twentieth century—as well as A Public Faith: On How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good, Allah: A Christian Response, and most recently, For the Life of the World: Theology That Makes a Difference.

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Cord Whitaker

Wellesley College

Cord J. Whitaker teaches medieval literature and the history of race at Wellesley. His writing on the Middle Ages, race, and politics have appeared in revered scholarly journals and high-circulation publications alike. The author of award-winning volumes, he is currently writing a book on African-American writers’ radical uses of the Middle Ages and another on strategies for resisting fascism’s global rise. He is a diversity consultant at Sagely and Associate Professor at Wellesley.

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Zachary Wooten

West Chester University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Zachary Wooten is an Assistant Professor of Leadership Studies for West Chester University of Pennsylvania’s (WCU) Honors College, teaching ethics, leadership, and life worth living. He serves as the Director of WCU’s Interfaith, Meaning-Making, and Spirituality Project which includes a Student Interfaith Action Committee, a Faculty and Staff Interfaith Advisory Board, and the Interfaith Leadership Fellowship program. He is currently researching religious expression in North America mediated on the social media platform, TikTok.

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Senior Advisors

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Kimberly Goff-Crews

Yale University

Kimberly M. Goff-Crews is secretary and vice president for university life at Yale University and a senior advisor to the Growing the Life Worth Living Network in Higher Education grant project. Goff-Crews leads Yale’s work to advance an environment of connection and belonging. She leads Belonging at Yale, an initiative which includes Yale’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Formerly vice president for campus life and dean of students at the University of Chicago, Goff-Crews has also served as the dean of students at Wellesley College and as chief of staff to the president and director of planning at Lesley University.

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Eric Gregory

Princeton University

Eric Gregory is Professor of Religion at Princeton University and one of the senior advisors of the Growing the Life Worth Living Network in Higher Education grant project. Also serving as Director of Graduate Studies at Princeton, Gregory has received fellowships from the Erasmus Institute, University of Notre Dame, the Safra Foundation Center for Ethics, Harvard University, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Tikvah Center for Law & Jewish Civilization at New York University School of Law. Gregory serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Religious Ethics and sits with the executive committee of the University Center for Human Values.

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Michael Roth

Wesleyan University

Michael S. Roth is the president of Wesleyan University and one of the senior advisors to the Growing the Life Worth Living Network in Higher Education grant project. Formerly president of California College of the Arts (CCA), Roth is known as a historian, curator, author and public advocate for liberal education. He is the author of numerous books, the most recent of which is The Student, A Short History (Yale University Press, 2023).

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Mona Siddiqui

University of Edinburgh

Mona Siddiqui (OBE, FRSE, FAAAS, HFRIAS) is Professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies at the University of Edinburgh and one of the senior advisors to the Growing the Life Worth Living Network in Higher Education grant project. Siddiqui also serves as Assistant Principal for Religion and Society and as chair of the BBC’s Scottish Religious Advisory Committee. Siddiqui broadcasts regularly on the BBC and is known internationally as a public intellectual. She holds a number of visiting professorships in the USA including at Hartford International University and Union Theological Seminary.

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