Board

Current Board members are Daniel Schipani, Dr. Mahmoud Abdallah, Claudia Kohli Reichenbach, Dr. Esther Mombo, and Georg Wenz.

Daniel Schipani, DrPsy, PhD, current President of IASC, was born and raised in Pehuajó, a city in the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He holds a Doctor of Psychology degree from Universidad Católica Argentina (Buenos Aires), and a PhD in Practical Theology from Princeton Theological Seminary (Princeton, NJ). He is Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling, Emeritus, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana; and currently Affiliate Professor of Pastoral & Spiritual Care at McCormick Theological Seminary and San Francisco Theological Seminary. He has also served as a psychotherapist and pastoral counselor (volunteer) at a local community health center for economically vulnerable people, especially immigrants from Latin America. His academic work includes clinical supervision of students in chaplaincy, and pastoral and spiritual counseling. Dr. Schipani’s research and teaching interests include formation and transformation processes, and intercultural and interfaith care and counseling. He is the author or editor of thirty books on pastoral care, education, and practical and pastoral theology. His main texts on pastoral and spiritual care include The Way of Wisdom in Pastoral Counseling; Spiritual Caregiving in the Hospital: Windows to Chaplaincy Ministry; Interfaith Spiritual Care: Understandings and Practices; Multifaith Views in Spiritual Care; Manual de Psicología Pastoral y Camino de Sabiduría-Consejería: Cuidado Psico-espiritual; Where are We?: Pastoral Environments and Care of Migrants, Intercultural and Interreligious Perspectives; and Spiritual Care in Our Multifaith World: A Primer in Practice and Theory. Schipani is also a visiting lecturer in various academic institutions and lectures widely in North America, Latin America and Europe. He is a member of several professional and academic organizations, including the Society for Intercultural and Interreligious Pastoral Care & Counseling, the Society for Pastoral Theology, the International Association of Spiritual Care, and the International Academy of Practical Theology.

Dr. Mahmoud Abdallah is a researcher at the Center for Islamic Theology, University of Tübingen, Germany. His main areas of interest and involvement are: Islamic Practical Theology/Pastoral Care, Theology of Coexistence, Interreligious Dialogue, Muslim Religious Community in the Pluralistic Society, and State and Religion in Islam.  As a specialist in Islamic Theology, Dr. Abdallah has worked on various research projects and authored a major book, Islamische Seelsorgelehre: Theologische Grundlegung und Perspektiven in einer pluralistischen Gesellschaft, Ostfildern (Matthias-Grünewald-Verlag) 2022. Other research and publication projects include, Theologie des Zusammenlebens. Christen und Muslime beginnen einen Weg (ThdZ 1), Ostfildern 2017, ²2018 [ed.); and Religiöse Institutionen in Krisenzeiten. Ethik – Theologie – Praxis. (ThdZ 5) Ostfildern 2024 (ed.) Dr. Abdallah has been a member of the Deutsche Islam Konferenz (DIK) since 2018. He has been a visiting lecturer at the Universities of Maramra (Turkey), Sarajevo (Bosnia-Herzegovina), and St Andrews (Scotland). His current research focuses on the genealogy and ethics of Islamic Pastoral Care.

Cynthia Lindner, MA, DMin (Biblical studies, Ethics, and Psychological Studies), LPC, is the Director of Ministry Studies and Clinical Professor of Preaching and Pastoral Care at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. She has worked as a parish pastor, hospice chaplain, and pastoral psychotherapist for over thirty years. Teaching and research interests include questions of contemporary ministerial identity and formation, multi-religious theological education, the practice and ethics of religious leadership and spiritual care in multicultural society, the role of religious communities in addressing communal violence and trauma, and the interface of corporate worship and public witness. She was one of the directors of the Divinity School’s Chicago Commons Project, an early-career pastoral leadership development program funded by the Lilly Endowment, and is currently PI on two other grants, the Lilly Endowment’s “Compelling Preaching Initiative” and an AAAS partnership between science and theological education that will explore “Living Well during Climate Change.” Rev. Lindner’s book Varieties of Gifts: Multiplicity and the Well-Lived Pastoral Life studies the multiple-mindedness of religious leaders. She is also a pastoral psychotherapist at the Center for Religion and Psychotherapy, where she works with clergy and congregations in addition to her work with individuals and couples.

Dr. Esther Mombo is Associate Professor in the theology department at St. Paul’s University, Limuru, Kenya, where she was previously deputy vice chancellor (Academics). She teaches church history and theologies from women’s perspectives and interfaith courses and writes on women’s issues, evangelism, HIV/AIDS, Christian-Muslim relations, and poverty in Africa. She works closely with the Programme for Christian and Muslim relations in Africa and is a member of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians.

Claudia Kohli Reichenbach, PhD, is a lecturer in spirituality/spiritual care at the University of Bern. She studied theology in Bern, Oxford and Boston. She is doing research on the contours of contemporary spirituality in different contexts. She is interested in the power of religious traditions in today’s rapidly changing religious landscape. Claudia Kohli is the co-founder of the “école de silence”, which offers contemporary training in the field of spirituality.

Georg Wenz, PhD. After studying theology, religions, and philosophy, he became pastor of the Protestant Church of Palatinate, Germany. He is vice-director of the Protestant Academy Landau and Church-delegate in Christian-Muslim encounter. As an adjunct professor for Christian-Muslim topics, he teaches at the Technical University of Darmstadt as well as at the University of Koblenz-Landau. He was co-initiator of the Landau-Mannheim training-model in Islamic pastoral care in hospitals and emergency cases and is co-editor of two volumes about Islamic pastoral care in Germany.