Carter directs the Center for Vocation, Faith & Service Program, the Christian Ministry Program, and coordinates the CVFS office and faculty. He is ordained in the Disciples of Christ tradition with graduate degrees from Duke and the University of Notre Dame. He specializes in Christian Ethics and actively publishes in that area.

Rev. Dr. Jean Heriot

Jean Heriot is a cultural anthropologist and a Unitarian Universalist Community Minister. She loves to write and to serve others through her commitments to end hunger in Hastings and across the world.

Jean has written one book, Blessed Assurance, about Southern Baptists in South Carolina and is currently writing about women’s ritual leadership in alternative religious traditions. She teaches classes in religion, sociology, cultural anthropology and service learning. Every January she takes students on trips to serve others—in Mexico, Guatemala, and various places in the states—and to reflect deeply on what they see and how they can respond.

She enjoys growing roses—ones that have lovely scents like the Chrysler Imperial.

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Dr. Dan Deffenbagh
Dan is an Associate Professor of Religion at Hastings College. Most recently he authored the book, Learning the Language of the Fields: Tilling and Keeping as Christian Vocation (Cowley, 2006). 

He enjoys organic gardening, canning, cooking and baking, playing bluegrass music (guitar and banjo), world religions, literature, hiking, biking, ornithology, and fly fishing.

Rev. Dr. David McCarthy

The Rev. Dr. David B. McCarthy serves as Associate Professor of Religion and Chaplain to the College. David earned a B.A. with a double major in French and Religion from Carleton College, a Master of Divinity from Harvard University, a Master of Arts in French from Duke University, and a Ph.D. in Religion from Duke University.

Before coming to Hastings in 2001, he served churches in New York and North Carolina, and taught at Harvard and Duke University. He has written over thirty book chapters and articles, and has served the Presbyterian Church (USA) in a variety of capacities; most recently, he completed a term as the Moderator of the Presbytery of Central Nebraska. He is interested in the diverse history of Christianity, ranging from the first to the twenty-first century.

David and his wife Joan met in seminary; they have two teen-age daughters who keep them busy attending school choir, band, and orchestra concerts, and competitive swim meets (where they help run the timing computer and manage the concession booth). David enjoys his volunteer work with international refugees who have come to Hastings; in his free time, he appreciates reading, music, and travel.