The Joys and Challenges of Life in Community

Wednesdays, October 23 - November 6 | St. Peter's Episcopal Church

Thank you to everyone who attended our fall speaker series! We are especially grateful for our presenters for their time and insights. There are videos of the presentations, available below.

Wednesday, October 23 | Jack Danforth

Worship: 5:30 p.m. (Grace Chapel)

Speaker and Dinner: 6:00 p.m. (Undercroft)

 

Senator John C. Danforth (R-MO) served in the United States Senate from 1976 to 1995. His areas of interest included trade, tax policy and civil rights.   In 1999, Danforth was appointed Special Counsel to investigate the federal raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. In 2001, he was appointed as Special Envoy to Sudan by President George W. Bush.  Later, he was appointed U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

An ordained Episcopal priest, Senator Danforth presided over the funerals of President Ronald Reagan and Katharine Graham among others. He is the author of three books: Resurrection (1994), Faith and Politics (2006) and The Relevance of Religion (2015).  Danforth was Attorney General for the State of Missouri from 1968-1976.  He graduated with honors from Princeton University and then earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School and a Bachelor of Laws degree from Yale Law School. Danforth and his wife Sally have been married for 67 years, and have five children, 15 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. 

Wednesday, October 30 | Bishop Deon Johnson

Worship: 5:30 p.m. (St. Peter's Church)

Speaker and Dinner: 6:00 p.m. (Undercroft)

Please note that the worship service on October 30 will be a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the consecration of St. Peter's church. Consequently, the service will be held in the main worship space rather than grace chapel.

Deon Kevin Johnson was consecrated as the 11th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri on June 13, 2020, at Christ Church Cathedral in St. Louis. He became the first black, first gay, first immigrant to serve as bishop in this diocese.

Johnson was born and raised in a small village on the Caribbean island of Barbados. His faith was formed under the watchful eye of his maternal grandmother who taught him how to pray, how to listen with his heart and introduced him to the beauty of worship in the hymns and spirituals she sang throughout Deon’s childhood. He immigrated from Barbados to New York at the age of 14.

"I see my role primarily as pastoral in this time in the church and the world," the bishop said. 

Johnson and his husband Jhovanny Osorio are the proud parents of two children, Lilohalani and Ja’Lon. He enjoys cooking, photography, hiking and being an armchair movie critic.

Read the bishop's full biography

Wednesday, November 6 | Bob Chapman

Worship: 5:30 p.m. (Grace Chapel)

Speaker and Dinner: 6:00 p.m. (Undercroft)

Recently named the Tharseō CEO of the Year by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the #3 CEO in the world in an Inc. article, and a Top 10 Social Capital CEO by International Business Times, Bob Chapman is very intentional about using his platform as a business leader to build a better world.

Chapman is Chairman and CEO of St. Louis, MO-based Barry-Wehmiller, a $3.6B global capital equipment and engineering solutions company with more than 12,000 team members. He became the senior executive of Barry- Wehmiller in 1975 at age 30 when the 90-year-old business had $20 million in revenue, outdated technology and a very weak financial position. Despite the obstacles, Chapman applied a unique blend of strategy and culture over the next 45+ years in leading Barry-Wehmiller through more than 130 successful acquisitions.

Over the past two decades, a series of realizations led him away from traditional management practices to Truly Human Leadership--a people-centric approach where his team members feel valued, cared for and integral to the company’s purpose. At Barry-Wehmiller, they have a unique measure of success: by the way they touch the lives of people.

Chapman’s experiences and the transformation he championed were the inspiration behind his 2015 WSJ bestseller Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family. The book is coauthored by Raj Sisodia, founder and co-author of Conscious Capitalism. The book has been translated into eight languages. In 2016, Harvard Business School released a case study featuring Barry-Wehmiller’s unique approach to business, which is now taught at 70+ business schools around the world.

In 2013, Bob and his wife Cynthia launched a nonprofit, Chapman Foundation for Caring Communities, to bring the company’s groundbreaking Listen Like a Leader training to communities. And, in 2015, the Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute was founded to bring Barry-Wehmiller’s trademark culture transformation and leadership training to for-profit organizations.

In recent years, Bob has focused on teaching caring leadership to tomorrow’s leaders through programs in K-12 schools and universities. In 2021, Bob and his team partnered with Fordham University and other business schools to launch the Humanistic Leadership Academy which helps professors and students become more human-centered.

A sought-after speaker for a variety of industries, Chapman’s speaking engagements include the United Nations Global Compact Transforming Education Summit, Brazil’s Virtuous Leadership Conference, China Organizational Evolution Forum, Healthcare Burnout Symposium, Aspen Ideas Festival, Conscious Capitalism events, TEDxScottAFB, 2016 US Congressional Retreat, Manufacturing Excellence Conference, HERO Forum for Employee Health Management, and numerous others.

Chapman shares his story whenever he can, as it is an example of what’s possible at the intersection of great business strategy and profound care for people. He wants everyone to see that caring for people and giving them meaning, purpose and fulfillment through their work is not in disharmony with creating value.

Chapman has a BA from Indiana University and an MBA from Michigan.

To read more about Bob’s work and perspectives, visit TrulyHumanLeadership.com.