Wheaton College Faculty Awards and Grants


Wheaton College faculty members are regularly recognized for their excellent scholarly contributions to the academy. 

Additional Faculty Grants and Awards


Jennie Oh Brown Headshot

Chamber Music America Board of Directors Confirmation

Jennie Brown, flute, has been confirmed to the Chamber Music America Board of Directors. For more information, visit the Chamber Music America website.


Awarded

Awarding Agency:
Chatlos Foundation
Amount: $15,000
Start: 11/15/2018
Grid VariantDr. Heather Whitney
Physics
Awarding Agency:
NIH
Amount: $396,673
Start: 1/16/2019-12/31/2022

Assessment of Repeatability and Robustness of Radiomics in Breast Cancer Imaging
The overall aim of this project is to investigate and better understand the repeatability and robustness of radiomics in breast cancer imaging. The three-year grant funded research efforts by Dr. Whitney, four undergraduate students from Wheaton College, and faculty collaborators at Wheaton College and the University of Chicago.

Dr. Scott Ickes
AHS
Awarding Agency:
NIH
Amount: $80,728
End: 6/30/2022

NIH - Breastfeeding knowledge, attitudes, and practices due to COVID-19 in Kenya
This project examines how COVID-19 has affected employment, food security and infant feeding practices among mothers employed in commercial agriculture, and 2) to determine how mothers' and healthcare workers' breastfeeding attitudes and practices have been affected by COVID-19 information and media.

Awarding Agency:
Ecolab
Amount: $2,850
Duration: One year

CODA- Community Outreach for Developing Artists
Since its inception in 2006, CODA’s mission has been to seek out and give artistic access to underexposed talents in our community who might not otherwise have the opportunity to develop their creative abilities.

Awarding Agency:
Wurlitzer Foundation
Amount: $5,000
Duration: One year

CODA- Community Outreach for Developing Artists
Since its inception in 2006, CODA’s mission has been to seek out and give artistic access to underexposed talents in our community who might not otherwise have the opportunity to develop their creative abilities.

Awarding Agency:
JCS Foundation
Amount: $100,000
Duration: One year

CODA- Community Outreach for Developing Artists
Since its inception in 2006, CODA’s mission has been to seek out and give artistic access to underexposed talents in our community who might not otherwise have the opportunity to develop their creative abilities.

Grid VariantDr. Thomas Boehm
Education
Awarding Agency:
Haskins Foundation
Amount: $4,000
Start: 7/1/2018

Faith and Disability Program Support
By provoking fruitful conversations, training professionals and communities, and providing practical resources, we strive to ground disability discourse in the rich Biblical teachings of community, diversity, humility, and service. Our goal is to make disciples of all people.

Awarding Agency:
CCCU
Amount: $5,000
End: 9/15/2021

The Gender Identity & Faith Project
Dr. Yarhouse hopes this research will inform Christian institutions about how students are navigating and experiencing sexuality and gender questions and that it will yield resources and best practices that will enable institutions to offer students appropriate care and support as they maneuver these challenging issues.

Awarding Agency:
NSF
Amount: $530,451
Start: 4/1/2018

Geophysical Characterization of a Karst Aquifer using Dynamic Recharge
The project monitors recharge-induced responses that arise as water flows into the subsurface in a karst aquifer in Florida using geophysical instrumentation to characterize the conduits, subsurface flow, and the larger karst system. The noninvasive remote sensing investigation generates knowledge for direct societal benefit, including tools to improve the creation of karst hazards maps that highlight areas susceptible to sinkhole formation, the identification of preferential flow paths relevant to contaminant transport, and the development of a methodology to determine subsurface flow for water supply considerations.

Grid VariantDr. Enoch Hill
Business/Economics
Awarding Agency:
Acton Institute
Amount: $1,000
Start: 1/1/2019
Awarding Agency:
Bluemke Trust
Amount: $50,000
Start: 1/1/2019
Awarding Agency:
CCCU
Amount: $5,000
End: 8/31/2022

Patristic Christianity and Contemporary Immigration: An Integrative Exploration of the Tradition for the Present
This four-year project is co-directed by Dr. George Kalantzis (Wheaton College) and Dr. Myles Werntz (Abilene Christian University). This group will gather annually to assess in what ways the patristic moral and theological world reframes, critiques, and augments contemporary discussions of immigration. By examining patristic themes of journey, forced displacement, church participation in the common good, divine presence in culture, and responsibility to the stranger (to name a few), this group will draw out the riches of the patristic world for one of the most pressing moral questions of our time and will produce a series of volumes, essays, and conferences offering a Christian vision for immigration in the present.

Amount: $83,699
Duration: 1/1/2019-3/31/2022

Southwest Regional Partnership on Carbon Sequestration
The Southwest Regional Partnership on Carbon Sequestration (SWP) is one of seven regional partnerships established in 2003 by the US DOE to study carbon management strategies. At Farnsworth Oil Field (FWU), CO2 injection has been demonstrated to be an economically advantageous way of producing more oil from a mature field and storing anthropogenic CO2 that is a byproduct of other industrial processes.

Awarding Agency:
Imago Dei Fund
Amount: $20,000
End: 7/30/2022

Wheaton Network Initiative on Gender, Development and Christianity
Christians are active in the relief, development, justice, and advocacy realms. Yet women are underrepresented in leadership across these different sectors, despite being highly engaged in nonprofit work. In light of the challenges facing women in leadership, we have launched an initiative to foster greater gender equality within the development sector, from programming on the field to conversations in the boardroom.

Ongoing

Awarding Agency:
Templeton Foundation
Amount: $1,863,347
Start: 8/1/2015

Acts of God: The Effect of Natural Disasters on God Representations via Meaning Making
Over the past 60 years, there has been a tenfold increase in the worldwide annual incidence of natural disasters. This Templeton grant supports research that explores the effects of disasters on on people's religious/spiritual lives.

Awarding Agency:
Lilly Endowment
Amount: $1,000,000
End: 12/31/2025

African American Church Evangelism Institute
This grant effort, led by prominent African American leaders, will be used to help African American churches increase their impact in evangelism, growing by adding new believers, engaging their communities, extending their worship ministry to their  community, and reaching young adults. The grant also funds initial research with African American pastors and emerging adults to insure the programs serves African American congregations well.

Awarding Agency:
Harry J. Lloyd Charitable Trust
Amount: $300,000
End: 6/30/2023

African American Church Evangelism Institute and the Wheaton College Billy Graham Hall Research Institute
This grant effort, led by prominent African American leaders, will be used to help African American churches increase their impact in evangelism, growing by adding new believers, engaging their communities, extending their worship ministry to their  community, and reaching young adults. The grant also funds initial research with African American pastors and emerging adults to insure the programs serves African American congregations well.

Grid VariantKevin Wong
Awarding Agency:
Fuller Seminary
Amount: $18,000
Start Date: 1/1/2018

Analytic Theology Course Development
Support for James Gordon and graduate student Kevin Wong to develop an Analytic Theology course.

Awarding Agency:
Leon Levy Expedition
Amount: $10,000
Start: 9/14/2012

Archaeology/ Harvard Lab Research Support
The ancient city of Ashkelon was founded in the Stone Age and remained a major port until the end of the Crusades. This market town linked ancient highland kingdoms like Israel and Judah to lucrative Mediterranean markets.

Awarding Agency:
Leon Levy Expedition
Amount: $20,000
Start: 1/1/2018

Askelon Support Staff
The ancient city of Ashkelon was founded in the Stone Age and remained a major port until the end of the Crusades. This market town linked ancient highland kingdoms like Israel and Judah to lucrative Mediterranean markets.

Awarding Agency:
Templeton Foundation
Amount: $219,712
Start: 1/1/2017

Biola Sub- Leader Humility in Humanitarian Aid Organizations
Humanitarian aid leaders play a vital role in mobilizing and overseeing workers providing humanitarian aid across the globe. This research will advance understanding of how humanitarian aid leaders affect humanitarian aid efforts.

Wade Center Outside SeptemberMarion E. Wade Center
 
Awarding Agency:
Christ is Our Salvation
Amount: $100,000
Duration: Ongoing

Bridging the Sacred and the Secular through Wade Authors
 By helping meet operational costs for the Wade Center, which is entirely self-funded, this grant frees Wade directors to develop creative ways to reach people who are suspicious of Christianity but who love our authors. With the help of this grant, the Wade podcast is now reaching thousands of individuals in over 104 countries, several of which are predominantly Muslim.

Awarding Agency:
NetVUE
Amount: $50,000
Duration: Ongoing

CFI's Innovation Lab
CFI iLab teams are trained in a unique approach developed in-house, drawing on human centered design, social and business research, ethical/philosophical analysis, and agile project management. For the past six years, Wheaton student teams have delivered marketing plans, market research, and customer insights to Fortune 500 companies, industry associations, academic institutions, social enterprises, and non-profits nation-wide through our marketplace focused interdisciplinary project approach.

Awarding Agency:
Biola University
Amount: $122,625
Duration: Ongoing

Christian Meaning Making, Suffering and the Flourishing Life
This project explores the core theme of Christian meaning-making in suffering and its relationship to flourishing. It will lead to greater appreciation of the role of emic religious constructs by researchers and mental and physical healthcare providers.

Awarding Agency:
Lilly Endowment
Amount: $1,000,000
End: 12/31/2023

Church Evangelism Institute
Mission: Equip national denominations and pastors across the U.S. to live out the evangelistic mandate of the Great Commission, becoming conversion communities that grow primarily by adding new believers.

Awarding Agency:
Harry J. Lloyd Charitable Trust
Amount: $256,000
End: 6/30/2022

Church Evangelism Institute
Mission: Equip national denominations and pastors across the U.S. to live out the evangelistic mandate of the Great Commission, becoming conversion communities that grow primarily by adding new believers.

Awarding Agency:
JCS Foundation
Amount: $150,000
Duration: One year

CODA- Community Outreach for Developing Artists
Since its inception in 2006, CODA’s mission has been to seek out and give artistic access to underexposed talents in our community who might not otherwise have the opportunity to develop their creative abilities.

Awarding Agency:
JCS Foundation
Amount: $60,000
Duration: One year

CODA- Community Outreach for Developing Artists
Since its inception in 2006, CODA’s mission has been to seek out and give artistic access to underexposed talents in our community who might not otherwise have the opportunity to develop their creative abilities.

Awarding Agency:
NEH
Amount: $6,000
Start: 1/1/2018

Conservation Assessment/ C.S. Lewis' Personal Library of Books
This NEH Preservation Assistance Grant funded conservation assessments for 420 books from the personal library of C.S. Lewis.

Grid VariantDr. Enoch Hill
Business and Economics
Timothy Taylor Headshot Grid VariantDr. Tim Taylor
Politics and International Relations
Awarding Agency:
Acton Institute
Amount: $8,000
Start Date: 6/15/2018

Course: Comparative Economic Systems
Funds support the development of a course designed to both introduce students to the different economic systems of the world and to to encourage them to develop their own thinking about the issues involved in comparing these systems.

Awarding Agency:
Kern Family Foundation
Amount: $950,000
Start: 7/1/2014

Faith, Work, Economic Integration Among Evangelical Protestant Institutions
Establish and support Opus' on campus and outreach efforts.

Shawn Okpebholo - credit Greg Halvorsen SchreckDr. Shawn Okpebholo
Conservatory of Music
Awarding Agency:
Illinois Arts Council
Amount: $6,600
Duration: Ongoing

Fifth House Ensemble Performance & Masterclass
Fifth House Ensemble traces the lifecycle of water from its metaphorical descent from the heavens as rain, to its long journey in streams and rivers informed by conservation experts and ecologists. This grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency partially supported a virtual concert by Fifth House Ensemble on January 29, 2021, and will also contribute to a Fifth House Ensemble Masterclass.

Dr. Scott Ickes
AHS
Awarding Agency:
NIH
Amount: $669,465
End: Ongoing

NIH - Identifying Risk Factors for Sub-Optimal Breastfeeding and Opportunities for Breastfeeding Promotion among Working Mothers in Kenya
The project is part of the International Research Scientist Development program, funded by the National Institutes of Health Fogarty International Center. This Kenya-based study is seeking to: 1) understand risk factors for sub-optimal breastfeeding among mothers employed in commercial agriculture; 2) to identify solutions to help employers implement mandated workplace supports; and 3) to understand a mother’s willingness to use various workplace breastfeeding supports made available by their employers.

Awarding Agency:
MOTB
Amount: $4,000,000
End: 9/30/2024

Joint expedition to Tel Shimron as part of the Jezreel Valley Regional Project
This major research grant provides support for an international team of archaeologists, historians, anthropologists, biologists, chemists, geologists and students to excavate Tel Shimron, an ancient city in Northern Israel.

Awarding Agency:
CCCU
Amount: $15,000
End: 9/15/2023

The Music of Social Protest: An Intersection of Politics and Faith in Latin America
Dr. Quiroa’s grant provides funds for four Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) scholars to plan a research project analyzing Latin American social protest songs.

Dr. Scott Ickes
AHS
Awarding Agency:
Johns Hopkins
Amount: $29,480
Start: 12/15/2017

Evidence Review: Nutrition Education and/or Supplementation Program Implemented of Public Health Scale that Contributes to Prevention of Wasting in Children
A primary goal of this study was to identify effective public health interventions and strategies to prevent acute malnutrition.

Awarding Agency:
Acton Institute
Amount: $40,000
Start: 7/1/2017
Awarding Agency:
Fund- Anonymous
Amount: $40,000
Start: 7/1/2016
Amount: $46,170
Duration: 10/1/2020-9/30/2023

San Juan Basin CarbonSAFE Phase III: Ensuring Safe Subsurface Storage of CO2 in Saline Reservoirs 
The project is seeking to accelerate deployment of carbon capture, utilization, and storage in the San Juan Basin in New Mexico. Dr. Luhmann is working on a team that focuses on conducting experiments to assess multiphase flow and chemomechanical impacts that arise from the injection of carbon dioxide in subsurface reservoirs.

The Way of Trust and Love Spring 2021 768x512Dr. Sarah Miglio
Provost's Office
Awarding Agency:
Chatlos Foundation
Amount: $15,000
End: 8/31/2021

Support Wheaton's CORE Program
With the Chatlos Foundation Grant, Wheaton College provided advanced training for Christ at the Core faculty teaching scripture and theology in key core classes, including the First Year Seminar and the Advanced Integrative Seminar.

Awarding Agency:
Various Foundations
Amount: $20,000
Duration: Ongoing
 

Tel Shimron Participant Fund
The Tel Shimron Excavation seeks to understand the ancient world, including the world of the Bible, in order to provide resources for the study of Levantine history and culture from the last five thousand years.

Awarding Agency:
DOE
Amount: $55,000
Start: 12/15/2016

U of W Sub-Fluctuation Studies and Support of Spectroscopic Diagnostics in MST
This Department of Energy subaward from the University of Wisconsin-Madison supports Dr. Craig’s plasma WIRX research (Wheaton Impulsive Reconnection eXperiment).

Awarding Agency:
Templeton Foundation
Amount: $646,721
End: 12/31/2024

Advancing Open Science Practices and Registered Reports in the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality
The Open Science of Religion project is focused on supporting openness and integrity in the scientific study of religion and spirituality. It is an initiative that will fund 18 research projects that use open science practices such as sharing their study expectations beforehand and sharing their data and materials after conducting their study.

Awarding Agency:
University of Virginia
Amount: $99,500
Duration: One year

Mother of the Lamb: Origin and Insight of a Global Icon
The Commonwealth Fellowship was established “to acknowledge scholars whose work digs deeply and insightfully into the cultural history that underlies the widely received notion of the common good.” Milliner will use the fellowship to finish a forthcoming book, Mother of the Lamb: Origin and Insight of a Global Icon (Fortress Press). As part of his Commonwealth Fellowship year, Milliner will workshop his writing with other IASC scholars and present a public lecture based on his research (if COVID conditions allow).

Denise DanielsDr. Denise Daniels
Business & Economics
Awarding Agency:
Lilly Endowment
Amount: $39,527
Duration: Ongoing

Rice U Sub: The Impact of COVID-19 and Racism on Faith at Work
During the last four years, Dr. Daniels and Dr. Ecklund used the first grant to develop and execute a national survey that garnered more than 13,000 quantitative responses and more than 200 hours of qualitative interviews to discover how congregants thought their churches related to and spoke about work.  

This second grant will fund another survey, as well as follow-up interviews, to extract richer, more nuanced details from survey respondents. Much like the first grant, the results of the supplemental research will produce numerous articles, lead to presentations at conferences, and be collected in two books slated for publication in 2022.

Becky Eggimann, Ph.D.Dr. Becky Eggimann
Natural Sciences
Awarding Agency:
CCCU
Amount: $30,000
Duration: Ongoing

Between Pandemic and Protest: Exploring the Future of the Liberal Arts
This grant enhances stem education on CCCU campuses by providing… structures that support faculty and student research. One of those structures is paid research leaves for Wheaton faculty… In addition, the Supporting Structures grant gives the Division of Natural Sciences at Wheaton College the money to start a Science and Faith podcast, a student chapter of the American Scientific Affiliation, a diversity training seminar for Wheaton’s science faculty, and hire Wheaton students to help with research.

Becky Eggimann, Ph.D.Dr. Becky Eggimann
Natural Sciences
Awarding Agency:
SCIO
Amount: $156,000
Duration: Ongoing

Supporting Structures: Innovative Collaborations to Enhance STEM Research at CCCU Member Institutions
This grant enhances stem education on CCCU campuses by providing… structures that support faculty and student research. One of those structures is paid research leaves for Wheaton faculty… In addition, the Supporting Structures grant gives the Division of Natural Sciences at Wheaton College the money to start a Science and Faith podcast, a student chapter of the American Scientific Affiliation, a diversity training seminar for Wheaton’s science faculty, and hire Wheaton students to help with research.

Awarding Agency:
NSF
Amount: $352,070
Duration: Three years

Characterizing Molecular Flow through Protein Nanovalves
With this NSF three-year grant, the Burdens, along with their Wheaton student researchers, are studying in closer detail which molecules travel through the opening of this toxin protein and whether or not certain molecules remain trapped inside a simulated delivery vessel when the protein passageway is closed.

Johann Buis HeadshotDr. Johann Buis
Conservatory of Music
Awarding Agency:
McGill University
Amount: $88,194
End: 6/30/2022

FY22 McGill University Senior Resident Fellow
With this appointment from McGill, Dr. Buis is teaching two graduate seminars: “Music, Social Justice, and Black Perspectives” and “Musical Citizenship and Diverse Ethnic Voices.” He is also giving public lectures on topics that reflect his expertise, including “Social Justice and the Concert Stage” and “Music Citizenship Montreal: Hidden Musicians and the Academy.” In addition, Dr. Buis has advised doctoral students and given guidance and mentorship on their research.

Awarding Agency:
Trinity Seminary
Amount: $100,000
End: 6/30/2022

FY22 Carl F. H. Henry Center Senior Resident Fellow 
Funded through a grant from the John Templeton Foundation, the Henry Resident Fellowship program is a key piece of Henry Center’s Creation Project. With the ultimate goal of producing scholarship around the doctrine of creation, the three-year Creation Project relies on its fellows to create world-class scholarship guided by Scripture and informed by scientific research. Over the course of the year-long fellowship, Bieber Lake will live on the campus of Trinity in Deerfield, Illinois working on the research and writing of a new book about a reader’s attention—and how a literary imagination has the power to change the reader’s mind.

Awarding Agency:
Calvin University
Amount: $18,000
End: 12/31/2021

Holy Ones: Crossing Racial Boundaries for the Kingdom
The grant has allowed me to study Christians who have historically worshipped together across racial lines, using case studies to explore how thinking Christianly and historically about race’s effect on American worship might help churches foster reconciliation in the present. I am writing a book for Christians on the subject, and I am using it to fund research on a chapter on John Perkins’s ministry in Mendenhall in the 1960s and early 1970s and Rock of Our Salvation Evangelical Free Church’s partnership with Circle Urban Ministries and work in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood in the 1980s and early 1990s. It has also enabled me to run workshops to receive feedback from congregations on the book chapter.

Awarding Agency:
Korea Foundation
Amount: $18,000
End: 5/1/2022

Paradiplomacy in Korea-US Relations: Its History and Potentials
The grant, awarded in Fall 2020, will culminate with an academic paper that looks at the role of American businessmen in late 19th-century paradipolomatic relations with Korea and another that highlights two paradiplomatic case studies between the U.S. and Korea. Dr. Kim and several Wheaton student researchers also plan to discuss their research as part of a conference panel.

Dr. Kristen GarrettDr. Kristin Garrett
Politics and International Relations
Amount: $189,990
End: 11/30/2021

U of Oklahoma Subaward/Templeton: The Mitigating Effects of Humility and Social Identity on Hostility and Stress Across Political Differences
The $190,000 grant will enable Garrett and a team of faculty co-investigators to investigate how humility develops, translates to public life, and helps citizens navigate political differences. The broad purpose of the project is to shed light on strategies to reduce hostility and stress between political opponents in ways that contribute to human flourishing in public life.

Amount: $51,705
End: 6/30/2022

Asian American Mental Health Initiative (AAMI)
Dr. Rueger is currently collaborating with the Center for Asian Health Equity at the University of Chicago as a Co-Principle Investigator on the “Coalition for Healthy Asian Minds” Project funded by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Affordability Cures Research Grant ($1.5 million) to develop interventions to reduce stigma and encourage mental health care in the Asian American communities in Chicagoland.