Geneva Blackmer

Geneva Blackmer is a PhD Candidate at Amridge University, where she is completing her dissertation titled "A Biblical Analysis of Commands Concerning the Elderly (Exod 20:12; Eph 6:1-3; Lev 19:32; Prov 16:31) and the Difficulty of Aging (Eccl 12:1-7) Towards Radical Social Inclusion in Digital Ministry". She holds a Master’s of Ecumenical Studies from the University of Bonn (2023) and a Master of Arts in Religious Studies from Athens State University (2019). She is the current Interim Executive Director for the Interfaith Center at Miami University, and a Research Assistant at the University of Bonn in the Seminar for Religious Pedagogy, where she explores cultural racism in Interreligious Education. Previously, she worked for the University of Bonn's Protestant Theological Faculty, in the Department of Intercultural Theology, where she published in the field of Digital Religion. She has served as a Global Council Trustee for the United Religions Initiative (URI) North America since 2020. Her background consists of interreligious and ecumenical cooperation at a grassroots level, working with numerous other interfaith organizations in varying capacities, including the North American Interfaith Network, the Interfaith Council of Southern Nevada, the Interfaith Council of Metropolitan Washington DC,  Faith Communities Go Green, Interfaith Cincy, the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council, and the World Faiths Center for Religious Experience and Study (CRES). In 2019, she founded the Kansas City Interfaith History Project, with guidance from the Rev. Vern Barnet, DMn, and the Rev. Larry Guillot, sacrae theologiae doctor, to preserve the unique and rich interfaith history of the greater Kansas City region. She is a five precepts lay Buddhist within the Kwan um School of Zen, and has been a member since 2014.