What's the Tea with Ministry?
Welcome to What’s the Tea with Ministry!
Where we spill the tea on the Jesuit and Mercy mission at the University of Detroit Mercy! Bringing you mission-centered conversation through storytelling, reflection, and community connection all over a cup of tea.
What's the Tea with Ministry?
Unraveling the Threads of Mission-Driven Work with the Co-Chairs of Mission Effectiveness Team
Join us on "What's the Tea with Ministry" as we brew an enlightening discussion with our special guests, Ashlee Barnes and Mary-Catherine Harrison, co-chairs of the Mission Effectiveness Team at the University of Detroit Mercy. Ashlee shares her remarkable journey from adjunct faculty to a full-time assistant professor, revealing her passion for nurturing student-centered education. Meanwhile, Mary-Catherine reflects on her 17-year tenure at the university, where her dedication to fostering Detroit Mercy's mission shines through. Together, they unravel the tapestry of the university's Jesuit and Mercy values, offering listeners a glimpse into their collaborative journey.
As we explore the heart of mission-driven work, discover the impact of the Mission Leadership Awards and the development of core values that help align the university community with its mission. Hear firsthand accounts of the joys and challenges faced by the Mission Effectiveness Team as they strive to foster an environment enriched by mentorship and community engagement. From classroom conversations to broader societal contributions, our guests illustrate how Detroit Mercy's commitment to inclusivity and social justice creates a holistic educational atmosphere that nurtures the whole person.
Welcome to what's the Tea with Ministry where we spill the tea. On the Jesuit Mercy Mission at the University of Detroit Mercy bringing you mission-centered conversation through storytelling, reflection and community connection, all over a cup of tea Hosted by University Ministry and a student co-host. That's us. I'm Anna Bryson, university Minister, and I'm Kateri.
Speaker 2:Sollers, your student co -host. Today we're going to be talking with Ashley Barnes and Mary Catherine.
Speaker 1:Harrison. Mary Catherine Harrison is Associate Professor and Chair of English at UDM, where she co-chairs the university's mission effectiveness team with Ashley Barnes. Mary Catherine's research focuses primarily on 19th century literature, narrative empathy and the psychology of reading. As a teacher, her greatest excitement is watching students develop their sense of self and purpose through literature. Raised a Quaker, Mary Catherine takes pleasure in the fact that Catherine McCauley's benefactors were friends and also that Catherine's chosen name was Mary Catherine McCauley, Dr.
Speaker 2:Ashley Barnes has been educating nursing students since 2011. She teaches at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Dr Barnes' interests are strongly focused on mental health, with an emphasis on mindfulness and student mental wellness, cultural diversity, student engagement and innovative teaching strategies. Dr Barnes loves teaching at University of Detroit, mercy, as the students are eager to learn and also ready to give back to their community. Something fun about Dr Barnes is that she loves to eat at restaurants in Detroit and critique the food with family and friends.
Speaker 1:So welcome to both of you. Thank you so much for being here. We are so excited to have you on the what's the Tea with Ministry podcast. As we start all of our podcasts, we try to offer all of our guests a cup of tea. This is a tradition coming from the Sisters of Mercy, particularly from their foundress, catherine McCauulay. On her deathbed, she asked the sisters to make sure they had a comfortable cup of tea at the end of the day or whenever throughout the day, so that they gathered together in community. And we're doing the same thing here. This is our community. We're sitting down over a cup of tea, learning something new about our community and our institution, and so we always start by asking what tea did you pick today to drink? So I'll start with myself. I'll say, for once, I'm not drinking mint tea, but I'm drinking a lemon tea, which is a close second to what I always end up picking. So I'm not very adventurous, but that's what I'm drinking today. Kateri, what are you drinking?
Speaker 2:I am drinking a Moroccan mint tea because it's winter and you need to clear your sinuses. Mary Catherine, what are you drinking? I am drinking a Moroccan mint tea because it's winter and you know you need to clear your sinuses. Mary Catherine, what did you?
Speaker 3:pick. Well, I'm also drinking Moroccan mint tea and it is delicious, and Ashley, what about yourself?
Speaker 1:And I'm drinking ginger?
Speaker 4:peach turmeric herbal tea, and I picked it because I always drink lemon and I wanted something different.
Speaker 1:Love it. So thank you again for both of you being here. Thank you, we are so excited to have you. The reason I invited both of you to come on the podcast today was I wanted you to share a little bit about your role as the co-chairs for the Mission Effectiveness team.
Speaker 1:This is a part of our shared governance at the university and I don't think a lot of people know about it. If you're not serving on the committee or on the team, a lot of people might not be aware of the work that we do or what our purpose is, and I also think, for students in particular, who are not in some of our shared governance structures and maybe don't have that knowledge of what that is at an institution, would love to learn more about what our purpose is as a team and I'm saying our because, although I'm not a co-chair, I do serve on the committee and have for the last two years, and so basically, I want to start by just saying thank you for being here and then asking you to share a little bit about yourselves. I know we introduced both of you, but share a little bit about yourselves and then answer the question for us of what is the mission effectiveness team and who makes up that team? For us at our institution, whoever wants to go first or share first can.
Speaker 4:Hi, thanks for having me. I'm Dr Ashley Barnes, and just a little bit about me. Me, I'm Dr Ashley Barnes, and just a little bit about me. I've been teaching at the university since January of 2017. I was an adjunct faculty in the family nurse practitioner program in Macaulay School of Nursing. I was also a stay-at-home mom at the time, looking for something to do in the evening, and I wanted to teach, and then I came back in 2022 to be a full-time assistant professor in CHP as well, and so I love it. I enjoy teaching the students and I love working with the faculty as well. The mission effectiveness team is like a collaborative group and we're committed to advancing Detroit Mercy's mission, so we provide excellence around student center education and also help faculty implement that where we're rooted in the Jesuit and Mercy values and traditions. So our team is made up of faculty administrators and staff, and we also work together to ensure that all of our mission is reflected in everything we do across the university.
Speaker 3:That was great, ashley. So I'm Mary Katherine Harrison. I have been here. I believe this is my 17th year at the university. There comes a time where you lose count and then you know it's a long career. I came here in 2008. This was my first job out of graduate school and I would say that I didn't really know much about Catholic higher education and about the mission of the university, and it has been a real privilege to learn about it, become steeped in it and then, in the last 10 or so years, become deeply committed to fostering and taking care of our mission and promoting our mission at the university. Like Ashley said, one thing about the mission effectiveness teams. I mean in the broadest sense. We are charged with making sure our university is being intentional about mission, that we're bringing it to bear on the different things we do.
Speaker 3:We're not alone in that University ministry does really important work. Obviously, the Office of Mission Integration is also charged with the mission, but we're the shared governance structure that is given mission as our charge and what that means is that we are a group of shareholders across the university, of stakeholders across the university, as Ashley said faculty staff, administration, all of our campuses, university ministry, representatives from the Jesuit and Mercy side of the house, and together we get to have conversations over the year about what we're doing in terms of mission at the university, how we can do it better and how we can bring mission to the table when conversations are being had about anything related to the university business.
Speaker 1:Great, thank you. I'm going to have Kateri ask our next question.
Speaker 2:MET is a committee that falls under shared governance for our students. Can either of you explain what shared governance is Shared?
Speaker 3:governance is absolutely fundamental, essential to higher education. What shared governance means is it's a system of shared decision making. So when you think about the different folks in a university, right, you've got professors, you've got administrators, you've got the board of trustees, you've got staff members. What shared governance says is when we're making decisions about what the university should do, about the directions we're headed, all of those stakeholders should be around the table and should be making decisions collaboratively, including students in some key areas. Certainly, ashley and I are both professors, so faculty have certain areas of kind of central responsibility where we are particularly charged with things related to academics and curriculum. But the idea of shared governance is that an institution won't thrive, can't thrive, unless everybody is coming around the proverbial table and the actual table and having conversations about the future of the university.
Speaker 3:Our university, like most others, has committed to a system of shared governance, which means that we can't engage in decision-making without bringing all of those stakeholders together. Otherwise we are failing in our own commitment to a system of shared governance. So just to get slightly wonky, within our system of shared governance, so just to get slightly wonky, within our system of shared governance, there are a lot of committees and teams, and in the McNichols Faculty Assembly we've got lots of different bodies that are part of shared governance. One of them is the mission effectiveness team, and that's what we're talking about today. The mission effectiveness team brings together folks from the different areas we talked about faculty staff, administrators, our founding charisms, university ministry but it also is very intentional in that it represents multiple campuses, and that's really important to our work because, of course, sometimes we we end up going into our silos and thinking about our immediate areas, but at this university, one of our strengths is that we have multiple campuses, so the law school and the dental school and the McNichols campus are part of every decision.
Speaker 4:Absolutely what I love most and Mary Catherine nailed it is that we are really huge on diversity and equity and inclusion and if we only have one group make all the decisions, talk to each other about the same things, then we're defeating that purpose and what we want to do is make sure that we include everybody across the campuses so that we can all share a perspective and, even if we don't agree with one another, we can have rationales at one single table to further understand what we need to do to make a difference.
Speaker 1:Thank you both. I really appreciate it. I realized that I think I was thinking when I was writing some of these questions that prior to working at this particular job, I've worked at other institutions. I had never shared on a shared governance committee and I didn't really know much about it. I knew they existed. So even for me it's helpful to hear other people's perspectives and definitions of what that looks like for us at our institution, and I know it'll help our students for sure who, like you said, are involved in some of that shared governance, but for a lot of our committees and teams they are not a part of them and so they don't know about some of these conversations and multiple people being at the table in some of the decision making that happens at the institution.
Speaker 3:I'm so glad that you asked about it because I think it's actually one of our greatest strengths as a university is that we have such a deep commitment to shared governance and that you know, at some universities you have administrators kind of the folks who are who to shared governance, and that you know, at some universities you have administrators kind of the folks who seem like they're at the top, they make top-down decisions is how we describe it and that doesn't lead to the best results. A shared governance institution with a deep system of shared governance like ours the decisions are made, like I said earlier, collaboratively leads to a better outcome and it leads to an outcome that reflects all of those perspectives, needs and interests, as Ashley said. So, although you might not have heard the term shared governance, students here have been benefiting from what it means to be in a shared governance university.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. No, it's wonderful. Can we switch our focus a little bit and talk specifically about what the work is of the mission effectiveness team? What are the projects conversations that are happening in this team? Whether you want to share details from what we've been talking about this year, or things that we've talked about in the past, or things that are always on our plate in terms of what we are in charge of, I'd love to hear from both of you about that, sure are in charge of.
Speaker 4:I'd love to hear from both of you about that, sure. So what we really focus on is promoting student-centered educational opportunities and experiences, as well as community experiences. So we like to integrate growth within the spiritual, ethical and social development. One of the highlights this time is a focus on fostering radical hospitality, so we're bringing together all people across the campus, whether it be faculty staff, administrators and students, so that we could celebrate those who embody the mission. So this could be through awards, it can be through articles that we share our cultural experiences through, and also we want to make sure that we're ensuring that the mission is the cornerstone of our identity. So that's what we're doing here.
Speaker 3:I could add a few things. One of our standing charges, if you will, the things that we do every year is we are in charge of the Mission Leadership Awards, which is an extraordinary privilege for us, because the Mission Leadership Awards recognize every year students, faculty staff and administrators who are living and embodying the mission, and what we get to do is receive the nominations from folks across the university and read about the extraordinary things that members of our university community are doing to foster and promote the mission. It's also a difficult task because there is so much extraordinary work and we can't choose everybody, but we get to read about the work that's being done and then we get to select recipients who get a mission style lamp, which I've always thought is very appropriate. I got one early in my career and it made an extraordinary difference to me. It made me feel recognized for my work and it made me feel, every time I look at it on my desk, reminded of what our mission is. So that's one of the things we do every year, another in addition to the focus on radical hospitality that Ashley talked about.
Speaker 3:One of our goals this year that I'm really excited about is helping the Office of Mission Integration and the broader university community come up with a set of core values that define our institution, define our mission. This isn't exactly a mission statement, more a set of values that we connect to and we can connect our work across the university with. So that's in process. We're going to be talking at a bigger, larger event in January about some of those core values that we're seeing bubble up from the university community and I think that will offer a really powerful framework for people to connect what they're doing in their lives, in their work, in their learning, with the institutional mission. So those are the kinds of projects we work on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have to say, in the last two years of serving on Mission Effectiveness team, one of my great joys is reading through the applications that people submit or the nominations that people submit. It's so lovely even though we can't give awards to everyone that gets nominated but just to hear the ways in which either peers or colleagues feel about these particular individuals, whether they're students or staff and faculty and administrators, it's just, it's like a beautiful gift and kind of a really it's one of those joyful things that we get to be a part of. When we live in a world that can often feel a little overwhelming or negative, focused, it's really wonderful to be able to have that opportunity to read these really positive, life-giving, mission-focused, you know pieces about people in our community. So just something I really loved and thought I'd mention as well.
Speaker 2:What excites you most about this work and what do you guys enjoy about being a part of the Mission Effectiveness team?
Speaker 4:So one of the things that really excites me about this work is working with well-rounded individuals, whether it is colleagues or students, staff, whomever but in the city of Detroit. I was born and raised in Detroit. I love this city dearly and I love that the university is right in the center of it, and we also focus on the diverse context that allows us to engage with initiatives throughout the university, so not just within the main campus. I currently work on the Detroit campus and the Novi campus, but we've also done some work in the summertime through the College of Health Professions, where we went to dental, we went to law and other places, so I love working as one group, like we're one band, one sound, but we're split into different sectors, so that's my favorite part of it. Most of all, though, my favorite favorite part is working with students and mentoring and trying to shape them to be the people that they want to be and reach their goals, so I enjoy that work.
Speaker 2:What do you do?
Speaker 4:as a mentor. So as a mentor, I basically either let students choose to come under my wing, so they'll ask me, or I find students who might have the same goals and I guide them. I give them a blueprint based on what they want to achieve how could we get to your goals, how can you achieve these in the time frame that you want? And then we also do fun things. So it's not just about educational, it's about community work, it's about service, it's about having fun, and the students really, really enjoy it, and sometimes I tell them they teach me more than what I can teach them. So I enjoy that part. Learning from students, engaging with them. It's one of my favorite things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what about you, professor Harrison?
Speaker 3:Well, if I think particularly about the mission effectiveness team, working with colleagues is. Sometimes people complain about committee work or meetings, but it's actually an extraordinary thing to sit in a room, or sometimes on Zoom, with a group of people who are all working for the same goals, who all care about the same things, and to get to have open dialogue about, okay, how are we going to do this? How are we going to make decisions? What are our goals going to be this year? What decisions are we going to make? What are we going to prioritize this year?
Speaker 3:And you know, with Mission Effectiveness team, we might have in a room 10, 12 people. It's a big group of colleagues and what you recognize when you start talking and bouncing ideas back and forth is that the end result is so much stronger Because of those different perspectives. I will I will say that Anna always has the best ideas and I'm always like snapping yes, yes, anna. And you know you don't. Without being in a room together or virtually without being on Zoom together, you don't get that generative energy of exchanging ideas. So I actually love that part of colleague committee work. Sometimes it's hard, sometimes we've got these tasks that we have to accomplish, but I always end up energized in those conversations.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'd say the same. I think one of the things I love is, as a person who's on the admin side and on a lot of student facing but not in the sense of educating in a classroom I love learning more about what faculty do and perspectives from faculty that I am like oh, that's just not the world I'm in. I specifically didn't want to be a professor because I don't think those are my gifts and I commend both of you for being professors. My gift is more just like let's have tea and sit on the couch and talk about your spiritual life, which I'm sure can happen in the classroom too. But I do love getting the perspectives, Also hearing from people on our other campuses that I don't get to spend nearly as much time on, Like you were saying, Mary Catherine, like sometimes we can get into these silos and we don't necessarily know what's going on on other campuses as much, or we kind of are just unintentionally thinking about.
Speaker 1:This is the world we operate in, and so this is the perspective I have, and so it's lovely to have other people to bounce ideas off of, to hear like, oh, that wouldn't work for our students here at Dental because of their time schedule or their commitments. So it's always good to hear different things and learn more about people's various perspectives and work. I always I mean doing this podcast is also why I love these conversations. I get to hear so much more about people as individuals, but also about their work on our campus and cool areas that maybe I don't know enough about and be educated myself, which is wonderful, I agree.
Speaker 4:And I was going to say the energy alone that fills the room, even on Zoom room, is just. It's incredible. Like as soon as I leave the meetings I feel energized to go do other mission work besides what we talked about, because of all of the colleagues sharing those perspectives. So I love it.
Speaker 3:You know, catherine McCauley was very wise with what she would say about get them together and drink tea, because you have to be in a space together to have dialogue with each other, also to comfort each other. I mean, I know she said that on her deathbed and so she wanted to bring the community together, but I think my sense is in life she did the same thing. She would bring the community together around tea, around meals, around other things, to engage each other in that kind of dialogue and communion. We can't do that unless we make spaces for it, and so this podcast is a really special space for it, and committee work, oddly enough, is also a really special space. We just need to prioritize tea more. I think hot beverages actually.
Speaker 4:We need to add that to our charges.
Speaker 1:We need to to prioritize tea more. I think hot beverages.
Speaker 2:We need to add that to our charges.
Speaker 1:We need to Must have tea. Can you talk a little bit about how the mission of the university so not necessarily specifically within mission effectiveness team, but how the mission has impacted your work as professors on this campus?
Speaker 4:So when I first started here, I basically did my own survey, like an observational thing, to see where are the gaps, what needs need to be met with the person, and be responsible for the whole person, as well as making sure that we meet the needs even if it's not just academically, mentally, socially, spiritually for each student. So that really stuck out to me, and I think it was a groundbreaking like aha moment for me to say wait a minute, let me stop. I can teach them everything. However, how can I incorporate experiences that they'll never forget, that they're able to incorporate in their own life experiences and lessons? And so I reorganized my train of thought, I reorganized how I deliver information to them, and I received some good feedback on that, and I think that's one of the biggest values that we need to work a little bit harder on everyone to make sure the students' needs are met in every aspect.
Speaker 3:I'm really glad that Ashley highlighted care of personnel, because when I talk to faculty here, care of the whole person is the part of the mission that I think every professor I've spoken to resonates with, and the way that I think of it is that we are not just educating minds. We are not creating GPAs or grades. We are encountering each student as a full, unique, distinct person with a mind, with a heart, with a soul, with a body, with a complex life, and trying to meet students where they are and care for them as holistic beings, not just as students in their capacity of scholarship. To me that, like Ashley said, it changes my whole way of thinking about education. I don't know that I would have had to be at a Catholic school to feel that way, but the language of cura personalis and the fact that our mission statement talks about integrating the academic, spiritual, social and ethical development of students invites it in a more robust way and says that's who we are as an institution. We are committed to that. There's so much about mission I could talk about, but the other aspect that I think has been most meaningful to me is the significance and centrality of social justice to our mission as an institution.
Speaker 3:I grew up a Quaker. I was deeply committed in thinking about my life goals how can I promote social justice in my work and life? I think that's something that Catholicism and Quakerism share, and I wasn't sure how to do it actually as a professor. When I decided to become an academic, I thought oh you know, am I doing enough for social justice, or am I just kind of going into the ivory tower and I'm not doing the work that matters in the communities that will be most impacted?
Speaker 3:And what I realized after coming here is that the classroom is a space where students can be engaged in questions of ethics and justice, unlike any other space. Right, we are having intense, focused conversations about whatever our discipline is in my case literature and I'm able to help them connect the texts we read to their own thinking about ethics and justice. And so the impact of that work goes outside of the academy, in their lives, in their work, and that's so powerful to me as a faculty member. Again, I might have been able to do it at any school, but knowing that social justice is part of Catholic social teaching, is part of our university's mission, invites me, as a professor, to do that in whatever class I'm teaching. It doesn't need to be a class that's dedicated to ethics or justice. It can be every class. Those conversations can be integrated into what we do.
Speaker 1:Love that. No, that's wonderful and important.
Speaker 2:I think the reason why part of the mission kind of helps at Detroit Mercy is because professors recognize that we are still human beings and then they implement that into the classroom and instead of them just teaching the material, they're also making sure that our whole mind and body is fed at the same time. What are your hopes for Detroit Mercy in terms of living out our mission?
Speaker 4:What are your hopes for Detroit Mercy, in terms of living out our mission? My hope is that we could continue to be an excellent leader within the city of Detroit. So what I mean by that is using our Jesuit and Mercy traditions, using our mission effectiveness team to be the foundation for making changes within the community and the university, and also addressing deeper or gaining a better understanding of what do the people of Detroit need, because a lot of our vision is surrounded by, like Mary Catherine said, social justice and things that maybe not the university alone might need to strengthen, but the community itself, since we're in the heart of Detroit.
Speaker 3:So I feel like we can be a continuation of a beacon of hope for, and inclusivity for, the city of Detroit if we continue to do that that we are within the city of Detroit, we are of Detroit, we are with Detroit, and Ashley always brings that to bear on our conversations in really powerful ways and I appreciate the way you did that just now. I think we always need to hold ourselves to higher and higher standards. I think having conversations about shared ideas and shared ideals matters. I think many things our institution does are powerful and positive, but no institution and no individual fully lives up to the ideals that they hold.
Speaker 3:In my experience, when you think of mission, it's not just the feel-good stuff, it's is every policy in line with our mission goals, all decision-making, our budget.
Speaker 3:Where are we investing our money? What priorities are we setting? Are the priorities to invest in our fiscal health or equally, if not more so, and I would say more so, in our mission? Health and mission shouldn't be relegated to a team here and an event here. Mission should be something that is represented in every shared governance body, in every decision that an institution makes, in every class, in every project, in every budget decision. So I think that I am incredibly proud of what Detroit Mercy has done and continues to do, and I also feel like it's our job to say and there is so much more that we need to do, and again I would just reiterate everything from the classroom to hiring practices, to which vendors you choose, to every decision of how you create a community as a university that is truly inclusive, that is truly promoting of belonging, that is truly living up to its ideals of justice. That is what we need to be doing, those are my hopes, and it never ends that work, never ends Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the work will never end, because there's always something to change, there's always something to desire to be better at. But I do think and I highlight this frequently on the podcast, whether it's me saying it, Kateri saying it or our guests saying it the importance of where we're located and why that's a huge part of who we are being in the city of Detroit I always talk about. I've only lived here for four years, but this is one of the best cities I've ever lived in. It's so fun here. It's just a beautiful city and it's a place that I have never seen have such a strength and such pride Like I've lived in. I've lived in other major cities, I've lived in Boston, I've lived in Chicago, and those are great cities and they hold special places in my heart. But Detroit has a spirit that I think is different than a lot of other places in the world, and I think it's what keeps me here. It's what keeps me at Detroit.
Speaker 1:Mercy is being here in Detroit and just enjoying the city as it is. And so how do we being located in the city? You know, three of our four campuses are in the city of Detroit, and so how do we make sure that we're being good community members as a part of it, and that's kind of my hope is like how do we continue to build that relationship and foster it in a beautiful way that supports the revitalization of other parts of Detroit? Well, great. First, before we move on to mission questions, I wanted to give either of you an opportunity to share anything else about mission, mission effectiveness, your work that you didn't feel like we covered, Something that you feel like you want to share or highlight for our listeners to know about our work in mission effectiveness, or our work as professors whatever you'd like to share.
Speaker 3:One part of the conversation around mission that I think is really significant at our university is our emphasis on solidarity. Sometimes in the past, I think, when people have spoken about mission it's a very kind of top-down we need to help people a charity model of mission. And I think our institution has moved beyond that model of mission. And I think our institution has moved beyond that and we've really begun to think in terms of what does it mean to stand with our neighbors in the fullest sense of that word? And that means not a helping model but a solidarity model, a dialogue model, a laboring at the same yoke model.
Speaker 4:And I think that's been an exciting direction over the last 10 years, that I'm hearing more and more people recognizing that as central to our thinking about mission, to our thinking about mission, and I think one of the things that stands out, I feel, at the University of Detroit Mercy is we have a mission, everybody can read it, but one of the important aspects is seeing people actually act and get out. So I think what's really important for me is to actually see people implementing all of those parts of our mission into our community, into our school, into the students, exhibiting this with the faculty and staff and colleagues in your actions, and I think that really weighs heavy within how do we live the mission? Not just read it, not just understand it, but actually implement it, and I think that's one of the things that stands out for me. Kanaya, yeah, and I think that's one of the things that stands out for me. Can I?
Speaker 3:So one of the things that I'm interested in is how our mission can be fully inclusive beyond Catholicism. No-transcript. What I think is powerful about our institution is that we have such a strong community of folks who are connected to our mission and institution, who aren't necessarily coming from the Catholic perspective, and a strong community of Catholics who are also connected to our institution and mission and grounded in their Catholic faith. We have many, many people of faith coming from different faith traditions. I think one of our greatest strengths is how strong our Muslim student population is, for example.
Speaker 3:To me, that makes the university stronger, and I remember when I first came here, Father John Stoudemire, who was a Jesuit on campus, said to me we are a Catholic university and I'm paraphrasing here but that doesn't mean we are a university of Catholics. If every faculty member were Catholic, we wouldn't be as strong of an institution. If every student were a Catholic, we wouldn't be as strong of an institution, wouldn't be as strong of an institution. So I'm very interested in the ways in which Catholic higher education is an inclusive space that invites people to connect with their own spirituality or, even if they don't have a spiritual life, that they would call that their own faith traditions and simultaneously come together as a community of shared values. I think that is something that I have found great satisfaction in as a non-Catholic who is so connected to our institutional mission.
Speaker 1:Thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 1:I think one of the things I tell people a lot in my.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I get asked why I chose to do university ministry work or ministry work in general and why did I choose to come to Detroit Mercy or why did I choose to come to a Catholic school versus going to a state school or somewhere else.
Speaker 1:And I always tell people that the reason I love working in Catholic higher ed specifically is because my job is not just to serve Catholics specifically is because my job is not just to serve Catholics, that I get to use all of my education around interfaith work and I get to talk with people about all different types of spiritual journeys or, if they don't define it as a spiritual journey, I get to talk to them about the big questions of the world and my purpose and service is to serve anyone and all and to be a companion and a journeyer with those people, whether it's students who identify as Catholic students, who are Muslim.
Speaker 1:I also so love our Muslim population here at our institution and the joy that that brings to the work that I get to do and be creative about. How do I incorporate traditions you know, traditions from all of our different students into either prayer services or reflections, or it just is a joy that we get to have this beautiful diversity of faith traditions, a beautiful diversity of cultural traditions, and how does that all overlap into what makes up our community and how we function? So that's just a great joy. I thought I'd add.
Speaker 2:So, to finish up, we like to ask all of our guests to answer these questions what is your favorite part of the mission and what motivates you to live the mission?
Speaker 1:We'll start with what's your favorite part of the mission and I know at different points throughout this conversation we've highlighted it. Just say again or of a different favorite part of the mission that you want to share with our listeners so I've highlighted quite a bit, but my favorite part is student-centered and also urban context.
Speaker 4:So I love that we are focused on the students in the urban environment, which brings me great joy, considering where I come from and my own personal beliefs that align with our mission. So those are two things that I focus on quite a bit and I love it.
Speaker 3:And if I could build on that, I would say one of my favorite things is using a student-centered education to get our students engaged. In Detroit Ten years ago I started a children's literacy program called Rx for Reading Detroit. My students have worked on expanding access to children's books in the city. We've distributed 250,000 children's books and that has been one way that I've tried to facilitate my students who are engaged in the broader world in their local community, giving them an opportunity to meet members of our local community and work with them to expand literacy opportunities. It's been a privilege.
Speaker 1:Yeah, amazing. And then the second part of that question is what motivates you. What is the source of your motivation for living this mission out? And some people would say it's their faith background, Some people would say it's their experience Whatever you want to share as what motivates you to live out the mission of Detroit Mercy.
Speaker 3:So my lighthearted answer is looking at the mission lamp on my desk.
Speaker 3:It makes me feel like, oh, I better be doing the work. You know what it is, is that as soon as I understood what the mission is at our institution, I just connected with it on a deeply personal level. You know, my vocation in life is working with students, is meeting them where they are, is trying to help them reach their full flourishing. Trying to help them reach their full flourishing. One of the ways we do that is engaging them with questions of justice and equity and solidarity and engagement in their community, and so for me, the mission is an extension of the things that I find most powerful to my vocation and my purpose in life.
Speaker 4:And I think for me it starts with my personal values. So I can think all the way back to when I was a kid. Half of the mission that is listed for our university is actually something I already already withheld with inside of me. So it's a personal drive. And then on top of that, when I meet the students and I engage and I interact with them, I see what they need and what they're trying to achieve, and then that really ignites that flame inside of me to say, hey, I have this personal drive, I've got these students who respect me and respect our colleagues as role models. Let's get it done. And so then it becomes a more of a team effort to achieve all of our goals and meet the mission as well.
Speaker 1:Thank you both. So now we're getting to our favorite part of the podcast, which is our lightning round. It's our opportunity to get those last minute facts about the two of you to share with everyone. These are meant to be fun questions. They are meant to be lighthearted. I know that everyone reads into them way more than they need to, and it is called the lightning round, so we try to go a little quick. So, whatever first answer comes to mind, what we'll do is we will determine who wants to answer first, and then what we'll do is I'll ask a question. Whoever's going to answer first will answer, then the person who's going second answers, and then Kateri's going to ask the next question. So her and I will go back and forth. Who's going second answers, and then Kateri's going to ask the next question.
Speaker 3:So her and I will go back and forth and the two of you will go back and forth, so does the same person answer first each time or does it swap?
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, first person answers each time. We're the only ones switching back and forth. Okay, who would like to be the person who answers first? I can go first, okay, great. Well then I'll let Kateri ask the first question Sweet or salty?
Speaker 3:Sweet, sweet and salty. Sweet, sweet and salty.
Speaker 4:I was going to say both. I really was A combo Together.
Speaker 1:What is your favorite color?
Speaker 3:Pink. Oh, I love pink. I was going to say blue.
Speaker 2:What is one food you could not live without? I?
Speaker 4:could never live without seafood, my absolute favorite Ooh.
Speaker 1:Raspberries Yummy Current favorite TV show so this is really interesting.
Speaker 4:I don't watch TV at all. Okay, so could we say favorite social media is Facebook.
Speaker 1:That's my TV show. My TV show is engaging in that. Absolutely, I do watch.
Speaker 3:TV All Creatures, great and Small.
Speaker 2:Oh, very nice Beach or mountains.
Speaker 3:Beaches by far.
Speaker 1:Mountains for sure. Who is someone that inspires you?
Speaker 4:My children. I have three beautiful girls ages four, six and eight, and they inspire me daily.
Speaker 3:Well, I could say the same. I have two beautiful girls, 15 and 18, and they inspire me as well.
Speaker 2:I love it. What's one place you want to visit Japan?
Speaker 4:I really want to visit Japan and my children are pushing me to book those tickets, so I think it's on the list.
Speaker 3:I'm coming with you, Ashley.
Speaker 4:Okay, come on.
Speaker 3:I've always wanted to see Maine.
Speaker 1:Uh, I feel like I should have already done it. You were. Yeah, that's where my honeymoon was this summer.
Speaker 3:We were up in.
Speaker 1:I was about to say Bath Maine. That is not where we were. I've been to Bath, maine. We were up in Acadia Park, which is Bar Harbor, maine, beautiful.
Speaker 4:Okay, show us pictures later. So I did a conference in Rhode Island, which is close, beautiful. I love these countries. What is your favorite thing about Detroit? Beautiful, yeah, I love these coats.
Speaker 2:What is your favorite thing?
Speaker 4:about Detroit. My favorite thing is resilience. Detroit is one of the most resilient places that I've ever, I should say, lived in, as well as just watched. Detroit can go from one point where it's maybe down all the way up quickly and bounce back and forth. It accepts all different type of cultures, backgrounds. I love Detroit.
Speaker 3:That's my favorite thing, we've got a great arts and literary scene. If you haven't checked out Brittany Rogers, her brand new book of poetry just dropped.
Speaker 1:We've just got great artists in the town. What famous person, dead or alive, would you like to have a conversation with Mine?
Speaker 4:is by far Dr Martin Luther King Jr. I often read all of his documentary writings, all of these things, and I always say, like if I could just sit down for, like, give me 10 minutes, five minutes, I have questions and I need answers. But a wonderful person and I would love to get to know that. If I was able to get to know him, I would definitely do it yeah, one 19th century author I've worked quite a bit on is Elizabeth Gaskell.
Speaker 3:I would love to have a sit down with her awesome what's the best advice you ever received?
Speaker 4:the best advice I ever received is typically always your first answer from someone might be no, but keep asking, keep trying to figure out. What do you need to get your goals achieved? What do you need to get the answer to be yes, if that is something you're truly?
Speaker 3:passionate about that's good.
Speaker 2:That is good advice.
Speaker 3:My mother has always said it's never too late, which I think means if something's not sitting with you, right, if you've done something you regret, if you didn't do something you wish you had, it's not too late, just go do it.
Speaker 1:Great, amazing. Thank you both for participating in our lightning round, for being guests on our podcast. This really ends our formal time together. It was a joy to hear from both of you and to just get to know a little bit more about the mission effectiveness team, the mission at the university defining shared governance. For those who are listening that don't know what that is, helping me have a better definition when people ask me as well. And, yeah, just sharing a bit more about yourself and your love for working here and being in the city of Detroit I just really appreciate it. Love for working here and being in the city of Detroit I just really appreciate it.
Speaker 3:Can I say thank you guys for having us and also for doing this podcast. I feel like it is a really it embodies the mission of our university and, I'm going to be honest, I was hoping I'd get invited at some point, so I'm really glad. I almost wrote you and said so could I come on? Yeah, thank you, so come on.
Speaker 4:Yeah, thank you so much for having us. This is a great experience and I loved how we talked about some serious and important things, but we also talked about some fun things, so I appreciate you guys for this. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Oh, and Ashley, I'm sorry. I realized it's all the way back from when we intro'd you at the beginning of the episode. I need to know what one of your favorite restaurants is in the city.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 4:So I would like to say I have a million, I believe, but one of my favorite favorite ones is Joe Muir's, right there on the water. I love it. I've been going there since I was a kid, but at different locations obviously, and it's one of my favorite restaurants Perfect.
Speaker 1:So there you have it, people, you got to go check that out Again. Thank you so much for both of you being here, for being on our podcast. We really appreciate it, thank you.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 1:You've been listening to what's the Tea with Ministry. If you enjoyed listening to us today, be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. Also, be sure to follow us on social media at UDM underscore ministry or check us out at what's the Tea with Ministry podcast on the Detroit Mercy website. Thank you to our guests, Mary Catherine Harrison and Ashley Barnes, for being in conversation with us today. Thank you also to all those who make this podcast possible, especially the communication studies department, our sound engineer, Michael Jason, our music composer, Dan Gregg, marketing and communications and the whole Detroit Mercy community. We look forward to sharing more of the mission with you next time. See you later.