NEWS

NEWBERRY — Dr. Krista E. Hughes, director of the Muller Center at Newberry College, has been named the inaugural director of resource development for the Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education. Hughes will continue to direct the Muller Center half-time when she assumes her new role in July.

In her new role, Hughes will be responsible for developing digital and print resources, helping expand the scholarship of vocation in higher education, and extending the reach of NetVUE’s work to campuses and educators.

“My colleagues and I are thrilled that Krista Hughes will be joining the NetVUE staff,” said David S. Cunningham, the network’s executive director. “She is a rigorous and inspirational thinker whose theological work spans a wide range of concerns. Her outstanding leadership of the Muller Center at Newberry, along with her deep engagement with the larger concerns of the academy, put her in an excellent position to shepherd the development of new resources for vocational exploration and discernment. The work that she will do in this role will increase the capacity of NetVUE member institutions to support their undergraduate students in the important work of reflecting on their many callings in life.”

NetVUE is a network of over 300 colleges and universities which provides resources and programming to advance vocational exploration with undergraduate students. The network is administered by the Council of Independent Colleges and funded by both member dues and generous support from Lilly Endowment, Inc.

“Dr. Hughes’s appointment to NetVUE is a win-win,” said Dr. Maurice Scherrens, president of Newberry College. “It positions Newberry as a leader in values-based higher education and a model for how to prepare students for not just a career, but a life of meaning and purpose.”

During her eight years at Newberry, Hughes has been active in national conversations around vocational exploration and Lutheran higher education. She chairs the Faculty Working Group for the Network of ELCA Colleges and Universities, and serves on the planning team for NECU’s annual Vocation of Lutheran Higher Education Conference. She publishes regularly in the field, most recently contributing to the volume, “So That All May Flourish: The Aims of Lutheran Higher Education” (Fortress Press, 2023).

As a NetVUE member since 2015, Newberry has benefitted from two grants, totaling nearly $85,000, a campus consultant, and opportunities for staff and faculty to attend professional development conferences, participate in webinars, and access online resources.

The college currently holds a NetVUE Vocation Across the Academy Grant, the aim of which is to envision and design a “pathway with purpose” for all Newberry students. Thus far, grant monies have funded professional communities of practice to equip staff and faculty to serve students more effectively, an off-site planning retreat, and faculty development events.