About the Presenters
Keynote Speaker
Duke Han, PhD
Assistant Professor of Behavioral Sciences, Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center/Rush University Medical Center; Director of Neuropsychology, Mental Health Care Group, VA Long Beach Healthcare System
Dr. S. Duke Han, PhD, ABPP-CN is a board-certified clinical neuropsychologist and behavioral neuroscientist. His research interests include the development and decline of executive functions across the lifespan, compensatory mechanisms for cognitive decline, recovery from brain injury, and the neuroanatomical mechanisms of decision-making.
Dr. Han earned his BS in psychology with a concentration in neuroscience from Duke University, and his MA and PhD in clinical psychology with a concentration in neuropsychology from the University of Massachusetts Boston. In Boston, he was trained in clinical neuropsychology and neuroimaging methods in the Harvard University Medical System.
He has published numerous scientific manuscripts in the neuroscience of schizophrenia, the development of higher order cognitive abilities in children and young adults, and the decline of cognitive abilities in old age. He was recently awarded the Paul B. Beeson Career Development Award, which is a prestigious five-year grant funded by the National Institutes of Health and private foundations to study the neurobiological correlates of impaired decision-making in older adults.
Keynote Responder
Daniel White Hodge, PhD
Director, Center for Youth Ministry Studies at North Park University
Dr. Daniel White Hodge has over 17 years of urban youth work under his belt. He has worked for and with organizations such as Young Life and World Vision and has done work with undocumented youth in Los Angeles. He was a youth pastor for many years and continues to advocate for urban youth justice issues.
Dr. Hodge has taught at Cal State University Northridge's religious studies department as well as Fuller Theological Seminary's school of intercultural studies. As a speaker, writer, and activist he has spoken on many college campuses including Stanford University, UCLA, USC, and Union Theological Seminary. He teaches classes around the world on subjects such as black popular culture, personality and the self, Hip Hop discourse, and race/ethnicity within religion.
Dr. Hodge's two current books are Heaven Has A Ghetto: The Missiological Gospel & Theology of Tupac Amaru Shakur (VDM 2009) and The Soul Of Hip Hop: Rimbs, Timbs, & A Cultural Theology (IVP 2010). He is currently working on a book titled The Hostile Gospel: Finding Religion In The Post Soul Theology of Hip Hop (Brill Academic, early 2012). He has published in Youth Worker Journal, Youth & Family Journal, and has several book chapters in various readers.
To Life! Health Living Speaker
Christine Smith
Nursing Faculty, North Park University
Christine Smith is a family nurse practitioner serving the West Side of Chicago at Circle Family Health Care Network. For the past 12 years, Christine has been part of Circle's mobile health team that provides health care to the homeless. This is her second year on the faculty at North Park University training nurse practitioner students. She is a graduate of Moody Bible Institute and Rush University and spent ten years as a church volunteer junior high youth leader.
Responder
Min Song, MDiv, PharmD
Youth Minister, New Life Church, and Clinical Pharmacist, Glenbrook Hospital
Risk and Resilience: Mental Health Speaker
Bob Auger, LMFT
Arbor Clinical Associates
Bob Auger is a licensed marriage and family therapist practicing at Arbor Clinical Associates. He enjoys working with adolescents and emerging adults as they navigate the tasks of differentiation from their families and understanding their place in the world. Bob has worked in youth ministry and teaches pastoral care and counseling at Northern Seminary in Lombard, Ill.
Responder
Jen Morales-Crye
DRP Coordinator at Lawndale Christian Legal Center
Jen currently serves as the Detention Reduction Project (DRP) coordinator at the Lawndale Christian Legal Center (LCLC). She has been working with youth ages 11-21 since 2005 in Chicagoland, including the Humboldt Park, Cicero, Little Village, and North Lawndale areas. She has experience working within and coordinating after-school programming as well as mentoring youth. She has administrative experience working as the Administrative Director for The Firehouse Community Arts Center located in North Lawndale.
Jenlives in the Lawndale community with her husband Matt. She holds a BA in biblical studies from Moody Bible Institute and is currently working on her master of social work degree with a specialization in leadership development in the social services and a master of social justice and community development degree from Loyola University Chicago.