We would like to welcome Dr. Karen McKinney to the Play for Peace Board of Directors! We are thrilled she is joining our global community and excited to share a few details about her extraordinary accomplishments, as well as her new role at Play for Peace.
As an ordained minister, Dr. McKinney has been serving congregations for 30 years and is currently presiding at the Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN, a position she has held since 2003. She leads worship, preaches to the congregation, counsels new members, and serves on committees that benefit the church.
“My life has been one of service,” says Dr. McKinney. “I was socialized into thinking that my call to ministry was a call to service, but that did not hinder me from an obligation to serve outside of the church or my job in ministry.”
Since 1995, she has also served as an associate director of biblical studies at Bethel University, teaching missional ministry, biblical studies, and general education courses. She also oversees the youth ministry program there. Through her current and past roles in education and spiritual guidance and leadership, she has gained many valuable traits that she will bring to her new role at Play for Peace: wisdom, compassion, integrity, and a commitment to justice and support for the interfaith community that exists within Play for Peace.
She is also dedicated to lifelong learning, which is one of the main things that drew her to Play for Peace. It is also the reason she connected with the organization in the first place. Years ago, Craig Dobkin, one of the cofounders of Play for Peace, served as Dr. McKinney’s mentor in experiential education, and as part of this work she traveled to Israel as a Play for Peace volunteer. Since then, she has utilized experiential education in her own work as a professor and is excited to gain more exposure to it through her role as a board member.
“Play for Peace is its own experiential community,” she said. “I want to travel to another country and see how Play for Peace works there. Being on the board may open windows of opportunity for new learning.”
We are excited about Dr. McKinney’s new role at Play for Peace and look forward to gaining her unique perspective as a board member, as well as providing her with many opportunities to learn and grow through our global peace building efforts.
"Karen is so gifted in what she does,” said Dobkin. “She is a champion of social justice. We're lucky to have her on our team."
