A Season of Transition

The Board received a presentation from Onuka Ibe of La Piana consulting regarding the current progress with strategic planning. The Board identified several screening questions to help assess priorities and has started to bring programmatic considerations to those questions.  Please be on the lookout for the second survey.  Your continued input is imperative as we strategically plan ACPE’s future work.  The Board hopes to complete this work by the end of March 2023.

In early November, the Board of Directors received the resignation of ACPE Executive Director, Trace Haythorn, effective December 31, 2022. The Board also recruited ACPE Retired Educator Robin Brown-Haithco to serve as Interim Executive Director, effective January 1, 2023. Robin served in a similar capacity before Trace joined ACPE in 2013.  

For the past decade, Trace has provided leadership in the national office, and he has built a strong and competent team to provide the type of services we need from a national staff. Our organization is led by over 400 educators and psychotherapists who volunteer their time on commissions and committees to do the organization's work. That work needs support, and Trace has done a great job discerning how best to provide the services needed to move ACPE’s efforts along.

Trace has also provided a strong presence for ACPE throughout the larger ecosystem of spiritual care and education.  ACPE does not exist in a vacuum, and spiritual care’s sphere of influence has broadened.  Trace has played a role in that effort. In 2016 as the Transforming Chaplaincy Templeton Grant was ending, Wendy Cadge and Trace saw a need that was opening up for chaplains in a variety of contexts.  After studying and discerning the needs, they founded the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab in 2018.  

Before joining ACPE, Trace worked in the field of theological education.  He continued that connection during his tenure as executive director.  Wendy Cadge, Shelly Rambo, and Trace developed a new program unit within the American Academy of Religion called “Innovations in Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care.”  The work aligned with the academy’s emphasis on advancing public theology and has kept ACPE’s presence in this national conversation.

During Trace’s tenure at ACPE, our organization's international relationships have developed additional reciprocity agreements with other countries.  Trace has served with the George Washington Institute for Spirituality and Religion, which has worked to develop professional spiritual care within hospitals and other healthcare settings across the globe.  In 2021, Trace was awarded the George Washington Institute’s annual award for his role in advancing spiritual care.

A large part of Trace’s ongoing legacy is the staff he has built and the expertise they bring to serve ACPE.  Since Trace’s arrival to ACPE, one staff member was supported in completing their doctoral degree, two staff members were supported in completing their master’s degrees, two staff members achieved recognition as Certified Association Executives, one achieved their Certified Fundraising Professional recognition, and several staff members completed leadership certificates through Emory University and/or the Georgia Center for Nonprofits.   As an education association, it is vital to invest in the ongoing education and development of its employees.  

The list of Trace’s contributions is long.  This column cannot hold all the ways he has served ACPE, the profession of spiritual care and education, and the field of theological education. During his tenure, Trace sought to coalesce the field of spiritual care and education in a way that broadens the profession’s impact and scope of healing.  That work will continue.

ACPE is strong organizationally, strategically, and financially.  2023 will be a year to assess, search for, and find an executive director that will help support our work during the next decade of ACPE’s life.  This includes looking at both what we need internally and externally as we seek to be a relevant, vibrant presence in the field of spiritual care and education.    

During the leadership meeting, the ACPE Board announced that Robin Brown-Haithco accepted the interim executive director role at ACPE.  The ACPE Board searched for a leader that could care for the staff and continue to provide experienced leadership through the strategic planning process and beyond.  Robin was president of the association during our last interim period before Trace was hired, and she was our first choice.    We are grateful that she graciously accepted the invitation to help lead us during this time. 

Robin graciously shared these words with all of us:

When Shawn reached out a couple of weeks ago inviting me to a Zoom conversation, I never expected to be invited to consider being the Interim Executive Director of ACPE.  For those of you who know me, I don't usually say "yes" to anything without taking the time to seek guidance through prayer and discernment.  When I met with Shawn, Jonathan, and Cecelia at the leadership meetings here in Atlanta, they began and ended our time together with prayer.  I left the meeting feeling honored to be invited to serve the Association during this time of transition. 

After further prayer and discussion with Miriam, I emailed Shawn to accept the IED position.  I come to this position with humility and gratitude, experience as a former President of ACPE, a former chair of Professional Ethics, ten years as Director of Chaplaincy and CPE at Grady Health System, and the last 18 years of my vocational life as Director of Spiritual Health and Staff Support at Emory University Hospital.  I have a pastor's heart and lead with passion, strength, and hope.

I am the mother of one son, Jai Haithco, II; and the grandmother to a beautiful granddaughter, Aubree, who is eight months old.   I am blessed to have a partner in Miriam who supports me, challenges me, and invites me to continue to grow and claim my spiritual gifts.  Miriam and I adopted two feral cats in 2012, Domino (lovingly called Dommie) and Boots (lovingly known as Bootsie).  A week ago, we lost our beloved Boots, and our hearts are grieving his loss.  So, as I live in the transition in my own life, I come with the full knowledge of the importance of honoring the emotions and feelings that accompany our transitions while at the same time moving forward with doing the work needed at this time in the Association as we seek to find a qualified person to serve as our next Executive Director.  

I invite each of you to join us in this work and I am grateful to be journeying with you during this time.  Blessings in this holiday season!!

Robin 

Thank you for taking the time to read this article and for keeping updated on what’s going on in the organization.  I realize you are taking the time away from important personal and professional work to do so.  I do wish for you a healthy and blessed holiday season this month.  

Life is so paradoxical.  We live surrounded by the pain of war, homelessness, hunger, division, illness, and, in many ways, a fractured society and world.  We also live with the power to heal a fractured world, one relationship at a time.  Our educational work rests on the reality that transformation is possible.  We possess the capacity for healing and connection.  I hope for you and yours time to soak in the love that surrounds you.  I am grateful for the work of an association that facilitates the spiritual work of healing.

Holiday Blessings,