We are excited that Paths to Understanding is the first Community Fellow with the Seattle University’s Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement for 2024-2025 school year. At PTU’s December Board meeting the Board approved with great excitement this partnership.
The Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement (CEIE) at Seattle University is committed to working alongside a promising Community Fellow each academic year. This year we are thrilled to welcome Paths to Understanding (PTU), with its dedication to values-based interfaith bridgebuilding! For instance, PTU’s invitation to CEIE as partners in the Potluck Project is a successful effort to convene local leaders across partisan and religious lines in the United States, to become trusted allies. We support PTU, its leadership, and its mission, and we are delighted PTU is our 2024-25 Community Fellow!
The Rev. Dr. Michael Trice, Founding Director of the Center said
The partnership in many ways began with relationships and interactions over many years. In January of 2024, we began work to develop the Potluck Project toolkit together. Both organizations can each apply our strengths in partnership to achieve more than we could alone.
This is an official description of the partnership:
Community Fellow: This is an annual relationship from July 1 to June 30 each academic year. The terms of the relationship are determined by executive leadership, are intended to be complementary, and to endure beyond the year. In short, the year is intended to accelerate the relationship in strategic and programmatic ways with articulated outcomes, as noted below. Outcomes are mutually advantageous in complementarity and assist levels of leadership and programmatic development and support. In the mid-term, these fellows will grow into a network of active leadership and organizations rather than “retired relationships,” so that the network is sinewed in strategic, organizational, and programmatic ways year-on-year.
Our Executive Director, The Rev. Terry Kyllo and Michael Trice are in regular communication. The staff are also in constant communication and our staff meet for every three months for consultation, planning, and evaluation.