Food ED collaborates with communities and schools to construct and sustain edible education sites hosting programs on ecosystem stewardship, healthy living, and environmental innovation and entrepreneurship.

• Converted one-fifth of an acre at house to vegetable beds, a fruit orchard with 27 trees, and native plants.• Successfully grow up to 200 lbs. of produce a month at harvest’s peak.• Direct composting and gardening workshops within the local community.• Hosts students for class at home as well as social gatherings. • Raises chickens in backyard. • Part of the local community produce exchange where neighbors bring their excess produce to trade and share it for free.

• Oversee Monrovia's first community garden on the corner of Colorado and Magnolia. Program includes 21 raised beds for rent by Monrovians and 8 beds for community education purposes. • Develop and run community garden learning program including workshops on vegetable planting, cooking, tree care, pest management, and more!• Collaborate with community partners such as LA Compost, CA Rare Fruit Tree Growers, Master Gardeners, and City of Monrovia for workshops and city events. • Shepherd a dynamic team of community volunteers on our Garden Leadership Team • Manage all aspects of garden including planting schedule, irrigation, pest control, and native plants

• Oversee campus garden and student staff• Manage all aspects of garden including planting schedule, irrigation, pest control, and native plants• Collaborate with on campus academic and administrative partners• Fundraise and write grants for projects

• Courses Taught: RLTH100, RLTH381• Created an undergraduate course on religious engagement, identity development, and vocational calling.• Developed Religion and Food course, teaching in outdoor classroom and engaging in flipped pedagogy.• Utilize Christian and interfaith resources to educate and engage students from various backgrounds.• Teach weekly using creative pedagogical techniques on spiritual formation, Christian church history, religious history, practical theology, nonviolent communication, feminist and liberation theology.• Instruct on research methods, bias, authority, and evaluation using in class workshops, one-on-one coaching, and online modules.

• Research Fellow for the Practicing Democracy Project, a collaboration between the Center for Spirituality and Practice and Fetzer Institute.• Investigating how spiritual practice can heal divisions in the US and move people from fear and anger to compassionate engagement.• Construct workshops for the World Parliament of Religions, among other conferences, on loving enemies, apathy to action, and more, using spiritual formation tools and interactive elements.• Design resources for multiple constituencies using spiritual formation resources to guide community engagement and participant training.

• Spearheading the Green Seminary certification process for CST. • Leading the process to secure a $50,000+ grant for faith community partnerships, community gardens, and ecojustice workshops.• Producing materials to bring awareness to spiritual formation issues in matters of agriculture, community resilience, climate change, and sustainability. • Forming partnerships with other universities, faith communities, and other CST research centers to host conferences for faith leaders, activists, and scholars from around the world.

• Study the praxis of practical theology, spiritual formation, and justice alongside ecology especially related to marginalized voices • Investigating nonviolent communication and community resilience • Specializing in narrative pedagogy and qualitative research methods• Dissertation committee: Rosemary Radford Ruether, Philip Clayton, Frank Rogers, Jr., and Rose Hayden-Smith• Dissertation: Seeds of Resurrection: A Model of Agricultural Spirituality Rooted in the Narratives of Female-Run Faith-Based Farms in the US• Research projects (to-date):➢ Unearthing Hope and Advocacy: How Faith Institutions and Farms Can Find Partnership. (Paper and workshop, National Women in Sustainable Agriculture Conference, Portland, December 2016.)➢ The Gift of Subjectivity: Narrative Inquiry and Participant Action Research with Women-Run Faith-based Farms in the United States (Paper, American Academy of Religion Annual Conference, San Antonio, November 2016.)➢ Neighborhood Praxis: Bringing Ecological Transformation Home (Headlining speaker Ecology of Community: Process, Identity, and Transformation, Center for Process Studies, October 2015)➢ Women's voices in eco-spirituality outside of the United States. ➢ History of transformational and incarnational Christian spirituality figures especially Hildegard, Aquinas, Teilhard de Chardin, and Celtic spirituality.➢ Embodying Ecofeminism: Putting theory into practice (Paper, Just Sustainability: Hope for the Commons, Seattle University, August 2014)➢ Comprehensive literature review of ecological and sustainability contributions in the field of Practical Theology. (Paper, American Academy of Religion Western Conference, Santa Clara University, March 2015) ➢ Nonviolent communication relating to interpersonal relationship and systems of power. ➢ Resilience of the emerging grassroots organic, urban, and sustainable farming trends. ➢ Empowering communities with narrative oral history and transformational social compassion.

• Courses taught: Leadership 201 (Foundations of Leadership)Leadership 333 (Influence and Impact)Leadership 502 (Graduate - Foundations of Christian Leadership)Leadership 534 (Graduate - Leader as Agent of Change)• Craft and teach an upper division course on change development and theory incorporating the Social Change Model, community partnerships, and self-identity curriculum as part of the Leadership Minor core courses. • Formulate the Foundations of Leadership course curriculum incorporating leadership theory, identity development, spiritual formation and vocational aptitude. • Develop a graduate course on personal and organization change for the Master of Arts in Leadership program, focusing on change models, theories, and applications both for the individual and his or her organizational cultures. • Recruited to co-teach with the Dean of the School of Education for a Master’s level Christian formation course, introducing Benedictine ways of living and spiritual formation exercises.• Teach weekly using dynamic group work and individual reflection exercises.• Construct an environment in which students from multiple classes, majors and backgrounds can thrive and interact. • Mentor graduate student teachers’ assistants in the process of facilitating and leading.

• Courses taught: Global Studies 425 (Integration and Formation)• Facilitate the Integration and Formation Course for students returning from their six month intensive global learning terms.• Provide academic reflection on the liminal stage the students face upon reentry. • Guide students in formulating a vocabulary, professional portfolios, and vocational coaching which assist them in debriefing their experiences.

• Courses taught: English 110 (Freshman Writing Seminar)• Established a themed composition class revolving around the topic of spiritual formation and leadership, introducing students to spiritual writers and disciplines.• Formulated another themed composition class investigating the ideas of researching the intersections food, faith, and writing.• Instruct first year writing courses introducing argument, reasoning, analysis and critical thinking skills necessary for higher education.• Lecture weekly using varying teaching techniques including intensive workshops, one-on-one coaching, and freewriting.

• Coordinated primary curriculum for student identity development using Christian spiritual formation and disciplines in a bi-monthly course for student staff of 24. • Facilitated creative education sessions revolving around issues of reconciliation of self, God, and others, and Christian community development for biannual staff development retreats. • Supervised graduate and undergraduate students working with models of sustainable and spiritual community development. • Managed interdisciplinary programs including social justice dinner forums, healthy living week, senior citizens outreach, and faculty partnerships. • Operated on dynamic team interfacing with people from different belief systems, cultures and work environments.

• Published A Beautiful Mess: A Perfectionist’s Journey Through Self-Care (Conversant Media 2010); 65,000+ word creative non-fiction book incorporating the author’s story of discovering spiritual formation as a means of healing from the culture’s preaching of perfectionism. • Invited to speak and lead retreats at numerous organizations, churches and conferences all over the country. Highlights include: Interfaith Ministries of Houston, Texas; Church Women United; National Recovery Conference; Azusa Pacific University chapel; World Vision International chapel; Great Lakes Association of College and University Housing Officers; Christian College Leadership Conference, and MOPS. • Managed and edited two websites: abeautifulmess.org, which hosted writers and creatives each week focusing on the theme of recovering from perfectionism, and kristinritzau.com, personal and professional spiritual direction resource website and blog.• Created and led over eight 3-day retreats and dozens of 1-day workshops revolving around spiritual formation and disciplines, perfection and healthy adult development both Christian and interfaith based.