Duke Divinity School’s Doctor of Theology (Th.D.) program has received a $15,000 grant from the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion to better prepare students for teaching.

Susan Eastman, director of the Th.D. program and associate professor of the practice of Bible and Christian formation at the Divinity School, applied for the grant and will administer a “Teaching Initiative Gathering” at Duke on March 8-9, 2014. Nine Th.D. alumni who are currently teaching will discuss how the program prepared them and their experiences so far as professors. The meeting will be coordinated by the Th.D. program and facilitated by consultants from the Wabash Center.

"We are very pleased to receive this generous grant,” Eastman said. “It will provide a valuable opportunity for conversation with and among our alums, which in turn will give us feedback for strengthening the Th.D. in the area of teacher preparation."

The grant is part of the Wabash Center's Graduate Program Teaching Initiative, which was launched in 2010 to assess how well doctoral programs prepare their Ph.D. and Th.D. students to teach. The center provides grants to selected doctoral programs that demonstrate a willingness to assess their program.

Funded by Lilly Endowment Inc., the Wabash Center was established in 1995 to strengthen North American theological education. The center hosts programs at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Ind., plans and support projects elsewhere, and grants funds to faculty members and institutions to support initiatives that promise to improve teaching and learning.