This year, Dickinson welcomes a new director of the Center for Spirituality & Social Justice (CSSJ), Rev. Jessica Chapman Lap
Prior to joining Dickinson, Chapman Lape worked as a chaplain and minister while acting as an advocate for social justice, particularly reproductive justice. She also was an assistant professor and director of an interreligious chaplaincy program at United Theological Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota.
“I’ve always had these dual roles,” she says, and being the director of the CSSJ will allow her to combine these passions while continuing to work in higher education.
Chapman Lape’s journey started with her mother’s diagnosis of multiple sclerosis 20 years ago. She would often attend health fairs with her mother, and it was through those experiences, where she saw her mother advocating for African-American women diagnosed with chronic conditions, that Chapman Lape was inspired to get her degree in community health education. “I thought a health education was just really, really important, especially for the Black community,” she says.
While getting her degree in health education, she also felt called to ministry. By blending together health education and ministry, she found chaplaincy, a role through which a person provides emotional and spiritual care to people outside of the church.“Chaplaincy was a way to kind of have a holistic view of caring for people, to really integrate their whole selves,” she says.
A major focus in Chapman Lape’s advocacy has been reproductive justice, and she has worked as a doula in the past. The work is important to her because “I have often seen it as a way for folks to advocate for themselves, for their own decision, for them to have a voice, and have a space to express themselves fully.”
Although Chapman Lape is from California, her family is from central Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh, so being at Dickinson has particular significance for her. “Not only am I excited just to be here, to be a part of the Dickinson community,” she says, “but it feels like a coming home for me.”
Another goal Chapman Lape has for the CSSJ is to increase accessibility to the student body. “I would love to talk with anyone,” she says. “My door is always open.” She hopes to create a space where students can feel free to “come and explore their thoughts, their feelings, their questions, their anger, their excitement, their joy.”
