Pathways for Tomorrow

The 2025 Pathways for Tomorrow Coordination Program Gathering

The 2025 Pathways Coordination Program Gathering brought together nearly 350 leaders from more than 100 theological institutions in Indianapolis for a pivotal convening hosted by The Association of Theological Schools and the In Trust Center, with support from Lilly Endowment Inc.

As many Pathways for Tomorrow projects reach maturity, participants focused on sustaining impact, aligning initiatives with institutional priorities, and navigating leadership transitions. Through collaborative workshops, peer learning, and strategic dialogue, the gathering highlighted a shared commitment to innovation, mission vitality, and the future of theological education.

View some video highlights from the Welcome Session below. If you would like to see more, visit the Gathering showcase on our Vimeo channel.

Explore the current Pathways Grant Directory to easily find and download project details using filtered searches.

Overview of the Initiative

In January 2021, Lilly Endowment Inc. launched its three-phase Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative designed to "help theological schools strengthen and sustain their capacities to prepare and support pastoral leaders for Christian churches." Phase One consisted of nine-month planning grants of up to $50,000 to 234 ATS member schools to help them explore challenges and opportunities they wished to pursue.

Phase Two of the Pathways Initiative was launched in January 2022, consisting of five-year grants of up to $1 million awarded to 84 ATS member schools to help them prioritize and respond to their most pressing challenges as they work to prepare pastoral leaders for Christian congregations both now and into the future. In June 2022, the Endowment approved grants to 21 additional ATS schools for Phase Two.

In the competitive, final phase of the Pathways Initiative, the Endowment approved five-year, multimillion-dollar grants to 16 ATS member schools in June 2022 and in September 2022. These grants are to fund large-scale, collaborative projects among Phase Three schools, along with their partners, to strengthen their capacities to prepare and support pastors and lay ministers as well as to work toward offering sustainable models or strategies that—if effective—could be adopted by other schools.

In November 2024, Lilly Endowment Inc. announced another round of new funding for the Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative. Learn more about what the Endowment is offering. Read more about the Coordination Program's involvement. Schools with Phase 1 planning grants can use this link to submit their final grant report.

Read more about the Endowment's Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative.

The ATS Coordination Program

In December 2021, ATS received a five-year grant from the Endowment to oversee the coordination program for Phase Two of the Endowment's Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative. In September 2022, the Endowment awarded ATS a five-year supplemental grant to further assist the Phase Two expansion to 105 schools, to support the Phase Three partnerships, to extend resource programming for Phase Two and Phase Three schools, and to increase funding to make learnings from Pathways grantees available to the wider ATS membership.

The coordination program will provide resources, research, support, and a learning community for the grantees focused on innovation, collaboration, and adaptive learning. Activities will include:

Webinars and team gatherings aimed at strengthening grantees’ projects
Peer learning communities centered on various challenges and opportunities being addressed by the grantees
Annual research projects to support the work of the grantees
Mentors and coaches for cohorts of senior leaders as they lead their organizations through adaptive change
Support for project leaders—including the onboarding of new personnel
An advisory committee to aid in the design of peer groups and research projects
A virtual resource center to make learning and research available among ATS, its member schools, collaborating organizations, and theological education researchers

ATS will be collaborating with the In Trust Center for Theological Schools, which also received a grant to support the coordination work.

• Pathways for Tomorrow Advisory Committee
• Learn more about the schools, partners, and projects comprising Phase 3

Community Spaces for Pathways Grantees

Pathways Grant Directory — use filtered searches to find specific projects
Pathways Canvas Portal — find resources to support your grant
Engage ATS Pathways for Tomorrow Community — connect and share resources with other grantees

Watch recent Pathways webinar recordings

Jo Ann Deasy

412-788-6505, ext. 248
deasy@ats.edu

Jo Ann Deasy joined the ATS staff in June 2014, and she currently serves as the director of institutional initiatives. Her responsibilities include oversight of the Pathways for Tomorrow Coordination Program and the Organizational and Educational Models in Theological Education Project. She previously served as manager of the Economic Challenges Facing Future Ministers Initiative Coordination Program.

Deasy also serves on the research team at ATS. Before shifting her focus to initiatives in 2022, she also oversaw the management, collection, and interpretation of data from the Entering Student, Graduating Student, and Alum Questionnaires for ATS. Her quantitative research focuses on the vocational trajectories of graduate theological students including multi-vocational ministry and the graduate workforce as well as on educational debt in ATS member schools. Qualitative projects have included Black student debt, assessing spiritual and personal formation, and women in leadership in theological education.

Deasy served for seven years as the dean of students and community life at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago. An ordained pastor in the Evangelical Covenant Church, she has also served on staff at congregations in Duluth, Minnesota, and Mercer Island, Washington, and came to ATS from Sojourner Covenant Church in Evanston, Illinois, where she served as lead pastor for four years.

Deasy graduated from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary with a PhD in congregational studies with an emphasis in congregational leadership and contextual theologies.

Christopher M. The

412-788-6505, ext. 253

the@ats.edu

Christopher M. The (pronounced ‘tay’) equips ATS member schools to improve and enhance their educational missions by gathering, analyzing, and disseminating insights from student data. As director of student research and initiative management, he also oversees the virtual infrastructure for ATS grant-funded initiatives and liaises with coordination program personnel for the Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative of the Lilly Endowment Inc. He came to ATS in 2017, having served multivocational roles in student services (Fuller Theological Seminary, Azusa Pacific University) and student/young adult ministry at an Indonesian American congregation in the American Baptist tradition. Prior to 2022, he served the ATS Commission on Accrediting as director of commission information services.

A former English Ministry pastor at two Asian American churches in Southern California, The was raised in a Chinese-Indonesian immigrant congregation in the Reformed tradition and later ordained to ministry by a Chinese/Taiwanese church in the Pentecostal tradition. A selected participant in the 2014 Summit for Future Theological Educators of Color and Summit on Christian Leadership (Forum for Theological Exploration), he was named a 2016 fellow of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty (BJC) and represents the Religious Liberty Council on the BJC board of directors. He has published refereed articles and contributed to book chapters on resourcing immigrant churches for civic engagement, leveraging evaluative principles for character formation in theological education, understanding the unique mentorship needs of doctoral students of color, and surveying the placement of diasporic Indonesian communities among world Christianities. His dissertation involved qualitative research on the congregational formation of Indonesian American emerging adults at two Los Angeles-area churches.

A co-editor and contributing author for the anthology Kristianitas-Kristianitas di Asia Tenggara (Christianities in Southeast Asia, 2022), The also serves on the editorial board for the SINTA-accredited Indonesian Journal of Theology. He holds BA (music) and MA (religion) degrees from Azusa Pacific University, and MDiv and PhD (theology) degrees from Fuller Theological Seminary.

Monica Laughery

412-788-6505, ext. 224

laughery@ats.edu

Monica Laughery joined ATS in October 2019, and she serves as program coordinator for initiatives, research, and faculty development. She is responsible for managing the program activities associated with conferences and events for faculty and administrators. In addition, she helps to administer research and educational initiatives for the programs and services department.

Prior to ATS, Laughery was the office manager at Union Church of Robinson Township in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania.

Sam Kulikowski

412-788-6505, ext. 269

kulikowski@ats.edu

Sam Kulikowski serves as program assistant for initiatives at The Association of Theological Schools. She works with the Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative team to facilitate a community for the grantees focused on innovation, collaboration, and adaptive learning. In her role, she focuses on communication with grantees, event planning, and resource development.

Kulikowski is an experienced administrative professional who has provided project management, events management, and resource creation in a higher education setting. Most recently, she was employed by Carnegie Mellon University. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Seton Hill University.

Featured Resources:

Collaboration, context, and change: Pathways continues to grow

Recipients named for latest Pathways for Tomorrow grants

Mission, Models, and Money: An Empirical Analysis of Graduate Theological Education - new ATS research available in this open-access Christian Higher Education article

Reimagining the Role of Graduate Theological Education in Clergy Formation: Enjoy open access to this article by ATS professionals

Visit the ATS Resource Library for materials on managing grants, equipping leaders for change, and more.

Read about the economic state of theological education and how some ATS schools have responded

This webinar features highlights from a commissioned research paper on a recent economics history of higher education.

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