Since joining the ATS staff in 1999, Chris A. Meinzer, senior director and COO for The Association of Theological Schools (ATS), has provided oversight of the financial and business affairs of both ATS and the Commission on Accrediting (COA). Meinzer is a CPA with nearly 40 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, who also has spent much of his life in the church as a learner, teacher, preacher, elder, and interim pastor. His work at ATS has been a wonderful intersection of both commitments.
Through his analysis of the data collected annually from the membership, Meinzer has gained significant understanding of the member schools and the broader landscape of graduate theological education. He has done extensive analysis and research of this data and presented his findings in a variety of settings to administrators, faculty, boards of theological schools as well as denominational representatives and other interested parties.
Meinzer has provided counsel to ATS member schools on issues of finances, organizational planning, and strategic thinking. He has shared his conceptual framework of Mission, Models, and Money with many theological schools, which has assisted them in thinking about their current and future realities and possibilities. Through discussions with theological schools and their leadership, he has encouraged reflection on intergenerational stewardship, Core WHY, and the impact on academics and economics. He has designed and implemented the ATS Strategic Information Report and the ATS Financial Viability Tool, useful strategic tools that provide ATS member schools with peer and industry data on a variety of market fundamentals.
Meinzer holds a Master of Divinity degree from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and an accounting degree from The Pennsylvania State University. He currently lives in Colorado with his wife, Roberta, and where he gets to spend quality hiking time with their three adult children and their spouses.
