Women’s Division chief
named seminary dean

United Methodist News Service
The chief executive of the United Methodist mission board’s Women’s Division has been named dean of Candler School of Theology at Emory University, Atlanta.
Jan Love, 53, is to replace the Rev. Russ Richey at the UM-related school Jan. 1. She will be the first woman to serve as dean.
Since Aug. 1, 2004, Love, a laywoman, has been Women’s Division chief executive at the General Board of Global Ministries in New York City. Before that she had held academic positions and been an active United Methodist representative in the Christian ecumenical movement.
“Being head of the Women’s Division has been one of the great jobs of my life,” Love said. “I leave very reluctantly and am deeply honored I have this remarkable choice of two positions of church leadership offered to me.”
As dean of Candler, she said she would lead “a great school of theology” as well as “hold a more healthy balance between my personal life and my career because I can reunite my household.”
Love said her husband, Peter Sederberg, who has been a dean at the University of South Carolina, would be moving to Atlanta. She also has a daughter, Rachel, 18, and an adult son, Per.
Emory University announced Love’s selection May 10, three days after the United Methodist Women’s Assembly closed in Anaheim, Calif. The Women’s Division sponsored the event.
Emory President James Wagner called Love “the right person at the right time” to lead Candler.
“The school is poised to be a world leader in theological education and religious studies, a molder of the church’s social conscience, and an agent of reconciliation and change as it serves The United Methodist Church in particular as well as the broader church in the world,” Wagner said.
Emory Provost Earl Lewis noted Love’s scholarly achievement, ecumenical and international experience and administrative expertise. He said she would “help Candler achieve its potential of being recognized as the premier school of theology in the country.”
Before leaving the Women’s Division, Love expects to complete a plan of reorganization and realignment approved by the division’s board of directors in early April.
“The implementation of that plan will begin already this summer,” she said.
The plan is designed to address “a long-standing pattern of overspending” and will include a spending reduction of about $5.5 million for 2007.
The Rev. R. Randy Day, chief executive, General Board of Global Ministries, expressed thanks for Love’s leadership to both the Women’s Division and the agency as a whole.
“Her global perspectives and commitment to Christian mission have enriched us all,” he said. “We wish her well as she returns to an academic community.”
Love, who earned a master’s degree and doctorate in political science and international relations from The Ohio State University, began her academic career as an instructor at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, from 1980 to 1982.
She moved to the University of South Carolina at Columbia, where her positions in the Department of Government and International Studies included visiting assistant professor (1982-86), assistant professor (1986-91), associate professor (1991-2001) and graduate director of international studies (1993-98). From 2001 to 2004, she served as associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies as well.
Love’s father, the Rev. James Neal Love, is a graduate of Emory. Her experience as a teenager with the church, the Women’s Division and the General Board of Global Ministries led to a longtime involvement with the World Council of Churches, where she served on the council’s central committee from 1975 to 1998. She also was an elected director of the General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns from 2000 to 2004.
She was recognized by the United Methodist Council of Bishops for her “exceptional leadership in ecumenical arenas” during the 2000 General Conference in Cleveland.