MISSION: WORLD

Rev. Bonnie Jensen receives honorary doctorate

Commencement, Saturday, 10:30 a.m.

Dana College honored the Rev. Bonnie Jensen by presenting her with an honorary doctorate of divinity at Commencement.

Jensen, who currently serves as executive director for the Division for Global Mission of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) from its churchwide offices in Chicago, Ill., was given the honor for her decades of work helping the unfortunate around the world.

“Her outstanding leadership to her national church and to Christian causes, agencies and institutions worldwide, and her clear voice of advocacy for women, children, minorities, the poor and neglected has brought honor to Dana College and all who know her,” said Dr. Myrvin Christopherson, president.

Jensen also was the guest speaker at the Baccalaureate Service, held May 23.

As executive director of the Division for Global Mission, Jensen oversees a $29-million program operating in approximately 70 countries, with 300 missionaries and volunteers, and 47 Chicago-based staff. Under Jensen’s leadership, the division developed a model that held to deepen and expand the ELCA’s relationship and cooperation with more than 60 Lutheran churches worldwide. During her tenure, Jensen has diversified the ethnic makeup of the division’s staff by adding significant numbers of people with Latino, Arab, African and Asian backgrounds.

Jensen, originally from Royal, Iowa, is a 1970 graduate of Dana and a 1980 graduate of Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. Before her current appointment, she served in the same division as director for planning and evaluation and program director for Papua New Guinea and the South Pacific, and director for global mission education.

She has participated in numerous international church consultations and conferences, and served on the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Advisory Committee for Women in Church and the LWF Society and the Project Committee representing North America, and was an advisor to the LWF Assembly in Winnipeg, Canada. She is also a member of the board of Lutheran World Relief. From 1962 to 1965, she served with her husband, Dr. Richard A. Jensen, as missionaries in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She was ordained a pastor of the ELCA in 1993.