Lamont Anthony Wells
Rev., Executive Director, Network of ELCA (Lutheran) Colleges and Universities (NECU)
Network of ELCA Colleges and Universities
-
Editorial
From the Publisher & Editor
Colleen Windham-Hughes, Lamont Anthony Wells
No. 63 · Spring 2026
6 min audio
Wells and Windham-Hughes frame vocation as “ground game” — the practical, public living-out of faith through civic engagement — and introduce the issue’s focus on how Lutheran higher education equips students to repair the world.
-
Editorial
From the Publisher
Lamont Anthony Wells
No. 62 · Fall 2025
Wells frames the issue as a record of the 2025 VLHE Conference at Augsburg under the theme “Ethical Leadership in a Changing World,” arguing that vocation is never solitary but a collective, public witness of ethical formation, theology and care, flourishing and belonging, and leadership rooted in God’s grace.
-
Article
Fostering Moral Imagination and Inclusivity: The Role of Ethical Leadership in ELCA Colleges and Universities Amid Societal Challenges
Lamont Anthony Wells
No. 62 · Fall 2025
Wells argues that “moral imagination” — the capacity to envision ethical alternatives, empathize across difference, and respond creatively to injustice — is the heart of ethical leadership in NECU institutions, and that anchoring leadership in this principle positions Lutheran higher education to cultivate socially responsible citizens.
-
Editorial
From the Publisher
Lamont Anthony Wells
No. 61 · Spring 2025
Wells introduces So That All May Belong: Lutheran Roots for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice as a theological and institutional articulation of NECU’s commitments, and previews four accompanying essays that frame vocation as a societal responsibility rooted in justice and not solely an individual pursuit.
-
Editorial
From the Publisher: Reflections on the 2024 Vocational Leaders in Higher Education Conference
Lamont Anthony Wells
No. 60 · Fall 2024
Wells reflects on the 2024 VLHE Conference theme — “Educational Access: Lutheran Roots, Contemporary Practices” — tracing today’s commitment to inclusivity back to Martin Luther’s radical 16th-century insistence that both boys and girls be educated, and previews NECU’s expanded engagement of student leaders alongside faculty and administrators.
-
Editorial
From the Publisher: Navigating Affirmative Action, DEI Policies, and Lutheran Vocational Identity
Lamont Anthony Wells
No. 59 · Spring 2024
Wells surveys the converging pressures on NECU institutions — the unsettled landscape of affirmative action, political and academic scrutiny of DEI work, and the preservation of distinctively Lutheran vocational identity — and previews how the issue draws on affirmative practices, sociological viewpoints, and theological responses to navigate a path forward.
-
Editorial
Maintaining Our Lutheran Identity: A Source of Strength
Lamont Anthony Wells
No. 58 · Fall 2023
Wells reflects on the well-being of staff, faculty, and administration in Lutheran higher education across four pillars — rest, creativity and innovation, religious diversity and pluralism, and the preservation of Lutheran identity — and addresses the painful reality of Finlandia University’s closure as a reminder of the network’s shared mission.
-
Editorial
From the Publisher: Introduction and Invitation
Lamont Anthony Wells
No. 57 · Spring 2023
Wells introduces himself as the new Executive Director of NECU, succeeding Rev. Dr. Mark Wilhelm, and frames this Spring issue as a passionate response to the crises facing higher education amid threats to academic freedom and the well-being of educators.
-
Vocation Ground Game: Equipping for Civic Engagement
No. 63 · Spring 2026
Vocation is ground game — what we live out each day in what we do and how we live with others. This issue explores how Lutheran higher education equips students for civic engagement as a practical, public expression of faith and neighbor-love.Featuring a first-person reflection on treaty partnership alongside essays from political scientists at NECU and peer faith-affiliated institutions who gathered at Texas Lutheran University for the Civic Engagement and Faith Perspectives conference in Fall 2025.
-
Vocation: Ethical Leadership
No. 62 · Fall 2025
Drawing from the 2025 Vocation of Lutheran Higher Education Conference at Augsburg University, this issue explores what it means to lead ethically in a changing world. Articles range from Walter Earl Fluker’s keynote call to “wake up running” for democratic futures to reflections on classroom pedagogy, cradle-to-career partnerships, moral imagination, and the very Lutheran practice of holding life and death together.
-
So That All May Belong: Lutheran Roots for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice
No. 61 · Spring 2025
Anchored by the NECU statement So That All May Belong: Lutheran Roots for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice, this issue presents the full DEIJ document along with an abridged version and a companion list of scriptures that inspired its drafting. Four accompanying essays explore vocation at full stretch, the dignity of work through Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, ministry in the ecotones of faith, and the miracle of mission lived out within real-world limitations.
-
Vocation: Educational Access — Lutheran Roots, Contemporary Practices
No. 60 · Fall 2024
The 2024 Vocational Leaders in Higher Education (VLHE) Conference theme — “Educational Access: Lutheran Roots, Contemporary Practices” — anchors this issue. Conference keynotes and panels reflect on Martin Luther’s 16th-century call to educate both boys and girls and trace its contemporary implications for trustworthy leadership, neighbor justice, paradox, biblical “access,” baptismal affirmation, and belonging in Lutheran higher education.
-
Vocation as Action in the Affirmative
No. 59 · Spring 2024
This issue gathers reflections on vocation as action in the affirmative — from Susquehanna University’s formation of a new Division for Access, Equity & Belonging and a conversation about recruiting diverse students at Augustana to Mark Ellingsen’s case for what the Lutheran Two-Kingdom Ethic entails for affirmative action, Ken Flores on the slow work of transformation, a team essay on the critical role of Lutheran higher education in the age of AI, a feature on the team cultures behind two NCAA Division III national soccer championships, and a process from Augsburg’s Riverside Innovation Hub for dreaming big within and beyond our limitations.
-
So That We, Too, May Flourish
No. 58 · Fall 2023
Drawn from the 2023 Vocation of Lutheran Higher Education Conference theme — “Vocation and the Flourishing of Educators” — this issue gives voice to the tiredness, longing, and hope of staff, faculty, and administrators in NECU institutions. Contributors reframe vocation in an age of burnout, propose Lutheran “third-way” values for measuring institutional success, lift up staff governance and staff flourishing, introduce the Vocare spiritual practice, and witness to the role of lament, decolonizing conversation, and deep sadness in vocations we don’t choose.
-
Vocation [in] Disruption
No. 57 · Spring 2023
Even broken, we are called. Amidst disruption, there is still vocation. Yet vocation looks different in disruption — and for some of us, our vocation has been or has become disruptive, calling out systemic injustice and widespread harm.This issue is devoted to all who are living and working amidst disruptions of various kinds, searching for anchors of meaning and purpose in shifting circumstances. It includes a study guide for So That All May Flourish, a new book on Lutheran higher education, and several invited pieces on reproductive rights in the post-Dobbs era.