James (Jim) Burkee is the 15th President of Avila University. Burkee served as Vice President for Strategic Initiatives at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in New York, Executive Vice President at Concordia College New York, and longtime professor of history at Concordia University Wisconsin and Concordia College New York. He is author of the award-winning 2011 book, Power, Politics and the Missouri Synod: A Conflict That Changed American History. Burkee is a long-time advocate for civility in public discourse, running for office in 2008 with a unique, bi-partisan campaign for Congress in the fifth congressional district of Wisconsin for the U.S. House of Representatives.
Jim Burkee was born in San Diego, California and was raised both there and in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, now considering both his hometowns. Burkee's father, who flew the S-2 Tracker on two tours to Vietnam aboard the USS Kearsarge ,died in 1978. Burkee graduated from Lutheran High School of San Diego, now Victory Christian Academy in Chula Vista, California.
Burkee then attended Concordia University Wisconsin, graduating with degrees in business, marketing, and history. [1] Working in manufacturing, the automotive industry, and finally as in accounting, Burkee matriculated in 1995 at Northwestern University’s graduate school, where he earned his Ph.D. in History in 2003, Burkee began his career of teaching. [2]
Burkee taught at two schools within the Concordia University System, Concordia College, Bronxville and Concordia University Wisconsin, the largest Lutheran school in the nation by enrollment. In 2019, Burkee joined the College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale, New York. [3] Burkee now serves as the 15th President of Avila University.
Burkee's 2008 campaign began as an experiment, based in part on the experience of Minnesota's Senator Paul Wellstone, who had been a Political Science professor at Carleton College prior to his election to the US Senate. Running with a faculty colleague and staff composed of students at Concordia University Wisconsin, Burkee generated national news with the bipartisan campaign, ultimately earning a ruling from the Federal Election Commission allowing both a Democrat and Republican to raise funds through a joint campaign structure. Longtime incumbent F. James Sensenbrenner defeated Burkee in the 2008 primary, with Burkee earning 29% of the district's vote.
Burkee has been an advocate for reform in higher education, particularly through public-private partnerships. In April 2018 Burkee joined a panel of college and university executives at George Mason University to discuss the promise and challenges of partnership-related growth in higher education. He is a strong advocate for public-private partnerships between colleges and universities and private organizations, and with the corporate sector.
Paul Martin Simon was an American author and politician from Illinois. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1975 to 1985 and in the United States Senate from 1985 to 1997. A member of the Democratic Party, he unsuccessfully ran for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination.
The Concordia University System (CUS) is an organization of five colleges and universities and one satellite campus in the United States that are operated by the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS). All of the institutions are named "Concordia"—a reference to the Latin title of The Book of Concord, the collection of Lutheran confessions—and all include professional church work programs as part of their curricula. The CUS was formed in 1992. In 2011, 28,421 students attend Concordia University System institutions. In 2021, the official website for the system claimed an enrollment of over 35,000 students.
Concordia Seminary is a Lutheran seminary in Clayton, Missouri. The institution's primary mission is to train pastors, deaconesses, missionaries, chaplains, and church leaders for the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS). Founded in 1839, the seminary initially resided in Perry County, Missouri. In 1849, it was moved to St. Louis, and in 1926, the current campus was built.
Concordia College is a private liberal arts college in Moorhead, Minnesota. Founded by Norwegian settlers in 1891, the school is associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and is unrelated to the Concordia University System operated by the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. Concordia is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and has a total student enrollment of 1,800. It offers Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Master of Education, and Master of Science, and Master of Music Education degrees.
Seminex is the widely used abbreviation for Concordia Seminary in Exile, which existed from 1974 to 1987 after a schism in the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS). The seminary in exile was formed due to the ongoing Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy that was dividing Protestant churches in the United States. At issue were foundational disagreements on the authority of Scripture and the role of Christianity. During the 1960s, many clergy and members of the LCMS grew concerned about the direction of education at their flagship seminary, Concordia Seminary, in St. Louis, Missouri. Professors at Concordia Seminary had, in the 1950s and 1960s, begun to utilize the historical-critical method to analyze the Bible rather than the traditional historical-grammatical method that considered scripture to be the inerrant Word of God.
Concordia College (CCNY) was a private college in Bronxville, New York, United States. It was sponsored by the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) and was a member of the Concordia University System. It was chartered by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York to offer associate, bachelor, and master's degrees.
Concordia University Wisconsin (CUW) is a private Lutheran university in Mequon, Wisconsin. It is part of the seven-member Concordia University System operated by the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS).
Concordia University Ann Arbor (CUAA) is the Ann Arbor, Michigan, campus of Concordia University Wisconsin, a private Lutheran university in Mequon, Wisconsin. As part of Concordia University, it is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.
Martin Luther College (MLC) is a private Lutheran college in New Ulm, Minnesota. It is operated by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS). Martin Luther College was established in 1995, when Northwestern College (NWC) of Watertown, Wisconsin, combined with Dr. Martin Luther College (DMLC) of New Ulm on the latter's campus.
Concordia University, Nebraska is a private Lutheran university in Seward, Nebraska. It was established in 1894 and is affiliated with the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod as one of seven schools in the Concordia University System. The university is organized into three schools: the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Education, and the College of Graduate Studies.
Concordia University Irvine is a private Lutheran university in Irvine, California, United States. It was established in 1976 to provide a Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod college to serve the Pacific Southwest and provide training for pastors, religious education teachers, and Christian school administrators. Concordia University Irvine has a total undergraduate enrollment of 1,592 and its campus size is 70 acres (28 ha). It is part of the Concordia University System.
Patrick Ferry is an American academic administrator and pastor, serving as the president of Concordia University Wisconsin in Mequon, Wisconsin, from 1997 to 2021. The higher education institution is affiliated with the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS).
The Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC), formerly the Northern Athletics Conference (NAC), is an intercollegiate athletic conference. It participates in the NCAA's Division III and began its first season in the fall of 2006.
Franz August Otto Pieper was a Confessional Lutheran theologian who also served as the fourth president of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, known at that time as the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States.
Concordia University Chicago is a private university in River Forest, Illinois. Formerly a college exclusively for parochial teacher education, Concordia-Chicago now offers more than 100 undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and enrolls more than 5,000 students. The university is a member of the Concordia University System, a nationwide network of colleges and universities affiliated with the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS).
The Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (WAICU) is the official organization of Wisconsin's private, nonprofit (or independent) institutions of higher learning and their more than 56,000 students. It is headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin, was founded in 1961 and is recognized under state law. In 2023, the Association has 23 members. Each WAICU member is a nonprofit, fully accredited, four-year baccalaureate and/or graduate institution. The presidents of these institutions lead WAICU as its board of directors.
David Benke is a Lutheran pastor and the former president of the Atlantic District of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, or LCMS. After the 9/11 attacks, Benke participated in an interfaith event with people of other faiths, including Muslims. For doing so, he was found in 2002 to have violated LCMS teachings, and, unwilling to apologize, he was suspended. In 2003, the President of the LCMS reinstated him.
Americans for Responsibility in Washington, known also as ResponsibilityPAC, was a political action campaign and bipartisan political movement based in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, a town located 15 minutes north of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The campaign was abandoned on July 24, 2007, when its founders, Jeff Walz and James Burkee, redirected the website to announce their mutual campaign for U.S. House of Representatives.
Concordia University of Edmonton, is a publicly funded independent academic institution in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; accredited under the Alberta Post-secondary Learning Act. Concordia offers arts, science, and management undergraduate degree programs, as well as graduate degree programs in education, information technology, information security, and psychology. Concordia is primarily funded by tuition and private donations and as of 2022, receives nearly one third of its funding from the government of Alberta.
Diego Lasansky is an American artist whose focus is on printmaking, painting, and drawing. He lives in Iowa City, Iowa.