The 2023 Rodney K. Sisco Diversity Student’s Choice Award Faculty Honoree

Melissa Harkrider enjoys teaching students in the First Year Seminar, an Advanced Integrative Seminar – Native Chicago, and a variety of history major courses. She offers classes on the Atlantic world, European history, Native American Studies, and religious history. She earned her doctorate in history from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her first book Women, Reform, and Community in Early Modern England: Katherine Willoughby, Duchess of Suffolk, and Lincolnshire’s Godly Aristocracy 1519-1580, examines how Willoughby, her friends, and family responded to religious change in sixteenth-century England. Dr. Harkrider’s current research studies Cherokee responses to Christianity in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Her project focuses on Cherokee language hymns and the ways these texts reflected Cherokee culture and belief in this period. She is the wife of Curtis and mother of Ethan, whose experiences as enrolled citizens of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma helped shape her current research and teaching commitments.

Wheaton College students are saying;

“Dr. Harkrider consistently advocates for students to consider the perspectives of our neighbors and those who are marginalized, and learn from those whose opinions we might otherwise dismiss.”

The 2023 Rodney K. Sisco Diversity Student’s Choice Award Faculty Honoree

Dr. Danielle Warner, Associate Professor of Music

Danielle is one of those people who you meet for 10 minutes and feel like you have known them 10 years. She is one of the kindest people I know. She memorized the names of 100+ choir students within a couple weeks and she is always available to talk to students about whatever they need. She is also a wonderful example of how to I’ve a life that follows Christ. She talks about her faith often and continues to be very inclusive and kind to everyone.
She takes the time to get to know and connect with all of her students – quite the feat given concert choir has over 100 members! Her music selections are very intentional to reflect our faith and the diversity of our population.
Danielle makes an incredible effort to include every student in the music we create as a choir. Not only does she face unique individuals with grace and love, but makes sure each of us learns to better understand and love each other. Danielle is always open to talking about anything, or devoting class and personal time to those who are struggling. You can tell what a wonderfully inclusive leader she is by how comfortable people are with asking questions and sharing their weaknesses.
She has brought such peace to the lives of all of her students. She has made me feel so loved and seen even when I think that I am just in the background.
Danielle has made every effort to support her students inside and outside of class time. She focuses her efforts on blessing the community around George Fox. She also makes time, anytime, for her students to come and share burdens with her. She includes everyone who wishes to be included, and makes special efforts to include people who might feel limited otherwise. She puts all her resources to good use, being mindful of our environment, to achieve a result that blesses everyone around her.
Dr. Warner is a blessing to all who meet her and she strives to make sure that every single one of her students is always welcome in her office, her classes, and being both the best student and musician they can possibly be. No one is ever barred from discussing any topic, receiving comfort or counsel, or coming away with a sense of acceptance and encouragement. Her prayers during class, boundless joy and energy, support with anything and everything, and utter devotion to her students and craft make her a mentor and advocate for whatever and whoever comes asking.