We are thrilled to announce that effective January 17th, the Davenant team will be joined by an extremely valuable new member, Marina Ziemnick. Marina will be serving as our first ever full-time Director of Engagement and Development.
Marina Ziemnick is an alumna of Patrick Henry College, where she majored in political philosophy and minored in music. She worked previously as a program manager for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, a nonprofit that educates college students in the conservative intellectual tradition, and as a communications associate for the National Association of Scholars, a nonprofit that seeks to reform higher education. Marina lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, with her husband.
Davenant President Brad Littlejohn says, “The Davenant Institute is at a key inflection point. Over the past ten years we have assembled an extraordinary network and a rich set of programs and resources. What we need now is someone who can tell our story to individuals and foundations eager to partner with us in this critical work of Protestant retrieval and renewal. Marina comes as an answer to prayer. She is an immensely talented individual with experience at other non-profit organizations seeking to invigorate conservative and Christian scholarship, and is herself a prime example of the kind of Protestant intellectual that Davenant seeks to equip to serve the church and advance the kingdom. I look forward to working with her on this critical endeavor in the years ahead!”
Davenant is eager to serve the thousands of men and women who are hungry for the resources of historic Christian wisdom we are seeking to uncover. But to date, we have not had anyone on staff who has been able to focus on personally engaging this network, hearing their stories, and helping them find ways to support the work and multiply its impact. As we move into our tenth year of operations and beyond, it will be crucial to form this foundation–to understand the network we serve, their needs, and how to more effectively reach them.
Davenant has accomplished an extraordinary amount over the past ten years on a very small budget–you might be able to find a handful of Christian publishers, or graduate colleges, or Christian study centers, or academic societies running on a budget of under $1 million per year, but you won’t find any organization that does all four of these things on that budget, as Davenant does. Marina is coming onto the team to enable us to build out the financial infrastructure to place all of our innovative projects and programs on a firm long-term footing.
Vice President Colin Redemer says, “Marina Ziemnick is going to push Davenant to new heights as we seek to advance and renew christian wisdom for the contemporary church. Her skills in project management and community engagement are going to set her up as she steps into the lead development role inside our growing organization.”
There are many family foundations, large and small, dedicated to supporting Christian education and Christian engagement with the public square, looking for worthy projects to fund, who don’t even know about Davenant’s existence. A key part of Marina’s job will be pursuing grants that will provide ample and stable funding for our scholars and programs and enable us to offer more scholarships to needy students, especially those from the majority world. Davenant has had an international reach from the beginning, but with the broad base of funding we hope to build, we will be able to go deeper in building these relationships and serving Christians all around the world.
Marina is on Twitter @marinadelayne.