Staff
Biography
Jennifer Riggs is the director of Refugee and Immigration Ministries, a program located in Disciples Home Missions and supported by Week of Compassion offerings. She has been in this position for 28 years.
Her responsibilities include:
- educating Disciples’ congregations on refugee and immigration issues;
- involving Disciples’ congregations in the resettlement of refugees processed through Church World Service (Disciples resettle 11 percent of the CWS caseload);
- assisting Disciples’ congregations with ministries to persons with immigration problems;
- involving Disciples’ congregations in meeting the needs of refugees around the world;
- supporting the Southwest Good Samaritan Ministries on the Texas/Mexico border;
- enabling Disciples’ advocacy on behalf of refugees and immigrants; and
- being the DHM liaison to the new Disciples Farm Worker Ministry network.
Jennifer also serves as the secretary of the Church World Service Board of Directors and as a member of the CWS Immigration and Refugee Program Committee. In the past, she has served as both the second vice-chairperson and the first vice-chairperson of the CWS board.
She has traveled to more than 30 countries to visit refugee camps and CWS projects and to meet with church, government, and voluntary agency officials. She has participated in several World Council of Churches meetings on refugee and immigration issues and was a delegate to the 2006 General Assembly of the WCC.
Jennifer is a graduate of Bethany College, Bethany, W.Va., and Yale Divinity School, New Haven, Conn. She was ordained in her home town of Winamac, Ind., in 1973. After seminary she was the director of the Student YWCA at Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio; and prior to coming to DHM, she was the associate minister at Downey Avenue Christian Church, Indianapolis, Ind. She is a member of Central Christian Church, Indianapolis, where she is a trustee and chair of the Strategic Planning Committee.
