The JED Center

Katy Wilcox has been an ACPE Certified Educator since 2013. This is a second career for Katy. She earned a BS in Landscape Architecture from Rutgers University for her first career path.

She later earned a Master of Divinity from Yale University in 2002. She was ordained in the UCC in 2004. She completed an ACPE CPE extended unit followed by a residency at Hartford Hospital, a Level I trauma hospital serving an urban population. She continued her education at UConn Health in its ACPE Certified Educator CPE program while working as staff chaplain. Katy has worked at UConn Health for 15 years. Currently she serves at UConn as adjunct faculty at the UConn School of Medicine, as member of the hospital ethics committee, and as member on the patient and family advisory council.

Katy created and began developing The JED Center for Spiritual Care and Education in 2019. Susan S. Liguori joined the endeavor as partner in 2020. Katy volunteers with the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education as Accreditation Commissioner for the last eight years and currently as its chair for two years. Katy is passionate about the transformative learning process that is available in ACPE CPE, the relevance of spiritual care in health care and alternative settings, and ways to further integrate spiritual care in the healing environment.

Stephan Brunelle is a Certified Educator who retired from full time chaplaincy work in 2021. He served for 18 years as the Clinical Manager of Spiritual Care at Gundersen Health System in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Gundersen’s department is busy and exciting. It hosts CPE programs in supervisory education, residency, summer, and extended internships. Stephan thrives in such an interfaith setting. He values working with other staff chaplains and certified educators to provide the best atmosphere possible for CPE Students to grow in their identities as chaplains and spiritual care givers. He looks forward to bringing his experience into the world of online CPE.

For health reasons, Stephan decided to retire from full-time work and return to his hometown of Davis, California where he currently lives with his spouse Crystal and mom. His mom just celebrated her 85th birthday and enjoys walks in the morning, and line dancing in the afternoons. She can be seen outdoors attending to the garden full of fruit trees, redwoods, and flowers. Stephan enjoys playing pickleball and riding his road bike with the local Bike Club. Stephan is growing his regular practice of meditation. He is also interested in and influenced by the psychological/spiritual approach of Internal Family Systems Theory as taught by Richard C. Schwartz.

Stephan and Crystal have been married for 32 years and have two adult children who live in the upper Midwest. Crystal is a children’s librarian. They met at Southwestern Assemblies of God Bible College in Waxahachie, Texas. Following Bible College, Stephan worked as an Associate Pastor in an Assemblies of God Church while he completed his Master of Divinity (1996) at Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University. He then completed a CPE residency at Harris Methodist Hospital in Fort Worth, TX (1997-1998). CPE was transforming for Stephan. Stephan loved what CPE had done for him spiritually and soon discovered that he wanted to continue to work in the CPE context. Stephan was accepted into supervisory education at Sutter Medical Center in Sacramento, California. In 2000, he transferred his ordination from the Assemblies of God to the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) where a more pluralistic approach to the gospel was welcomed. Stephan finished up his supervisory education at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas in 2002.

Rev. Karen Hutt has been a national faculty ACPE Educator for 14 years. She did her ACPE training in Chicago at Northwestern Medicine and Rush University Medical Center. Rev. Karen served as a pediatric oncology/trauma chaplain at the University of Chicago and an educator for Advocate Health Care, University of Minnesota and Allina Health. As an ordained humanist minister in the Unitarian Universalist tradition, she brings a deep capacity for the intersectional nature of chaplaincy formation. Rev. Karen spent 10 years in the parish having served as a religious educator and founder of a UU/UCC congregation that served the LGBTQI community in Chicago. Prior to ministry she served as an Exhibit Developer at the Field Museum of Natural History, and curriculum designer of innovative science and history programs for the Dept. of Education in Massachusetts.Rev. Karen has also been an entrepreneur and designer of community based economic development projects. Most recently, she was the Vice President for Student Formation and Engagement at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. She attended Boston University where she studied archeology and environmental science and completed her seminary studies at Meadville/Lombard and the University of Chicago. Rev. Karen is very interested in expanding the landscape of chaplaincy in the public square by assisting students develop clinical sites in courts, malls and libraries. She has published numerous articles and chapters regarding culture, class and chaplaincy. Her book The Call To Care: Essays From Unitarian Universalist Chaplains is utilized in many CPE centers and seminaries around the country. Rev. Karen lives in MInneapolis with her partner Rev. Ashley Horan, VP of the Unitarian Universalist Association and their children Aspen, Zi and Eden.