CONWAY, Ark. (January 25, 2022)
– The 37th annual Steel-Hendrix Awards will honor four extraordinary
church and community leaders on Monday, March 14: the Rev. Dr. Ulysses C.
Washington, Mary Lewis Dassinger, Dr. Sara Tariq, and Lorrie McClure. Details
of the celebration will be announced in February.
Information about each
Steel-Hendrix Award recipient follows:
The Rev. Dr. Ulysses
Washington – The Mary and Ira Brumley Award for Religious
Education
As the superintendent of the
Central District of the Arkansas Conference of the United Methodist Church, the
Rev. Dr. Ulysses C. Washington serves as chief mission strategist for
the congregations in the central Arkansas area. Before Bishop Gary Mueller appointed
him to this role in the summer of 2021, Washington had been senior pastor at
Highland Valley since 2018. Previously, he served at Theresa Hoover Memorial
UMC in Little Rock for two and a half years, and Mission UMC in Fort Smith for
13 years. Washington spent 26 years as a pastor in the Christian Methodist
Episcopal (CME) Church before becoming an elder in the United Methodist Church.
Washington has said one of
his goals for the Central District is to bring a more diverse group of people
into the faith community of the United Methodist Church. “I believe, and I hope
others believe or will come to believe, that our Christian witness is better
realized in a community of diversity,” he said. “When a wider array of people
shapes the work of God’s kingdom efforts together, something special is
communicated. This will require intentional efforts, specifically linked to
people’s inclusion from diverse walks of life. It has been said, ‘All of
humanity is one family, which God desires to unite.’”
Rev. Washington has a Doctorate
in Ministry, Pastoral Leadership/Homiletics from Phillips Theological Seminary
in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He has been happily married for 44 years to his wife, Mona,
and they have two adult sons, Garry and Michael.
Mary Lewis Dassinger and Dr. Sara
Tariq – The Ethel K. Millar Award for Religion and Social
Awareness
Mary Lewis Dassinger is the
Project Coordinator for 200,000 More Reasons to fight childhood hunger and
poverty, a special initiative of the Arkansas Conference of the United
Methodist Church. She graduated from Memphis Theological Seminary with a Master
of Arts in Religion soon after moving to Little Rock with her family. Before
taking this position, she served for three years as coordinator of missions at
Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church. Dassinger currently serves as Chair of
the Faith Relations Committee for the Arkansas Food Bank. She also is a board
member for the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance and is on several committees for
the Arkansas Conference of the United Methodist Church.
After graduating from Birmingham-Southern
College, Dassinger worked on the family farm in Mississippi before returning to
Birmingham, where she began a focus on nonprofit work, first teaching high school
students about philanthropy and volunteerism, then working on AmeriCorps and service-learning
programming before being called to seminary. She joined the Arkansas Annual
Conference staff in 2016 as the Program Coordinator for 200,000 Reasons. In
2020, the initiative broadened its focus beyond childhood hunger to include
poverty alleviation strategies for under-resourced children, specifically
literacy for children ages third grade and younger, and ministries that help
promote a healthy, stable family. This initiative, now 200,000 More
Reasons, invites local churches and followers of Christ to do more—to be in
relationship with the food insecure and poor in their community and to create
opportunities for long-term stability for the children and families they serve.
Dassinger believes the Holy
Spirit led her to this work. She grew up alongside people she loved in
generational poverty. After leaving her home, she acknowledged her privilege
and her complicity in systems that oppressed them and others. She then began a
journey of coming to greater understanding, a deeper faith and a desire to
offer hope—to those like her growing in discipleship and those like her
childhood neighbors, who deserve every opportunity she had.
Sara Tariq, M.D., serves
as Associate Dean, Student Affairs, at the University of Arkansas for Medical
Sciences (UAMS). After graduating from UAMS, she completed her residency at Brown
University, Rhode Island Hospital, then returned to UAMS, where she has served in
various faculty roles. Her clinical work is in general medicine, with a focus
on women’s health and trauma-informed care. She currently serves as a
contributing member on the National Collaboration for Education to Address the
Social Determinants of Health (NCEAS) through Northwestern University. As the
Medical Director for UAMS’s Clinical Skills Center, she helped students build
clinical skills during years M2 through M4. In her 16 years as Practice of
Medicine II course director, she played a major role in leading UAMS through
curricular reform in undergraduate medical education to an integrated
organ-systems model; and created and led the Bias in Healthcare Committee, which
analyzed pre-clinical content for unconscious bias. She now ensures that all UAMS
students are supported as they progress through medical school, focusing on
wellness, transitions, and preparation for the residency match. She also directs
the COM Academic House Program, which provides students with faculty and peer
mentorship. Her primary research interest is bias in healthcare, and
professionalism and the learning environment. She led a committee in the
planning and implementation for a new post-baccalaureate program for
socio-economically disadvantaged students in Arkansas; the inaugural class
started in June 2021.
Empowering the community is
important to Tariq. She has served as board president of Harmony Health Clinic,
a free medical/dental clinic that offers comprehensive healthcare for the
uninsured of central Arkansas, where she oversaw the expansion of clinical
programs and helped raise over $800,000 for the clinic. She currently serves as
co-chair of Just Communities of Arkansas, a non-profit that works at the
organizational level to promote social justice and inclusion through culture
change, and as facilitator for healing spaces and difficult conversations
within that organization. Tariq also serves on the board of the Interfaith
Center, an organization promoting interfaith understanding through educational
programs and dialogue. Her civic involvement includes serving on Little Rock
Mayor Frank Scott’s Transition Team, chairing the Inclusion Committee and helping
to create the infrastructure for inclusive practices in city government.
Lorrie McClure –
Hendrix College Youth Minister of the Year
For the past 10 years, Lorrie
McClure has served as the youth minister for First United Methodist Church of
Batesville, Arkansas. She graduated from the University of Central Arkansas in
1996 with a degree in contemporary African American political studies. In
addition to her work with the church, McClure also works for the Batesville
School District as home visiting coordinator, supervising a staff of 14 who
offer family support and kindergarten readiness, and serving students and
families who are experiencing homelessness, teen pregnancy, truancy, and other
high needs.
“Lorrie is a joy to be
around. She is funny, warm, and direct,” said the Rev. Katie Pearce, the
church’s pastor. “Often, her work at school impacts our church because she is
able to help us direct people to available resources when they come to the
church needing assistance. She has built one of the largest youth programs in
the Arkansas Conference, and when people ask her about how she did it, she
always says, ‘Everyone needs a little Jesus.’”
McClure has grown the
Wednesday night youth ministry of First UMC Batesville into a spiritual home
for at least 100 teens, most of whom did not grow up in the church. Pearce says
the youth attendance on Wednesdays often rivals Sunday morning worship
attendance, and that McClure serves as an effective mentor and encourager. A
former ministry intern of McClure’s is now pursuing vocational ministry in the
United Methodist Church. In 2021, McClure received the United Methodist Women
Special Recognition Pin from the United Methodist Women of her congregation for
making a difference in the lives of children and youth. McClure and her
husband, Chad, are the parents of two children, Mallory and Matthew.
About the
Steel-Hendrix Awards
In 1984, Hendrix
College inaugurated the annual Steel-Hendrix Award Lectureship to celebrate 100
years of its official relationship with the United Methodist Church. The award
was named in honor of Marshall T. Steel, a prominent minister and former
president of the College.
About Hendrix College
A private liberal arts college in Conway, Arkansas,
Hendrix College consistently earns recognition as one of the country’s leading
liberal arts institutions, and is featured in Colleges That Change
Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges. Its
academic quality and rigor, innovation, and value have established Hendrix as a
fixture in numerous college guides, lists, and rankings. Founded in 1876,
Hendrix has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. To
learn more, visit www.hendrix.edu.