Charles Robertson
Clinical Pastoral Education Educator, Kettering Health Main
Charles serves as a contract ACPE Certified Educator within the Kettering Health Network. His academic background includes a B.S. degree in Business Administration (1983) from the State University of New York at Buffalo, a M.Div. degree (1986) from Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri and a Doctor of Ministry degree from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio (2001).
He was ordained an Elder in the Church of the Nazarene in 1987 and has served in pastoral positions including pastor of Mirabile Community Church in Mirabile, Missouri, Elm Street Church of the Nazarene in Ironton, Ohio and Fort Osage Church of the Nazarene in Independence, Missouri. He has served as senior member of the General Church of the Nazarene’s Chaplaincy Advisory Council.
Dr. Robertson was certified as ACPE Educator in November 1994. He was Board Certified in the Association of Professional Chaplains February 28, 1999.
Dr. Robertson served as a member of ACPE’s South Central Region’s Accreditation Committee and as a member and Chair of the SCR’s Certification Committee from 2000-2006. He has served nationally as a member of the ACPE Certification Commission 2000-2006, and 2008-2014 and as Chair of Representation and Nominating Committee (RANC) 2012-2014. He also served on the 2005 ACPE Manual Writing Task Force.
He has served as an Adjunct Professor at Central Baptist Seminary 1994-99, Nazarene Theological Seminary since 1994 and as a Colloquy Leader at Wesley Theological Seminary 2011-2016.
Dr. Robertson Lives in Blue Springs, Missouri, is the father of three, grandfather of eleven and great grandfather of three.
Jim Harper
Clinical Pastoral Education Educator, Kettering Health Main
Chaplain James M. Harper, III serves as an Adjunct Faculty, ACPE Certified Educator at Loma Linda University Medical Center. Dr. Harper’s career includes more than three decades of leadership, educational and executive, in the role of Division Director of The Midwest CPE Program in Kansas City. Academically, Dr. Harper’s undergraduate study majored in Psychology. He graduated from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, M.Div., then completed doctoral study at Midwestern Theological Seminary in Kansas City. A licensed and ordained minister, Dr. Harper served eight years as a congregational pastor for Apple Valley Baptist Church then the First Baptist Church in Commerce, Georgia, and finally Wedgwood Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Dr. Harper’s ACPE CPE training occurred in diverse contexts: Central State Psychiatric Hospital in Milledgeville, Georgia; Athens General Hospital/Northeast Georgia Community Mental Health Center/Pastoral Counseling Center; Georgia Association of Pastoral Care (Emory), and The Georgian Clinic in Atlanta. Among his areas of specialization are Palliative/Hospice Care, Ministry to persons experiencing mental health/Psychiatric challenges, Pastoral Counseling / Psychotherapy, and Pastoral Care Related to Chemical Abuse and Addiction.
Dr. Harper was an early originator of several System ACPE CPE Centers, e.g., The now Carolinas Health Care System. He created and led in accreditation of a system wide CPE program with 13 Hospitals of Health Midwest, that became The Midwest Division of HCA, Inc. As a Certified Educator, Dr. Harper’s innovative contributions include development and particularization of curriculum according to types of CPE. His doctoral study was seminal work related to theoretical development of students in the Supervisory Certified Educator CPE. He fashioned an experiential/academic method of theoretical integration designed to facilitate the critical purchase of classic and contemporary literature necessary for theoretical competency to be certified by the ACPE. Over four decades, Dr. Harper’s focus involved training in supervision to prepare Certified Educators in ACPE and training that facilitated Students called to Chaplaincy accomplish BCCI Certification as a Chaplain.
As a leader in ACPE, Dr. Harper served in three ACPE Regions at local and national levels. He contributions impacted a variety of areas, e.g., Ethics, Standards, Certification, and Accreditation. He was also selected to serve on Task Forces, example, one involved ACPE’s Development of Manuals and Handbooks. Dr. Harper has consulted on the administration and accreditation of ACPE system Centers. He was selected as ACPE’s national representative from the Standards Committee to serve on the National Taskforce of the Association for Professional Chaplains that created the current Universal Standards for the Certification of Professional Chaplains in the United States and abroad. Dr. Harper received the George Polk Award by ACPE’s Racial-Ethnic Multicultural Network for 20 years of inclusive contributions that advanced minority participation. He contributed across pastoral organizations as a conference presenter for ACPE, NACC, and APC.
Dr. Harper co-authored “The Role of the Chaplain in Palliative Care” in the Interdisciplinary Team Section of The Oxford Textbook of Palliative Care Medicine. He has written on The Use of Self in Pastoral Care. He has served as Adjunct Seminary Professor teaching the Pastoral Care Component in a Doctor of Ministry
Degree Program. Dr. Harper has served publishing companies reading and commenting of numerous books on Pastoral Care. Dr. Harper was selected in 2020 as a Healthcare Hero in Kansas City by Ingram’s magazine.
Dr. Harper and his wife, Susan, have been married 49 years, and are parents of three adult children. Dr. Harper enjoys fishing, Kayaking, and being grandfather of two girls, ages 4 and 12. He follows the University of Georgia football team on which he once played and enjoys the KC Chiefs.