Ladd joins AMBS Church Leadership Center as Administrative Assistant

Published: October 23, 2025

By Annette Brill Bergstresser

ELKHART, Indiana (Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary) — Meleah L. Ladd, PhD, of South Bend, Indiana, began Sept. 2, 2025, as Administrative Assistant for the Church Leadership Center (CLC) of Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) in Elkhart, Indiana.

In her three-quarter-time role, Ladd handles logistical details for CLC educational programs and events — creating and managing processes for event setup, registration, communication, payments, financial recordkeeping and database management, among other responsibilities.

“We were impressed by Meleah’s many qualities,” said Steve Norton, Assistant Director of the Journey Program and Church Leadership Center Program Coordinator. “She’s a competent, effective process manager with the ability to keep the overall strategy and priorities of the organization in mind while working on the details. She’s also a culturally sensitive communicator and a team player. She has a high capacity for multitasking and is a joy to work with in the process.”

Ladd brings extensive experience in administration to her new role, having worked in office management, grant project management, academic publishing, research and education.

Since 2007, she has served as a project manager for multiple research grants of the John Templeton Foundation and Templeton World Charity Foundation on topics such as prayer, spiritual practices, religious cognition and the psychology of religion. She has worked remotely as a contractor for several publications, including as Editorial Assistant/Managing Editor for the Archive for the Psychology of Religion (2017–25), as Editorial Assistant for the Psychological Methods journal of the American Psychological Association (2007–18), and as Editorial Assistant for the Journal of Moral Education (2011–17).

Ladd has also been a freelance academic copyeditor in social sciences and humanities (2017–25) and has worked as an Associate Scholar for Research (2013–25) and Senior Research Assistant (2007–13) for the Department of Psychology of Indiana University South Bend. Additionally, she served as Senior Premium Auditor for State Farm Insurance (Commercial Lines, Mountain States Region) (1990–95) and as Front Office Assistant for the Southold Dance Theater in South Bend (2018–24, with a hiatus during COVID-19).

“We are grateful for all that Meleah brings to this role,” said Jewel Gingerich Longenecker, PhD, Dean of Lifelong Learning. “Her deep engagement with both the church and academic contexts, along with her strong administrative and leadership skills, make her a tremendous asset to the Church Leadership Center, which sits at the intersection of theological education and the church.”

Ladd holds a PhD in Theology: Liturgical Spirituality and Ritual Studies (2018) and a Master of Arts in Musicology: Medieval Musicology (1997) from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend and a Bachelor of Music in Harp Performance and Pedagogy (1990) from Heidelberg College (now University) in Tiffin, Ohio. She attends First Northwest United Methodist Church of South Bend. 

Located in Elkhart, Indiana, on ancestral land of the Potawatomi and Miami peoples, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary is a learning community with an Anabaptist vision, offering theological education for learners both on campus and at a distance as well as a wide array of lifelong learning programs — all with the goal of educating followers of Jesus Christ to be leaders for God’s reconciling mission in the world. ambs.edu

• Category: News