Alumni Profiles
Rooted in Faith, Growing Through Ecology: A CMU Alum's Path of Environmental Leadership
25 at 25 | Joanne Moyer (CMU '01)
Joanne Moyer (CMU ’01) completed a Bachelor of Theology with a focus on service education. Her studies at CMU sparked a lifelong journey connecting faith and environmental work, which led her to become Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Geography at The King’s University in Edmonton.
Sometimes the most pivotal moments are only possible because of the communities we've already been part of. For Joanne Moyer, that moment came at an airport.
While seeing off a friend who was volunteering in Iraq with Christian Peacemaker Teams (now Community Peacemaker Teams), she bumped into Esther Epp-Tiessen who then worked for Mennonite Central Committee. Because they already knew each other through CMU's close-knit circles, the conversation quickly turned into opportunity.
"Sure enough, the following year I ended up being hired by MCC to work on this project that was to write a website about linking faith and environmental issues, which eventually turned into a little devotional book called "Earth Trek." So, by age 26 or something, I was published, which was really exciting."
That chance meeting launched Moyer into a lifelong focus on environmental and faith-based work, but the foundation for it was laid earlier during her years at Canadian Mennonite Bible College, later CMU.
Moyer was a part of CMU's first graduating class in 2001. Spending most of her years studying at CMBC, it was only in her grad year that CMU began. She completed a bachelor of theology with a focus on service education.
Certain professors left a lasting impression. "There were a group of us that kind of followed [Sheila Klassen-Wiebe] around like puppies. We really liked her. And she's still a good friend."
"She was so honest about what she knew, what she didn't know, where there were questions; it just felt like this exploratory exercise that we were doing together."
Beyond individual professors, Moyer remembers her courses at CMU as both challenging and formative. The small class sizes pushed her to think critically and wrestle with big ideas. "I really, really learned a lot," she says. "[Those classes] were instrumental in pushing me onto the path that I pursued afterwards."
After CMU, Moyer transferred to the University of Winnipeg for environmental studies, completed a Master's at Dalhousie, and eventually earned her PhD researching the intersections of faith and environmental work. Today, she is Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Geography at The King's University in Edmonton, where she values the same kind of small classroom setting she experienced at CMU.
"I wanted to be in a setting where I could work closely with students, have real relationships with them. And that's what I experienced at CMBC and CMU. And what I hoped for."
Looking back, Moyer credits her time at CMU with giving her a solid foundation for both her work and her theological perspective. "Having this really strong kind of theological and faith grounding for all of the work that I've done afterwards, both intellectually and personally... has been valuable."
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