Responding to Crisis with Compassion: How CMU Shaped a Global Leader
25 at 25 | Bruce Guenther (CMU '03)
Bruce Guenther (CMU ’03) serves as Disaster Response Director at Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Canada, leading global humanitarian efforts in response to crises and disasters. He credits his CMU experience—with its blend of theological study, international development, and mentorship—with preparing him to integrate faith, learning, and leadership in a complex world.
When a humanitarian disaster makes headlines, some people read about it while drinking their coffee or share it on social media during their bus ride. Bruce Guenther, however, is already at his desk, organizing responsive action in the disaster's region.
Guenther is the Disaster Response Director at Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Canada, for which he designs projects and oversees staff that coordinate aid in response to humanitarian crises around the world, like the earthquake in Afghanistan and the genocide in Gaza. He has worked in this department, in various positions, for 18 years.
For his CMU work-integrated learning placement, he spent a year working with a human rights organization in Jamaica through MCC's Serving and Learning Together program. The experience, which came midway through his degree, set him on the path that would end up guiding his studies and career. "I think the work-integrated learning is critical—certainly that helped me secure employment when I was just out of school," he says. "There are lots of opportunities for people to start developing their careers while they're studying."
Guenther started taking more international development studies (IDS) courses at Menno Simons College (MSC), CMU's former downtown campus affiliated with the University of Winnipeg, and did a summer pastoral internship while working for a restorative justice agency. He graduated in 2003 with a Bachelor of Theology, and earned a Bachelor of Arts in IDS from MSC in 2005. Both concentrations helped him develop critical thinking skills, he says, and provided him with "a very strong undergraduate liberal arts education."
He also studied voice, sang in choirs, played volleyball for a year, participated in recreational sports, and took courses in other subjects. "I think that diversity and that exposure to different disciplines was really critical for me," says Guenther, who went on to do interdisciplinary graduate studies. "I think that's what we need in the complex world we live in—we need people to have those critical thinking skills and to be able to integrate a variety of different perspectives in order to solve the problems of the day."
He even had the opportunity as a student to work with Jerry Buckland, CMU Professor of Economics and International Development Studies, on an applied research project about informal banking systems in Winnipeg's North End.
The support and accessibility of faculty and staff was a formative part of Guenther's CMU experience. "Faculty really encouraged me to continue my studies, and I think certainly because of them I was able to get into a competitive program and get a Chevening Scholarship," a prestigious international award funded by the UK government. He obtained a Master of Philosophy in Development Studies from the Institute for Development Studies at the University of Sussex in England. "I'm thankful for the strong mentorship I had from many different faculty and staff [at CMU]. That was very critical to my development as an adult."
Now, Guenther supports his team as they do project review, monitoring, and evaluation and he manages relationships with MCC's different funders, including Canadian Foodgrains Bank with their food security program and Global Affairs Canada with the LINCZ project, a joint venture with CMU.
"The work we do in humanitarian relief and assistance is not easy, and it is easy to become quite discouraged. But I think CMU was really helpful in terms of developing my theology and my perspective on what is my role as a Christian in the world and how to maintain hope in some very difficult situations that we encounter on a daily basis."