Carmen Lau Elected Chair of the Adventist Forum Board
The Adventist Forum Board chose one of its own members to direct board activities as the organization moves into the next decade. Carmen Lau, of Birmingham, Alabama, was elected November 20, 2018.
Charles Scriven, who has served as the chair of the Board for over a decade, stepped down following the organization’s 50th anniversary celebration in September. He will remain on the Board and active in Forum activities.
Lau joined the Board in 2011. She led in the planning of conferences in Chattanooga and Silver Spring. A fourth generation Seventh-day Adventist, she first learned of Spectrum when Lorenzo Grant, a Christian ethics professor at Southern Adventist University, distributed the journal in class in 1982. A Spectrum subscriber since 1983, she says, “Reading Spectrum showed me that I was allowed to ask questions and have doubts. It also showed me that an Adventist can be aware of issues, honest, and on a search for truth. I see Spectrum as a place that reports what is and imagines what can be.”
Lau graduated from Georgia-Cumberland Academy in 1980, Southern Adventist University with a BS in Nursing in 1983, and Loma Linda University with an MS in Nursing in 1988. She recently returned to academia to pursue her interests in peacemaking. She is currently enrolled in the University of Alabama at Birmingham MA program in Anthropology of Peace and Human Rights and anticipates graduating in 2019.
She is a member of Birmingham First SDA Church and currently serves as a Sabbath School teacher. She is married to Yung Lau and they have three children: Christopher, Carissa, and Sarah.
Adventist Forum Board member Lee Blount summed up the feelings of the Board upon Lau’s election saying, “I am thrilled, by her energy, insight, and passion for the mission. She looks outside of the box, WOW.” Another Board member Brent Stanyer added, “She is a good organizer who has a lot of personal warmth. She will be someone who can build warm relationships for the organization.”
Larry Geraty, who chaired the Search Committee, told the Board that over 70 names were submitted and the search committee considered them all. The Committee concluded that Carmen would be the best choice. She will begin her chair duties in January 2019.
Bonnie Dwyer is editor of Spectrum.
Image courtesy of Carmen Lau.
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