CRE Staff

Director

Andrew R. H. Thompson, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Ethics at the School of Theology. His work focuses on environmental ethics and eco-theology, especially around environmental racism and colonialism, and lay Episcopal ethics. His first book, Sacred Mountains: A Christian Ethical Approach to Mountaintop Removal, applies a critical ethical lens to the debate over surface mining in his home region of Appalachia. His most recent book is Reconsider the Lilies: Challenging Christian Environmentalism’s Colonial Legacy. His current project focuses on the lay Episcopal theologians Vida Dutton Scudder, William Stringfellow, and Verna Dozier.

Dr. Thompson earned his Ph.D. in Religion from Yale University, and his M.A.R. from Yale Divinity School. He also holds a B.A. in Music Performance from Duquesne University. Since coming to Sewanee, he has served as assistant director of the Center for Religion and Environment, director of the Alternative Clergy Training at Sewanee (ACTS) program, and director of the Sewanee Ministry Collaborative.

Andy has served for many years on the Episcopal Church’s Task Force for Care of Creation and Environmental Racism, for which he drafted policies on carbon offsetting and environmental reparations. He now serves on the Church's Task Force for AI and Intellectual Property. He was a missionary to El Salvador, has supported environmental education and reforestation projects in the Dominican Republic and Burundi, and facilitated a bilingual eco-theology course at the Seminario Evangélico de Teología in Matanzas, Cuba.

Andy's wife, the Rev. Leigh Preston, is Interim Associate University Chaplain at Sewanee. They have two kids, Cabell and Cullen, and two dogs, Lulu and Oscar.

Eco-Region Network Facilitator

Hampton Randall serves as the Eco-Region Network Facilitator at the CRE. He graduated from Wofford College with a B.A. in environmental studies and a minor in economics. While at Wofford, his studies centered around environmental policy, grassroots community engagement, and the intersection of religion and the environment. Hampton is currently in his third year at Vanderbilt Divinity School, pursuing his Master of Divinity and seeking holy orders in the United Methodist Church. He is excited to work at the crossroads of the Church and Creation, and looks forward to building resilient communities centered on creation care and environmental justice through these Eco-Regions! In his free time, Hampton loves running, fly fishing, and going on hikes with his fiancée and their dog.

Work-Study Associate

Kristen Davidson is a junior at the School of Theology at the University of the South pursuing a Master's degree in Religion and the Environment. Kristen's background is in farming and creative writing. Kristen is interested in how theology, ritual and worship form our ecological imagination and, thus, praxis. Her work explores themes of embodied existence and ritual ways of being in the world.

Work-Study Associate

Julia Reynolds Thompson is a student at the School of Theology pursuing a Master’s degree in Religion and Environment. Before graduate school, she worked in small-scale commercial agriculture and in non-profit food justice. She loves seeing people making connections to God and to one another in gardens and hopes to work at the intersection of faith communities and environmental and climate justice. She continues to work part-time in farming and tries to keep her hands in the dirt as often as possible.

Work-Study Associate

Matt Strange is a junior at the University of the South pursuing a Master of Divinity as a postulant for the Episcopal Diocese of Lexington in Kentucky. Matt has served as a fellow in the Episcopal Church’s inaugural Ecojustice Fellowship as well as a delegate of the Presiding Bishop’s office at COP 28. Matt is also an ambassador for Blessed Tomorrow; an interfaith coalition concerned with caring for God’s creation.Matt is passionate about creation care and has a particular interest in the effects of coal mining and mountaintop removal in Appalachia.