Lisa M. Hess is the professor of practical theology and contextual ministries at United Seminary (Ohio), a teaching-elder in the Presbytery of the Miami Valley (PCUSA), and a circle-way facilitator in traditional and nontraditional communities of practice. An author of several books and essays, she has also collaborated with her local community in a small social-purpose business, Women Writing for (a) Change, Central Ohio, and more recently, Restorative Wisdom, LLC.