Navigating Transitions with Faith and Resilience:

Carissa Dwiwardani, Professor of Psychology at Biola University

Carissa Dwiwardani is Professor of Psychology at Biola University, and Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Psychology and Theology. She is board certified in clinical psychology (ABPP) and is licensed to practice as a psychologist in California and Virginia. She obtained her PhD in clinical psychology at Biola University. Her clinical internship was completed at the National Asian American Psychology Training Center (NAAPTC) in San Francisco, which is APA-accredited and focused on the intersection of culture and psychological well-being. Her experience in higher education includes serving as the Director of Regent University’s PsyD training clinic, the Psychological Services Center, from 2013-2018, where she was actively involved in the Association for Psychology Training Clinics (APTC). She has been awarded the William L. Hathaway Outstanding Faculty Award (2015) at Regent University and was a Multicultural Concerns Scholar for American Psychological Association Division 39 (Psychoanalysis) in 2014-15. In her 10+ years in higher education, she has taught graduate courses including Diagnosis and Treatment Planning, Psychodynamic Therapy, Ethics, Multicultural Psychology among others. She has published in peer-reviewed journals, and presented at national and international conferences in the areas of positive psychology, Christian integration and multicultural psychology, and is the co-author of a book by IVP Academic, The Integration Journey: A Student’s Guide to Faith, Culture and Psychology.

Sonia Prasadam, Mental Health Therapist based in Coonoor, India

Dr. Sonia Elizabeth Prasadam is a mental health therapist based in Coonoor, India, specializing in anxiety and the complexities surrounding performance and mental health. She holds a PhD in Psychology from Christ University, Bangalore, where her research centered on the development of an intervention to address Music Performance Anxiety (MPA) in trainee musicians. Through her doctoral work, Dr. Prasadam identified perfectionism and shame as significant contributors to the onset and persistence of anxiety—a discovery that has informed her therapeutic practice.

With extensive academic experience, Dr. Prasadam has taught at premier institutions like Christ University and Madras School of Social Work, guiding undergraduate and postgraduate students in therapeutic interventions, counseling theories, and practical skills. She currently maintains a private practice where she employs Gestalt and Existential approaches to help clients reclaim parts of themselves that may have been lost along the way. Through her therapeutic work, she guides individuals in creating meaning from their past experiences, while also helping them shape a sense of purpose for the future.

Dr. Prasadam’s research has been published in journals like Current Psychology, and she is an active presenter at national and international conferences. She is deeply committed to fostering mental well-being, with a particular focus on helping individuals confront anxiety through understanding the role of underlying emotions like shame and the pursuit of perfection.

Outside of her professional life, Dr. Prasadam is deeply engaged in her interdenominational church community, where she worships and actively supports her husband, who serves as both a pastor and the choir director. Her involvement in this faith community complements her work, adding depth to her commitment to personal growth and relational well-being.

Sangeetha Thomas, Licensed Professional Counselor, Nepsis Counseling

Sangeetha S. Thomas is a Licensed Professional Counselor and the Owner of Nepsis Counseling in Dallas, Texas.  She is also the Director of Mental Health Ministries for the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the USA.  As Director, she collaborates with an interdisciplinary team of experts in mental health, ministry, and theology to create resources that support the mental health needs of Orthodox Christians across the United States.  As a psychotherapist, Sangeetha works with adults of diverse backgrounds who are healing from trauma, exploring multicultural identity and intergenerational trauma as children of immigrants, and learning to integrate their spiritual identity.

Headshot copyright: Assembly of Bishops/Ephemia Nicolakis

David C. Chao, Director of the Center for Asian American Christianity

Dr. David C. Chao is the director of the Center for Asian American Christianity at Princeton Theological Seminary. He teaches courses on Asian American theology and organizes academic programming in Asian American theology and ministry. His research and writing focus on Asian American theology, the uses of Christian doctrine for liberation, the convergence and divergence of Protestant and Catholic dogmatics, and the theology of Karl Barth.

His first book, titled Concursus and Concept Use in Karl Barth’s Doctrine of Providence, is under contract with Routledge. He is grant co-author and project editor for the $300,000 translation grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities to the Karl Barth Translator’s Seminar. He is co-leader of a $250,000 Henry Luce grant project titled “Religiously-Inspired Asian American Coalitional Justice Work.” He is principal investigator of a Louisville Institute-funded project titled “Stories of Faith, Resilience, and Politics: First-Generation East Asian American Christians.”

Chao is a graduate of Yale University (BA), Regent College (MDiv), and Princeton Theological Seminary (ThM, PhD). He is a member of the American Academy of Religion and the Association for Asian American Studies. Chao has a wide range of pastoral experience with Chinese American, Korean American, and Pan-Asian churches and ministries and is an active member of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Read his article “Evangelical or Mainline? Doctrinal Similarity and Difference in Asian American Christianity: Sketching a Social-Practical Theory of Christian Doctrine” here. You can also check out “The 1517 Project and World Christianity: Migration and the Uses of Doctrine” here or download the free PDF version here. This paper was presented at the 2023 Asian American Theology Conference “Multiple Belongings in Transpacific Christianities: Christian Faith and Asian Migration to the US.”

Download David’s CV Here

Peter Lim, Lead Pastor at 4Pointes Church

Peter Lim is Lead Pastor at 4Pointes Church in Dunwoody, GA.

Sharon Wada, Co-Director of Sustainable Faith

Sharon Wada is co-director of Sustainable Faith, a non-profit dedicated to fostering a culture of healthy spirituality among leaders and their communities. She is actively involved in training spiritual directors, providing resources for new expressions of Christian community, and creating spaces for leaders to develop regular practices of well-being. Sharon has a masters degree in intercultural studies from Fuller Seminary. She has a particular concern for the complexities and needed contextualization inherent to the journey of leaders of color.