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P R O F I L EDivineinterventionReligion professorMary Foskett’s scholarshipand compassion inspireher department and students.By David FytenN 1961, AN AMERICAN navalIofficer and his wife adopted anethnic Chinese orphan from a babyhome in Yokahama, Japan. She becamethe youngest of their five childrenand the only girl. In adulthood,that same orphan and her Anglo-American spouse would themselvesadopt an infant Vietnamese boy.The particulars of Mary Foskett’slife go a long way toward illuminatingher extraordinary compassion andinclusiveness and her transformationaleffect on her department andstudents as an associate professor ofreligion at Wake Forest. They aretraits that have made her among theCollege’s most popular teachers andaccount for her receiving, by studentvote, the Kulynych Family OmicronDelta Kappa Award for Contributionto Student Life this past year.Foskett’s courses in New Testamentand biblical interpretation fill upquickly despite their challengingcontent and methodology. Her warmthand genial disposition belie a relentlessand uncompromising approachin the classroom that forces studentsto ask and respond to hard questionsand to confront and be comfortablewith the complexity and uncertaintyof the subject matter. She applies thesame dialectic in her undergraduateadvising, guiding students to discovertheir talents and proclivities andchoose their paths. She is an activescholar, conducting novel research onwomen in the New Testament, amongother subjects—most notably, onMary, the mother of Jesus, and themeaning of the virginity that hasbeen ascribed to her.Away from the classroom andlibrary, Foskett is active in a host ofUniversity and community serviceactivities. She co-coordinates thecadre of nine faculty marshals whoorganize and shepherd the faculty atofficial convocations such as Commencementand Founders’ Day andis an advisory board member andcore faculty member of the women’sand gender studies program. Offcampus, she teaches adult educationand sings in the choir at First BaptistChurch and is active in CHANGE,a multiracial, multifaith, grassrootsorganization that identifies andaddresses needs in the community.“Mary is the quintessential WakeForest professor,” says Charles Kimball,professor and former chair ofreligion who hired Foskett in 1997 ashis first tenure-track faculty appointmentand the department’s onlywoman faculty member at the time.“She defines what we mean by theteacher-scholar ideal. She is a greatteacher, and as an adviser, she is offthe chart. It is striking how quicklyher courses fill regardless of the hourthey’re held and despite the fact thatshe is not an easy grader. One of hergreatest gifts is her ability to identifycounterproductive patterns in herstudents and to hold them accountablein an extraordinarily compassionateway.”Students are no less effusive intheir admiration. “She succeeds incombining unflinching academicprofessionalism with genuine careand concern for the lives of studentsand the [vitality] of our on-campuscommunity,” said one in the citationread at Founders’ Day Convocationat which the Kulynych award waspresented. Exclaimed another whohad nominated her: “As a teacher,she is unequaled in her ability toinvite students into new experiencesand ideas.” And this, from yet anotherstudent: “While she never allowsus to settle [into a comfort zone],she can meet us where we are. Morethan any other professor I know, herdoor is always open.”As a young woman, Foskett wasnot initially drawn to theologicalstudies or an academic career. Raisedon Long Island, she graduated fromNYU in 1985 with a major in psychology.“I spent time after college gettingmy bearings by doing some socialwork,” she says. When she enrolled36 WAKE FOREST MAGAZINE