Personnel

Dr. Key earned both her Bachelor of Science in Psychology and her Master of Science in Counseling Psychology degrees from California Baptist University. She earned a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology with a specialty in College Student Development through the School of Education at the University of Southern California.

Dr. Key has served California Baptist University as a faculty member teaching in the Psychology, Education and Literature departments and in the Counseling Graduate Program. She has held positions as Counseling Center Director, Director of Women’s Housing, and Career Services Director. She is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, was in private practice for several years, and conducted seminars in organizational consulting.

Mary is co-author, along with Carolyn Curtis, of Women and C.S. Lewis: What his life and literature reveal for today’s culture. Mary and Carolyn began their collaboration after meeting at one of the C.S. Lewis Foundation’s Writer’s Retreats at Camp Allen, TX.

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Dr. Key earned his B.A. in Political Science from the University of New Mexico, and a Master’s of Divinity and Ph.D. in Philosophy from Southern Baptist Theological Seminar. Concurrent with his academic career, and throughout his life, he has served in a pastoral capacity in each of the communities in which he has resided.

As Professor of Philosophy in the School of Christian Ministries at California Baptist University, Scott helped establish and run the CBU Honors Program, and, previously, the 4-year Great Works Bachelor’s Degree Program. In addition, Scott is one of the founding faculty of the seven-year program entitled, Seminar on Faith and the Academic Professions (SOFAP), strategically designed to assist the 35-40 new tenure-track faculty each year to think deeply and carefully about their teaching, research, and service from the perspective of the Christian worldview. Scott has also served as the Chair of the Department of History, Philosophy, and Political Science; as Center Director for two off-site campuses; and as Campus Minister. He has taught courses in Philosophy, History, Political Science, English, Psychology, Christian Studies, and Humanities. His research areas include the history of philosophy, 20th Century Philosophy, Aesthetics, Ethics, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.

Dr. Key is co-editor of the online journal, In Pursuit of Truth, presenter at Faculty Forums, and coordinator of the Academic Roundtable, all for the C.S. Lewis Foundation at their triennial “Oxbridge” conferences held in Oxford and Cambridge. In addition to leading seminars and fulfilling speaking engagements for the C.S. Lewis Study Center, Dr. Key has made academic presentations for such groups as the Society of Christian Philosophers, the Society of Christianity and Literature, the Evangelical Philosophical Society.

His publications include the following chapter contributions: “Metaphors of Meaning: The Dance of Truth and Imagination in That Hideous Stength” inContemporary Perspectives on C.S. Lewis’ The Abolition of Man, (Mosteller & Anacker, eds., 2017) and “The Moral Aesthetic of Perelandra” in C.S. Lewis and the Arts: Creativity in the Shadowlands” (Miller, ed., 2013). His current research manuscript in preparation is entitled, “Truth in the Balance: A Literary and Philosophical Analysis of the Gospel of Mark.”

He and his wife, Mary, home-educated their three children, and are proud to see them navigating post-college, young adulthood transitions with courage and faithfulness.

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Roy is a hiker, highpointer, peakbagger, reader, writer, technology promoter, and business-line and marketing leader. “All of what I do is in a Christian context – my faith drives what I do.  In addition to the avocation pursuits in my free time, there is a large component of what I do that is vocation. Again, this is all in a Christian context.” 

Roy Wallen has served in leadership roles for new product initiatives in companies ranging from pre-revenue start-up to multi-billion, global concerns.  With an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering and a biomedical focus, as well as graduate studies in biomedical engineering and business, Roy has spent his career managing existing businesses for sustainable profits and bringing new technologies out of the laboratory and into clinical use. 

In addition to successful launches in the United States, Roy spent approximately 8 years in Europe where he investigated new technologies and launched several new products for a large, global company; established a European presence for a start-up company seeking its initial public offering; and supported, built, and maintained sales and distribution channels. 

In his local church, Roy serves in leadership as an Elder and Moderator. He also serves as an administrator to the Inkling Folk Fellowship, a weekly, informal, friendly, literary conversation circle, focusing primarily on the writings of C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald, Dorothy L. Sayers, J.R.R. Tolkien, and others.

Roy has published 13 peer-reviewed papers, more than 25 abstracts and short papers, and numerous book reviews. He has contributed to 6 books and is a regular conference presenter. Roy currently leads Directional Healthcare Advisors, LLC (directionalhealthcare.com), an advisory services firm formed to support start-up, medical technology companies in business management and commercialization.

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Kirk Manton has over 45 years of experience in ministry and entertainment. His career and volunteer work weaves in and out of the church and secular work environments.  His passion is to see the gifts that God has given to each person creatively nurtured and expressed to the world for His glory and the expansion of His kingdom. 

Kirk earned a B.A. in Religious Studies from the Union Institute. His areas of study and life experiences include youth pastor, corporate live event management, small business management, film production, lighting design, mega-church event production, and film studio operations. During the past 30 years, Kirk has also lent his leadership and technical skills to serve the C.S. Lewis Foundation and other related Christian non-profit ministries as their Event Production Manager. Kirk has recruited and managed a growing team of volunteer Christian tech arts people to help him provide technical production support (lighting, audio, and video) for these ministries.  In 2018, Kirk led this group to establish The Guild Fellowship, a 501c3 non-profit corporation that offers fellowship, mentoring and non-profit service opportunities to Christians in the tech arts industry.

Kirk Manton is also the founder and president of the for-profit company, Catalyst C & F Development LLC.  Through Catalyst, Kirk is developing Collaborative and Fundraising opportunities for seven client organizations: The C.S. Lewis Foundation, The C.S. Lewis Study Center at The Kilns (Lewis’ home in Oxford, England), the C.S. Lewis College, the C.S. Lewis Study Center in Northfield, MA, Eastgate Creative, The Cultivating Project and The Guild Fellowship.

Kirk’s personal creativity is mainly expressed through writing poetry. Kirk has published two books: The Grace of Rain, a poetry devotional, and Listening Like Breathing, a photography/poetry book which won the 2018 Texas Authors Association Poetry Book of the Year Award.  

Kirk lives in Tallmadge, Ohio, with his wife Rachelle. They have four children and four grandchildren living all across the Midwest.

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Brad Davis is a California-born Canadian living in northeastern Connecticut with his spouse. His tenth collection of poems, On the Way to Putnam: New, Selected, & Early Poems, was released by Grayson Books in Spring 2024. Two of his collections, Trespassing on the Mount of Olives (2021) and Still Working it Out (2014), were published by Cascade Books in their Poiema Poetry Series. A chapbook, Short List of Wonders (Hill-Stead Museum, 2005), won the Sunken Garden Poetry Prize. Individual poems have appeared in Poetry magazine, The Paris Review, Vallum, Michigan Quarterly, Puerto del Sol, Brilliant Corners, Image, Connecticut River Review, LETTERS, Presence, and many other journals. In 2012, he edited the anthology Sunken Garden Poetry: 1992-2011 (Wesleyan University Press) for Hill-Stead Museum, home of the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival.

Davis served as an Episcopal priest for 25 years and a boarding school chaplain/teacher for 33 years. He also taught at the College of the Holy Cross and Eastern Connecticut State University. While chaplain and squash coach at Pomfret School in Connecticut, he earned an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and won an AWP Intro Journal Award. In 2022, he was a Writer-in-Residence at Trail Wood, the Edwin Way Teale homestead and Audubon property in Hampton, CT. Other writing residencies include Mass MoCa and the Vermont Studio Center.

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First “voluntold” to help with a C.S. Lewis related event at age 10, Emily is cheerfully joining the CSLSC staff with a Master of Business Administration from Union University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from California Baptist University. Supporting communication efforts and assisting with upcoming projects, she is excited to contribute to the ongoing work of CSLSC in a more official capacity. In addition, Emily serves as Assistant Director for Student Engagement in the Vocatio Center for Life Calling and Career at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee.