Baptist News Global welcomes two new Clemons Fellows who will serve in different roles this summer.
Mara Richards Bim, a recent master of divinity graduate of SMU’s Perkins School of Theology, will serve in a writing fellowship. Catherine Storke, a senior English major at the College of William and Mary will serve in a digital media fellowship with particular focus on advancing BNG content through TikTok and Instagram.
Mara Bim
Bim is an award-winning theater practitioner, playwright and director and founder of Cry Havoc Theater Company that operated in Dallas from 2014 to 2023. She received multiple DFW Theater Critics Awards and was awarded two special project grants from the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture for public art installations to accompany Cry Havoc Theater Company productions. Under her leadership, Cry Havoc was awarded the National Community Impact Award from Theater for Young Audiences, was named “Best Thing to Happen to Local Theater” by D Magazine and was the subject of a five-episode podcast by KERA/NPR about the company’s production of Babel in 2020.
In 2020, Bim received the Holloway Family Foundation’s Visionary Leadership Award and the next year she was named one of D Magazine’s “78 Women Changing the Face of Dallas.”
She enrolled at Perkins Seminary out of a desire to learn how better to work against Christian nationalism, which led to completion of the M.Div. this month. She also works as program coordinator at Faith Commons, where she focuses on lifting up interfaith voices for the common good. She is a candidate for ordination as a deacon in the United Methodist Church and is pursuing a certificate in spiritual direction.
Catherine Storke
Storke is a Virginia native majoring in English and minoring in philosophy at William and Mary, located in Williamsburg, Va. There, she also serves as graphics editor for the student newspaper, The Flat Hat.
She serves as communications director for Baptist Collegiate Ministry and is a research fellow with the Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies.
In 2020, she completed an internship in the office of U.S. Rep. Rob Wittman of Virginia.
Last year, she was selected as a reporting fellow with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. There, she developed an independent reporting project about Asian-American voter engagement.
BNG’s Clemons Fellowship offers advanced experiences in journalism for current or recent students at the university or seminary level. It is funded by two endowments established by legacy partnership with BNG: The Ardelle and Hardy Clemons Fund and the R.G. Puckett Fund.
Several previous Clemons Fellows continue to write for BNG today, including Rick Pidcock, Laura Ellis, David Bumgardner and Mallory Challis.