Kennel-Shank

Kennel-Shank, 24, will work from Chicago, becoming MWR’s first editorial staff member outside the Newton, Kan., office.

She is a 2004 graduate of Goshen (Ind.) College with a degree in environmental studies. In August she completed a master’s degree at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism in Evanston, Ill.

Kennel-Shank brings experience as a reporter and writer for Religion News Service, Medill News Service and Sojourners magazine. She has traveled in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia and Ethiopia on reporting and service trips.

A native of Washington, D.C., her family roots are in Lancaster and Chester counties, Pa. She is married to Josiah Groff and attends Chicago Community Mennonite Church.

Rhodes, who announced his departure in last week’s editorial, is moving to Kinzers, Pa., to work as an editor and writer for Good Books in Intercourse.

In six years with MWR, Rhodes combined his journalistic skills as a former secular newspaper editor with the faith commitment of an adult convert to Anabaptism. He brought a special affinity for plain Anabaptist groups, having lived for six years on a Hutterite colony in Minnesota, and a passion for following Christ’s way of peace in a violent world.

His editorials and news stories earned five awards from Associated Church Press. He also contributed to MWR’s award-winning coverage of the 2005 Mennonite Church USA convention in Charlotte, N.C., and to MWR’s five consecutive top-three finishes in ACP’s Best in Class competition for newspapers.

Rhodes also developed MWR’s Online Edition into a vital part of the newspaper’s coverage, especially of breaking stories.

The MWR staff wishes Rhodes and his family well in their new home and work and looks forward to working with Kennel-Shank as we continue the newspaper’s 86-year ministry of putting the Mennonite world together.