Profiles of Roothbert: Leonisa Ardizzone
“I am never satisfied. I’m a quintessential lifelong learner. I’m either going to go read this book, join that class, or go get another degree. During the pandemic, I was taking jazz lessons online just because I could. Why not have a voice lesson right here in my office?”
Scientist. Minister. Jazz musician. Professor. Peace educator. Leonisa Ardizzone approaches the world with an interdisciplinary mindset and a commitment to service. Born in NYC and raised in a working-class neighborhood of New Jersey, Leonisa attributes her interests and talents to her parents.
“My father was a massive opera lover. I have listened to opera since the uterus. My parents signed me up for piano lessons when I was four years old. In regards to my background in science, my father was a plumber and my mother worked as a lab technician. From a very young age, my parents would teach me how things worked, from pipes to toilet bowls to blueprints.”
Image credit: The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Catskills
Whether teaching science at the American Indian Heritage School in Seattle, WA, serving as a minister at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Catskills, facilitating group discussions as a professor at Vassar College, or releasing “a few” jazz records, Leonisa identifies principally as a peace educator. “I always want to ground my work in education as a liberatory practice.”
Leonisa became a Roothbert Fellow while earning her doctorate at Columbia University’s Teachers College in 2000. “I felt like the Roothbert Fund were my people,” commented Leonisa. Currently a board member, Leonisa recalled “transformative, enriching experiences” at Pendle Hill. “I wrote my dissertation at Pendle Hill. I knew it was a space in which I could immerse myself and have fulfilling conversations.” Upon receiving her doctorate, Leonisa worked as a professor, in museums, as an education consultant, in various nonprofits. However, all of Leonisa’s experience “came into a stark reality” when she heard a call to ministry.
“I was past my mid-40s. I was a single mother. And I just thought, ‘What am I doing?’ and applied to seminary. My daughter and I visited Union Theological Seminary together, and we knew it was going to change our lives.” Leonisa highlighted the parallels between education and ministry, both rooted in a sense of service. “My interest in education was never about benchmarks or hurdles; it was always about transformation. It’s really so fun and compelling to watch people shift their thinking and grapple with mythologies that they’ve been sold in the past, to look at their own life and say ‘Oh wow. I never thought of it that way.’” Ministry and education are both transformative experiences. Regardless of Leonisa’s professional title, the fundamental component in her work is the “facilitation of a transformation in both minds and hearts.”
Leonisa’s plethora of interests, talents, and professions, however, require her to rethink and prioritize. “I’ve been working hard for a really long time, and I’ve recently had a moment to think to myself, ‘Okay. What do you really want to do that will feel the most impactful? What do you really want to do that is core to your personal ethos and calling in the world?’”. Leonisa has her sights set on establishing a Peace Education Center in the Hudson Valley for folks interested in interfaith dialogue.
“Ministry does not have to take place in a church,” shared Leonisa. “I am really interested in faith-based climate work. As both a scientist and a clergy member, I want to create a space for connection, a space for community organizers to come together and share their work for the sake of a greater impact, a space where all of us are doing anti-violence, truth, and reconciliation work. I want to create a space for those of us who want the new normal to be something drastically different from the current world, a hub for social change, justice, and peace.”