Directory

Vice President of Culture and Belonging

Sheryl R. Wilson, M.L.S., is the Vice President of Culture and Belonging at Bethel College (KS) and a nationally recognized practitioner, educator, and thought leader in restorative justice with more than 20 years of experience. Her work spans higher education, nonprofit organizations, and public agencies, both nationally and internationally. Her work also includes facilitating restorative dialogues and community mediation, circle processes, and research.

Sheryl holds both a Bachelor of Science degree in Communication Studies and a Master of Liberal Studies degree with a restorative justice focus from the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities. and she is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Kansas, further deepening her scholarship at the intersection of restorative justice, leadership, and institutional transformation. She has taught restorative justice at the college level and has extensive experience in community outreach, victim-offender dialogue, and victim advocacy in capital cases. She is a Kansas state-approved mediator, and has served by appointment on the Kansas Supreme Court’s Advisory Council on Dispute Resolution. She is also a past President of the Board of Directors for the National Association of Community and Restorative Justice (NACRJ).

She is co-author of The Little Book of Restorative Justice and Community: Reclaiming Connection and Responsibility for Our Neighbors (2026), a recent publication that centers the essential role of community in restorative practice and advances a relational approach to justice. Her additional scholarship includes a chapter in Colorizing Restorative Justice: Voicing Our Realities (2020) and “Leveraging Slow Leadership to Develop Deans” in Developing Deans: Transforming Academic Leadership (2026), co-authored with Bethel professors Christine Crouse-Dick and Rachel Epp Buller.

At Bethel College, Sheryl is the founding leader of the Truth, Community Healing, and Transformation (TCHT) Campus Center and previously served as Executive Director of the Kansas Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (KIPCOR). She is also a co-founder of the Slow Leadership Institute, advancing a human-centered approach to leadership grounded in deep listening, prioritizing relationships and restorative practices.