Meet Ken Walden, CMC’s New Interim Athenaeum Director

Woolley Athenaeum Fellow Violet Ramanathan '27 sits down for an interview with Ken Walden.

Credit: Byron Figueroa

This semester, CMC’s Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum welcomed a new interim director, Dr. Ken Walden. Priya Junnar, who served as director from 2014 to 2023 and served as acting director in 2025, stepped down from her role in December, following the announcement that her husband, CMC President Hiram Chodosh, will be resigning at the end of the 2025-26 academic year. 

The Athenaeum, renowned as the ‘crown jewel’ of CMC, hosts guest speakers four nights a week who give keynote presentations over a formal dinner. In the past year, the Athenaeum,—colloquially known as the “Ath”—has hosted leading free speech expert Nadine Strossen, political commentator William Kristol, Pulitzer prize winning author Joshua Cohen, and John W. Dean III, a former White House advisor who played a key role in the Watergate investigation. 

Interim director Ken Walden earned his bachelor’s degree from The Citadel, a military college in South Carolina. He also holds a Master of Divinity from Duke University, and another master’s and a Ph.D. from the Claremont School of Theology. Walden is a Chaplain Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air Force Reserve who recently served active duty in Stuttgart, Germany. He is an ordained clergy-member of the California-Pacific Conference of The United Methodist Church.

Walden has previously worked in education, including as President of Gammon Theological Seminary at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, GA. He has also worked at Hood Theological Seminary in Salisbury, NC, and Claflin University in Orangeburg, SC.

Below, read excerpts from Dr. Walden’s interview with Forum editor and Woolley Athenaeum Fellow Violet Ramanathan ‘27.

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Dr. Walden described his career path as “tri-vocational,” serving as an officer in the military, a college professor and administrator, and a member of the United Methodist clergy. Last year, he was assigned to the United States European Command in Stuttgart, Germany. When asked to describe the day-to-day of his role in Germany, Dr. Walden shared the following: 

I worked a lot with our NATO partners and members and friends from different countries, and we worked around issues around diplomacy. What commonalities do our countries have, and where can we build upon bridges and build upon different joint interests? But I also did some traditional chaplain roles in terms of counseling. I did a lot of advising commanders. Unfortunately, when I was in Germany, we had a few deaths, unexpected deaths, unplanned, unanticipated deaths. And I participated and did the eulogy and things of that nature as well.

After spending what he described as “a really good time” in Germany, Dr. Walden felt that it was time to return to the U.S., and he was excited to find the Athenaeum opportunity in Claremont, a town that he is familiar with from his time at the Claremont School of Theology.

Dr. Walden is excited about the interdisciplinary mission of the Ath. Since he has worked in many different fields throughout his career, he connects with the Ath’s focus on drawing in people from a variety of backgrounds, viewpoints, and areas of expertise. He also felt called to CMC because of the college’s distinct ambition. In a time where many schools are closing or downsizing, CMC is “expanding programs, expanding staff, expanding resources, [and] also expanding buildings.” Dr. Walden also mentioned the appeal of a small college environment with a close knit community, which reflected his experience at the Citadel, Duke—which he described as having small classes—and the Claremont School of Theology. 

In discussing his goals for the Ath, Dr. Walden described his desire to maintain the strong legacy that Priya Junnar has built over the years. He also cited the importance of hosting a diversity of events, including musical events like the Gospel Choir on February 2nd, the first Ath talk that Dr. Walden attended. In discussing the importance of performances like this, he said the following:

Music can have therapeutic properties…We often talk about air pollution, water pollution, food pollution. Well, there's noise pollution, too. What we listen to, what we are hearing. So music presented in a very healthy way, it can help heal the body.

Additionally, Dr. Walden mentioned wanting to create more opportunities for students to share their work at the Athenaeum.

When asked about his transition into the position, Dr. Walden said: “My first role is to listen and learn.” He mentioned that Mrs. Junnar has been helping him understand the many moving parts of the Ath. Dr. Walden also noted that he hopes that his faith will guide him in his work in the Athenaeum. He described his faith as a source of optimism, and a part of his commitment to “mercy and grace.” 

While some on campus have questioned the value of maintaining a dress code at the Ath, Dr. Walden remarked that this policy trains students well for dress codes in future professional settings:

I think that the Athenaeum is smart, and the Athenaeum policy serves the students very well in terms of a dress code. And the reason being is because many of our students will be going to a variety of professions. And [in] many professions, you cannot wear what you want to wear…. I think it’s good for the students to experience a place with those kind of expectations.

More generally, he remarked that it is important for students to understand the “rules of engagement” in professional settings.

When he’s not working, Dr. Walden enjoys spending time outdoors: walking along the beach, swimming, hiking, and visiting the botanical gardens. He also enjoys reading and writing, and he has authored multiple books, including Practical Theology for Church Diversity and Challenges Faced by Iraq War Reservists and Their Families. He is currently working on a book about the first African-American to graduate from the Citadel, Charles Foster.

Dr. Walden shared a few media recommendations for CMC students. For books, he recommended Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins, an autobiographical account of a man who worked to make foreign countries economically dependent on the US; and The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson, about the Great Migration of Black Americans leaving the South in the 20th century. He also recommended the film Casablanca, which he described as follows:

The reason why that's one of my favorite movies is because it deals with politics. It deals with national identity. It deals with the complexities of relationships, romantic relationships, but it also deals with the complexities of friendships, and the complexities of different seasons of life. And it's packaged in such a profound way… I’ve seen that movie about 50 times.

As a closing remark, Dr. Walden commented that he wants to serve as a mentor to the CMC community: “to give students small pieces of advice that could make a big difference in their lives, for the better.”