APPLICATION POLICY
AES ensures that persons are admitted to these educational programs without regard to race, gender, age, faith group, national origin, sexual orientation or physical disability. Equal access to education opportunities is extended to all qualified applicants. All members of the faculty and consultation group are expected to cooperate in making this policy valid in fact.
Once accepted, you will receive an invoice for the unit. You may choose to pay through Venmo, Zelle, or by check.
You may also pay installments – you will be billed every 4 weeks until completion of the unit. Unit must be paid in full to receive credit.
AES practices “community-based” CPE. By this we mean that the context in which the student practices their spiritual care is in the greater community. The key component is that the student has access to a population in need and can justify 300 hours of spiritual care practice. The student may volunteer at the local hospital, jail, youth home, center for the unhoused etc. Be creative and be in discussion with the CE.
Every student is required to have a preceptor who can assist the student with their clinical placement and provide feedback for the final on the student’s spiritual care practice.
Once the CE, the student and the preceptor agree that the placement is suitable, a clinical placement agreement will be signed by all parties which provide the framework for the CPE unit.
AES offers four online units per year. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.
Anyone who meets the minimum requirements for admission (as outlined below) to the CEC program is eligible to apply for the CEC program with AES. Upon receipt, review, and evaluation of the written application materials, the Certified Educators/National Faculty members of AES will interview the applicants for suitability and viability of the applicants for admission to the AES CEC program.
AES encourages applications from people of all religious/spiritual, gender, orientation, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds. AES will also actively seek highly qualified applicants who exhibit the acumen, motivation, and tenacity, including academic capabilities, to complete the intense and demanding program to become a Certified Educator with ACPE, Inc. Certification as an Educator is not for the “faint of heart,” or for those who want to merely “check it out,” or pursue it as a possible career. AES sincerely believes that one must have a clear sense of motivation, purpose, and passion for becoming a Certified Educator with ACPE. Hence, the application and interview process will be more selective than most other programs, which we know will result in the highest quality Educator.
AES prides itself in having its faculty members – Jonathan Fisher and Mark Lee – who have experience of going through the current certification process well within 36 months. Also, the faculty have experience as CEs and National Faculty members, Theory Integration Mentor, Accreditation reviewers, and with other leadership positions within ACPE, to help guide students through the lengthy certification process.
In addition to the admission process application requirements, as outlined in by ACPE, Inc., the following are required:
PHONE NUMBER:
+1 (227) 245-5349
Mark is an ordained priest of The Episcopal Church (TEC), a Certified Educator/National Faculty (CE/NF) with the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE), and an Army Chaplain, currently serving at the rank of Colonel. Most significantly and importantly, he is the spouse of Kyo Young Park and father to Nicole and Jimin.
Currently, he is the Dean of the Graduate School of the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps, with over 23 years of military chaplaincy experience (19 years on active duty with two deployments to Iraq). In addition to undergraduate university courses, Mark has taught Combat/Emergency Medical Ministry and Moral Injury for the Army, and has given numerous presentations on Moral Injury, PTSD, and Posttraumatic Growth to churches and other civilian and academic organizations. His combat deployments heavily influence his academic interests.
Mark’s previous assignments include: Director, CPE Program at Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio, TX; Chief of Theater Spiritual Resilience at the U.S. Army Europe-Africa Headquarters, Wiesbaden, Germany; Curriculum Developer and Instructor at the U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence, San Antonio, TX; Deputy Garrison Chaplain and Resource Manager, USAG-Yongsan, Seoul, Korea; Brigade Chaplain, 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division at Camp Hovey, Dongducheon, Korea; 98th Medical Detachment (Combat Stress Control), Joint Base Lewis-McChord, WA; Operations Chaplain, I Corps, JBLM, WA; Battalion Chaplain, 14th Engineer Battalion, JBLM, WA.
Prior to the Army, Mark served as senior pastor of Community Church of Honolulu and concurrently as a chaplain in the Hawaii Air National Guard. He also taught at universities and colleges as an Adjunct Professor. Prior to ministry and the Army, he worked in banking and finance for over six years in Honolulu and Los Angeles.
Mark’s PhD (University of Aberdeen, Scotland) and Doctor of Ministry (Erskine Theological Seminary) focused on post-combat trauma, the role of faith and the chaplain in promoting healing and growth. He received his Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary, and Master of Business Administration and Bachelor of Science degrees from the University of Southern California.
As a Certified Educator, he leans on Vanier and Tillich (theology of community and becoming fully human), Horney and Rogers (relating with others in conflict and unconditional positive regard), and Jarvis and Yalom (disjuncture and group process in education). He is an academically oriented and emotionally aware person who strives to live well integrated with all aspects of life. He wants to help chaplains grow into the fullness of their being as a chaplain and a person, as created in the imago Dei (according to my theology), which ultimately will aid their spiritual care of others.
Jonathan Fisher is a Certified Educator and National Faculty with the Association of Clinical Pastoral Education and currently serves as the Director of Clinical Pastoral Education at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, MD.
With over 20 years of professional chaplaincy experience, Jonathan has served in a wide range of operational and training units, including three combat tours. He completed his CPE residency at Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, WA, and later his CEC fellowship at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, TX, where he also served as Director.
Jonathan knows ACPE Accreditation. He is the ACPE Accreditation Commissioner for all the VA and DoD CPE programs. He has personally set up 3 CPE Programs from the ground up including the US Army Center for Extended CPE with serves as a model of providing CPE through remote learning.
Beyond his military roles, Jonathan has served as an associate pastor and a high school educator. He is endorsed by the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), which formally recognized his ordination in 2010 after a period of deep personal growth, discernment, and spiritual direction. His journey through traumatic experiences in both fundamentalist education and combat has shaped a faith and set of values he now finds most fully expressed within the Disciples tradition.
Jonathan holds a Doctor of Ministry from Erskine Theological Seminary, where his work focused on ministry within a military prison context. While serving as staff chaplain at the Military Correctional Complex in Fort Leavenworth, KS, he co-developed a program that led to a significant reduction in violence and recidivism at the facility, which includes the Joint Regional Correctional Facility and the United States Disciplinary Barracks—the Department of Defense’s only maximum-security prison.
Jonathan is married to Sara, who is also an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Together, they are raising three teenagers and a spirited Schnauzer named Schuyler in Rockville, MD. In his free time, Jonathan enjoys woodworking and spending time on the water.
