Building a Moral Economy: Housing for All.

 Spring 2026

Dr. Laura Stivers is a Professor of Social Ethics and Co-Chair of the Division of Public Affairs at Dominican University of California. She has degrees from the Graduate Theological Union, Pacific School of Religion, and Saint Olaf College. Her scholarly expertise is in economic, environmental, and feminist ethics. She mentors and teaches in her university’s community-based Social Justice major. She is the sole author of Disrupting Homelessness: Alternative Christian Approaches; co-author of two case study books – Earth Ethics: A Case Method Approach and Christian Ethics: A Case Method Approach; co-editor of Justice in a Global Economy: Strategies for Home, Community, and World; and has numerous published articles. Laura has worked as an Academic Dean at two different universities, was a past President of the Southeast Commission for the Study of Religion, and was a member of the Board of the Society of Christian Ethics. 

In relation to homelessness and housing, Laura has served on the Board of The Street Chaplaincy in San Rafael, participated in a rotating shelter through her church, worked with the nonprofit organization Stand Up Neighborly Novato to advocate for affordable housing in her community, and is currently part of a coalition of groups to preserve and produce more affordable housing in Marin County. Outside of work, Laura is an outdoor enthusiast and a voracious reader.

Dr. Stivers is recognized in the academy, church, and housing activist communities for her work on housing and on the reality of widespread homelessness. She is experienced in teaching economic justice through popular economic pedagogical models, working with Just Economics and the Center for Ethics and Economic Policy in Berkeley, CA, doing workshops for numerous nonprofits organizing for social change, including Urban Habitat; the Bay Area Homelessness Project; and Vallejo Fighting Back Partnership. All of her books and many of her published articles  are written accessibly to be used in both churches and classrooms. All are related to both economic and environmental justice.

 https://www.amazon.com/s?k=laura+stivers+books&i=stripbooks&crid=MEAZIUTB9U7I&sprefix=laura+stivers+books%2Cstripbooks%2C149&ref=nb_sb_noss.