Meet the Staff: April Pronto, Makilah Witt

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April Ponto, Research Assistant

After graduating from The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio I was employed for five and a half years with an organization called OptionLine. OptionLine is a pro-life, in-bound pregnancy helpline for the United States and Canada. I worked as the Training and Human Resources Coordinator and hired employees, preparing them to answer phone calls, e-mails, and instant messages from men and women in pregnancy crisis.

While working there I became deeply interested in bioethical issues, practically beginning-of-life issues, and wanted to expand my knowledge. It was through my volunteer work with Oregon Right to Life that I became familiar with CBHD. I made the decision to leave my job and enroll full-time as a graduate student at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School because I knew the school could equip me with the tools I need to move forward in a career within the prolife movement. My degree program is Master of Arts in Christian Thought with an emphasis in bioethics. I am excited to be a part of the Trinity community and to be employed at CBHD because they both approach bioethics with a Christ-centered perspective.

Upon graduation, my desire is to return to the pro-life movement with more knowledge, a broader background, and a more diverse work-experience. Though this is only my second semester as a full-time student at Trinity and at the Center, I am already being equipped for greater service and I look forward to learning more.


Makilah Witt, Event & Education Assistant

Originally from Northwest Ohio, I graduated from Wheaton College in 2010 where I majored in Philosophy and International Relations, and minored in Theology. The master’s degree programs in Philosophy of Religion and Bioethics have been a wonderful catalyst for me to develop rigorous thinking grounded in faith and in critical engagement with the broken realities of this world.  

I am grateful to be a part of the Event and Education team at CBHD. I am very passionate about fostering opportunities for dialogue and engagement in the philosophical and theological issues in bioethics. Knowledge is the first step to action, and it excites me to be a part of a center that is impacting the field of bioethics and public policy through offering a careful and faithful response to the profoundly complex issues of today.  

During my time working at the Center, I have become increasingly interested in the role of the Church in developing the character of the Christian community to become agents of change in the world. This in my view is a call to discipleship and an opportunity to examine and challenge worldviews in order to expose and transform ways of thinking in both the Church and in the world. As a Christian and a scholar, I desire to stand in the gap between Athens and Jerusalem; the secular and the sacred, by engaging in a dialogue that brings clarity and cultivates faithfulness in response to the needs within our Church and world today.