Influential Women Showcases Ingrid Faro: Interim President and Professor of Old Testament at Northern Seminary
Ingrid Faro is Interim President and Professor of Old Testament at Northern Seminary in Lisle, Illinois, where she serves as a scholar, speaker, and academic leader known for her work on the problem of evil, suffering, and abuse. Widely respected for integrating rigorous biblical scholarship with compassionate leadership, Faro brings together theology, community engagement, and organizational vision in her role at the seminary. Her teaching specialties include biblical Hebrew, the Pentateuch, Poetic and Wisdom Literature, and Old Testament theology, and she is deeply committed to equipping the church to engage communities with humility, justice, and faithful presence.
Faro’s path to theology and academia was unconventional. Before entering higher education, she built a successful career as an entrepreneur in the insurance industry, where she owned and operated multiple businesses and developed products distributed nationally. After experiencing significant professional burnout and working herself into a disability while managing two companies and consulting for a third, she entered a period of deep personal reflection. During this time, she wrestled with foundational questions about God’s existence, divine love, and the reality of evil, shaped in part by her own experiences of abuse and trauma. This season led her to begin formal theological studies while continuing to work in business for several years.
Faro later earned both a Master of Divinity and a Ph.D. in Old Testament from Trinity International University, where her doctoral work was recognized with the President’s Award. Over time, her vocational calling shifted fully into theological education. Her research and teaching now focus on helping individuals and communities understand suffering and explore the possibility of transformation through pain, while maintaining theological depth and pastoral sensitivity.
In addition to her leadership at Northern Seminary, Faro has taught internationally. She served for a decade as Associate Professor of Old Testament and Semitic Languages at the Scandinavian School of Theology in Uppsala, Sweden, and has also held faculty appointments at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and North Park Seminary. Her academic contributions include Demystifying Evil (InterVarsity Press, 2023) and Evil in Genesis (Lexham Press, 2021), both of which combine biblical exegesis, theological reflection, and personal narrative to examine how evil distorts creation and how redemptive hope is found within the biblical story.
Faro attributes her success to openness, reflection, and a willingness to engage deeply with questions of inner peace and meaning, including long-standing personal inquiry into questions of faith, divine presence, and divine love. She emphasizes that honest reflection and spiritual searching have been central to her academic and personal development.
One of the most influential pieces of career guidance Faro has received is the importance of following joy and pursuing life-giving work. She notes that while meaningful work is often difficult and at times extremely challenging, sustained purpose is found in aligning with passions that provide deep internal motivation and resilience. This principle has guided her academic path and continues to inform her teaching, writing, and leadership.
Faro also emphasizes the importance of perspective in the face of adversity. She believes that within every challenge lies opportunity, and she encourages others not to view themselves as being “buried” by hardship, but rather as being “planted” for future growth. This framing has become a central theme in her work, particularly in her efforts to help individuals reinterpret suffering and reclaim hope.
Her motivation, she explains, is rooted in offering encouragement and hope to others. Many individuals, Faro notes, struggle with internal narratives of inadequacy or self-doubt. Having faced her own significant obstacles, she seeks to model perseverance and possibility, encouraging others to move forward even when external or internal voices suggest they cannot. She also underscores the importance of addressing emotional pain rather than suppressing it, noting that unresolved trauma can have lasting consequences on both mental and physical well-being.
Within her academic field, Faro identifies both challenges and opportunities. One of the most significant challenges she observes is the presence of fundamentalism and legalism, particularly when it results in limiting interpretations that restrict the roles and contributions of women. She describes these perspectives as rooted in narrow frameworks that can diminish human potential and, at times, be expressed in harmful or dismissive ways.
At the same time, Faro sees substantial opportunity within theological education and community engagement. She highlights the work of Northern Seminary in Christian community development, particularly in underserved urban and rural contexts. This includes initiatives in neighborhoods such as Lawndale and West Garfield Park in Chicago, where pastors and community leaders work directly with residents to foster transformation and stability.
These initiatives include access to healthcare resources, employment support, legal assistance, and social services designed to de-escalate crises before law enforcement intervention is required. Faro also notes the training of students across the country in community development practices inspired by the legacy of John Perkins, equipping them to bring practical resources and relational engagement to underserved communities.
Central to Faro’s leadership philosophy is the belief that people must come first. She emphasizes patience, respect, kindness, and care as essential qualities in both academic and organizational leadership. She also underscores the importance of integrity and accountability, noting that individuals who keep their word and treat others with dignity form the foundation of healthy communities and institutions.
Faro further reflects on the broader societal impact of leadership, observing that poor leadership can contribute to harm not only in professional environments but also in families and communities. She advocates for leadership models that prioritize dignity, emotional well-being, and human flourishing, particularly in contexts where individuals have experienced trauma or systemic neglect.
Across her scholarship, teaching, and leadership, Ingrid Faro remains guided by a conviction that people come first and that even the deepest wounds can become places of growth, courage, and renewed calling.
Learn More about Ingrid Faro:
Through her Influential Women profile, https://influentialwomen.com/connect/Ingrid-Faro, through her profile on Northern Seminary, https://www.seminary.edu/faculty/ingrid-faro/ or through her website, https://www.ingridfaro.com/
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