2012 Ph.D., The History of the Christian Tradition, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas
2005 M. Div. Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas
1989 B.S. Biology and Chemistry, Texas Southern University, Houston, Texas
African American studies, church history, spirituality, faith and science
$20,000 Blanche & Julian Robertson Family Foundation Grant for ICFSH Programming that integrates scientific content within theological education, 2022 – 2023
Hood Theological Seminary, Teaching and Service Award, 2021 and 2017
$10,000 AAAS - DoSER Climate Change and Theological Education Seedgrant, 2021 -2022
$75,000 AAAS/ATS Science for Seminaries Grant, 2019-2020
Henry Luce grant for “African Americans and Religious Freedom” project at Hood Theological Seminary offering graduate theological courses on the First Amendment right of religious freedom that centered African American voices, experiences and ideas, 2019 – 2021
Delegate to the World Methodist Council (WMC) from the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 2016.
Inducted into the San Antonio Ladies of the Talented Tenth (SALTT) organization in San Antonio, Texas, 2012
Summer Wesley Seminar at Duke Divinity School, Duke University, 2008
As the first African-American woman to be accepted into the SMU Graduate Program for Religious Studies, (GPRS), received the prestigious Fund for Theological Education (FTE) North American Doctoral Fellowship for two consecutive years, 2005-6.
The Dr. and Mrs. Glenn Flinn Senior Award –May 2005
Hoyt Hickman Award Outstanding Liturgical Scholarship & Practice- May 2005
The Philip Schaff Prize in Church History – May 2005
The B’nai B’rith Award in Social Ethics – May 2005
The Karis Stahl Fadely Scholarship Award – May 2004
McElvaney “Nelson Mandela” Scholarship Award for Social Justice – October 2004
Rebaptism Calmly Considered: Christian Initiation and Resistance in the Early AME Church of Jamaica. Pickwick Publications, September 10, 2019.
“The Black Church and Religious Freedom”, African Americans and Religious Freedom. Freedom Forum, Henry Luce Foundation. pp 37-42. January 2021.
“Salvation Then and Now”, T&T Clark Companion to African American Theology. pgs 33-45. June 2019.
“2018 AAR Session Introduction: Health and Healing in Wesleyan and Methodist Perspectives”, Wesley and Methodist Studies, vol. 12. (June 2020).
“Wesleyan grace seen in Confederate flag stand” umc.org. August 25, 2015
“Thomas Pennock, Wesleyan Missionary to Jamaica: A Case of Acculturation or Enculturation?” Wesley and Methodist Studies. (April 2012).
“African Methodism and the Use of Vestments.” The AME Church Review. March 2011
“Millennialism in the Life of A.M.E. Bishop Henry McNeal Turner.” The AME Church Review September 2010
“Was William Seymour a Charismatic AME?” The AME Church Review. April-June 2007.
RECENT PRESENTATIONS
Presenter, “Bible Discovery Hour” Southwest Texas Conference AME Church October 11, 2024 - Austin, Texas
Convener, ICFSH Fall Conference: October 11, 2024. Theme: “Soil and Souls in Dialogue”
Small Group Facilitator, “Earth Group”: AAAS-DoSER Climate Science in Theological Education Retreat. August 5 – 8, 2024
Presenter, “A Curriculum of African and African American History” Spring Convocation, Tenth Episcopal District, AME Church May 5, 2024, Houston, Texas
Presenter, “Hidden Figures of African Methodism” Founders Day Conference, Tenth Episcopal District, AME Church February 14, 2024, Waco, Texas
Panelist, Opening Plenary - “The Power of a Thinking Church”, Department of Research and Scholarship. AME Church Scholars and Practitioners Conference, May 18-20, 2023. Emory Conference Center, Atlanta Georgia.
Panelist - ATS Webinar: “Institutional Discernment for Building Intercultural Awareness among Faculty and Administrators”, January 27, 2023.
Presenter, Peace Haven Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, NC, Social Justice Ministry Series, “Biblical Justice and Discipleship” November 29, 2022
“Convener, ICFSH Fall Conference: October 28, 2022. Theme “Human Futures: Grounded by Earth, Reaching for Heaven”
Presenter, AAAS-DoSER Annual Retreat, June 2022, Southport, Maine “Spirituality in the Scientific Methodology of George Washington Carver”
Panelist, AME NEXT recording for a Documentary, filmed May 20, 2022 by the Payne Theological Seminary, Mapping Black Methodism Project.
Convener, ICFSH Earth Day Conference April 22, 2022
Panelist, 2020 AAAS-DoSER Sponsored AAR Conference Workshop, “Racism in Science and Theology” November 20, 2020.
Presenter, October 4, 2019 “The Expansion and Transformation of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Jamaica” at the Annual Conference for the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, (ASALH) in N. Charleston, SC. ASALH 2019 Theme: “Black Migrations”
Moderator, 2018 AAR Conference panel, Wesleyan Studies Unit on Health and Healing in Wesleyan and Methodist Perspectives, November 17, 2018 Denver, Colorado.
Presenter, June 2018: “An AME Muse and Musings of Diasporic Imagination” AME Church Department of Research and Scholarship Conference, Atlanta, Georgia Theme: Activist Faith: Connecting Head and Heart, June 27-28, 2018.
Panelist, May 2014 Symposium “Grace Works: Reflections on Divine Grace, Human Works, and John Wesley – Celebrating the Scholarly Contributions of Richard P. Heitzenrater.”, May 16, 2014, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University.
Panelist, November 2004, the Womanist Theological Panel at the American Academy of Religion (AAR) Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas.
$15,000 AAAS DoSER Climate Science and Theological Education Grant, collaboration between Texas Lutheran University and Hood Theological Seminary 2023-2024