McCormick Names Dr. Jennifer McBride as Associate Dean of Doctor of Ministry Programs and Continuing Education
05-03-2016
McCormick Theological Seminary announces the appointment of Dr. Jennifer McBride as the Associate Dean of Doctor of Ministry Programs and Continuing Education and Assistant Professor of Theology and Ethics. Dr. McBride will begin her work at McCormick in July.
Dr. McBride brings to McCormick extensive experience in the intersection between theological reflection and the practice of ministry. Most recently, Dr. McBride held the Regents Chair of Ethics as Assistant Professor of Religion at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, where she implemented and directed the new Peace and Justice Studies Program. Previously, she held a postdoctoral fellowship and visiting lectureship at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. At Candler, McBride worked in the Lilly funded Initiative in Religious Practices and Practical Theology, which brought together practitioners and scholars, and she helped to implement and then directed a theological certificate program at a women’s prison in the Atlanta area. McBride’s advocacy on behalf of death row inmate Kelly Gissendaner, to commute her sentence to life in prison, gained national attention.
McCormick President Frank Yamada said, “We are excited to have Jenny McBride join the McCormick community. She brings deep commitments to the church and world, combined with excellent administrative skill. Her views of what the church can be will be great for the future of our D.Min. degree and new innovative programs. She will thrive here, and our mission will thrive because of her.”
In her doctoral work at the University of Virginia, McBride focused on public theology in her dissertation on The Church for the World: A Theology of Public Witness (now published with this title by Oxford, 2011) and assisted in the Project on Lived Theology. Her second book, Reducing Distance: The Space of Radical Discipleship, will be published by Fortress Press. McBride has participated in urban ministry in Washington, D.C. and has more recently been associated with the Open Door Community, an ecumenical, interracial, Christian activist and worshipping community in Atlanta.
“Dr. McBride brings to us a passion for the church and for ways to reimagine it in the future,” notes Ted Hiebert, Dean of the Faculty. “Her experience in the intersection of theology and practice makes her the ideal person to strengthen McCormick’s Doctor of Ministry Program and to lead our initiatives in continuing education.”