25-26 WLI Course: Womanist Leadership & Innovation

Course Description:

Join a transformative learning experience that blends womanist ethics, Afro-futurist imagination, and strategic innovation. This course centers Black women’s wisdom as a force for visionary leadership and sustainable change.

Featuring core texts by Alice Walker, Katie Cannon, and Renita Weems, participants will explore how to lead with purpose, resilience, and radical imagination in a rapidly changing world.

• Ideal for professionals in ministry, nonprofits, education, entrepreneurship, and the arts.
• Grounded in justice, creativity, and collective care.
• Innovation redefined—not just tech, but systems of care and cultural visioning. 

#WomanistLeadership #Innovation2025 #BlackWomenLead #ContinuingEducation #LeadershipDevelopment

Meet the Instructor

Rev. Dr. Gabby Cudjoe Wilkes is a pastor, public theologian, innovation strategist and author. She is the founding-co lead pastor of The Double Love Experience Church in Brooklyn, New York and The Inaugural Director of The Technology, Innovation & Digital Engagement Lab Fellowship at Union Theological Seminary. Dr. Gabby has a heart for God’s people and prioritizes creating experiences of connection and love through the physical church, the digital space and local community engagement.

Her work has been featured in Essence, Forbes & The New York Times. She is the co-author of the best-selling book, Psalms for Black Lives: Reflections for the Work of Liberation. The book has sold over 10,000 books and counting. She is the recipient of numerous awards and citations including the 2024 National Action Network Woman of Excellence Award from Rev. Al Sharpton, the Guy R Brewer Religious Leadership Award from their Queens Democratic Club, The Yale University Charles S Mersick Preaching Prize as well as the Outstanding Graduate Student Award from The Yale Af-Am House.

Dr. Gabby’s voice echoes in the public square. In 2023 she was a featured guest in the HBO Max/Own Docu-Series, A Time of Essence. She and her church were featured in the 2024 GOSPEL documentary by Skip Gates on PBS & she was a guest speaker in the first documentary film of The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture, GODTalk. She’s also a frequent guest on the nationally syndicated radio show: Get Up Mornings With Erica Campbell.

Dr. Gabby holds a doctorate from Duke University, a Masters of Divinity from Yale University, a Masters of Arts from NYU and a Bachelors from Hampton University. She is the current President of the Yale Divinity School Alumni Board and a member of the prestigious Morehouse College Martin Luther King Jr. Board of Preachers.

Dr. Gabby is a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated and is committed to the work of love and justice. She resides in Brooklyn, New York with her husband, Rev. Dr. Andrew Wilkes.

Dates: Mondays, 7-9pm EST, September 8 – October 13, 2025

Registration closes 2 business days before the first class meeting on September 4, 2025

Offered by the Leadership Institute at Union Presbyterian Seminary

If you are in financial need of a discounted registration fee, please contact Deborah Keyes, subject line “WLIWLI: Financial Aid”.

UPSem faculty, staff, and students can register for this class for free. If you are a UPSem faculty, staff, or student, you can register here using your UPSem email address.