Union Presbyterian Seminary

25-26 WLI Course: Womanist Leadership & Innovation
2025-09-15 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-09-22 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-09-29 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-10-06 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-10-13 19:00 - 21:00 (America/New_York)
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.

25-26 WLI Course: Womanist Pedagogy
2025-10-21 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-10-28 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-11-04 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-11-11 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-11-18 19:00 - 21:00, 2025-11-25 19:00 - 21:00
Course Description:
Focusing on Rev. Dr. Katie G. Cannon’s idea of “unshouted courage,” this course considers the question: What does it mean to teach for courage in various contexts of leadership and ministry? The course will consider three key theoretical and practical components of womanist pedagogy that yields courageous students who work for the humanity of all people, particularly Black humanity.
Meet the Instructor

Dr. Evelyn Parker is a distinguished visiting professor and accomplished scholar in practical theology, with degrees from Lambuth College, Prairie View A&M University, Southern Methodist University, and Northwestern University. She has authored and edited several influential works on adolescent spirituality, race, and gender, including Between Sisters and Trouble Don’t Last Always. A leader in theological education and advocacy, Parker has served as academic dean at Perkins School of Theology and held prominent roles in organizations such as the Association of Practical Theology and the Society for the Study of Black Religion. Deeply rooted in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, she has represented the denomination globally through the World Council of Churches, contributing to policy, education, and humanitarian efforts. Dr. Parker most recently published Tangible Grace, Ministry Interventions for Teen Dating Violence, Fortress Press 2025. The Amazon.com link is here.

Dates: Tuesdays, 7-9pm EST, October 21 – November 25, 2025
Registration closes 2 business days before the first class meeting on Friday, October 17, 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 “WLIWP: 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.

25-26 WLI Course: Womanist Biblical Interpretation
2026-01-06 19:00 - 21:00, 2026-01-13 19:00 - 21:00, 2026-01-20 19:00 - 21:00, 2026-01-27 19:00 - 21:00, 2026-02-03 19:00 - 21:00, 2026-02-10 19:00 - 21:00
Course Description:
This course introduces students to the concept, methods, scholars, and practice of womanist biblical interpretation. Students will engage in diverse readings that center on the experiences of Black women and explore how womanist interpretation offers new insights into the biblical text, while sometimes challenging dominant interpretative traditions.
This is a core course in the 6-course Womanist Leadership Institute program
Meet the Instructor

Rev. Dr. Kamilah Hall Sharp enjoys examining the intersection of race, gender, and class with the biblical text and contemporary culture using a trauma-informed womanist approach. She is currently working on her manuscript examining survival in the book of Esther. Her experience in church planting, pastoring, and community organizing has shaped her interest in womanist ecclesiology, womanist leadership, and the dynamics of thriving in public ministry, which are also areas of her research interest. She is an ordained minister in the Disciples of Christ (Christian Church) and currently serves as a Co-Pastor at The Gathering, A Womanist Church.
Dates: Tuesdays, 7-9pm EST, January 6 – February 10, 2026
Registration closes on January 2, 2026, 2 business days before the first class meeting
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 “WLIWBI: 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.

25-26 WLI Course: Queer Womanist Preaching
2026-02-18 19:00 - 21:00, 2026-02-25 19:00 - 21:00, 2026-03-04 19:00 - 21:00, 2026-03-11 19:00 - 21:00, 2026-03-18 19:00 - 21:00, 2026-03-25 19:00 - 21:00
Course Description:
This course will expose students to the queering of religious concepts such as redemption and salvation that create a decolonized preaching experience that centers the lived experiences of Black, queer women. Bishop Yvette Flunder’s preaching method, the Apocalyptic Method will be taught as an example of a sermonic method of a queer, womanist preacher. Students will learn the fundamental tenets of queer womanist preaching while critically reflecting on their own beliefs, especially their espoused sexual ethics. The course considers theological frameworks that inform queer womanist preaching, such as womanist theology and queer theology while keeping an eye towards Black, queer, women’s lived experiences.
Meet the instructor

The Reverend Dr. Nicole McDonald is a recent graduate of the Ph.D. program in African American Preaching and Sacred Rhetoric at Christian Theological Seminary. She is an adjunct professor who teaches Queer Womanist Preaching at Chicago Theological Seminary and Diversity, Oppression, and Privilege at Ball State University’s Department of Social Work. Currently, Dr. McDonald serves as the Interim Senior Pastor of Central Christian Church in Indianapolis. Prior to entering the pastorate, she served over 14 years as a healthcare chaplain in hospice and level-one trauma centers. Pastor Nicole has a heart for God’s people. As a queer, womanist practitioner-scholar, she strives to build justice-oriented communities of radical inclusivity where all feel welcomed.
Dates: Wednesdays, 7-9pm EST, February 18 – March 25
Offered by the Leadership Institute at Union Presbyterian Seminary

Registration closes on February 16, 2 business days before the first class meeting.
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. If you are in financial need of a discounted registration fee, please contact Deborah Keyes, subject line “WLIQWP: Financial Aid.

25-26 WLI Course: Womanist Pastoral Theology
2026-04-09 19:00 - 21:00, 2026-04-16 19:00 - 21:00, 2026-04-23 19:00 - 21:00, 2026-04-30 19:00 - 21:00, 2026-05-07 19:00 - 21:00, 2026-05-14 19:00 - 21:00
Course Description:
This course explores pastoral care through a Womanist lens, centering the lived experiences, wisdom, and spiritual practices of Black women. Students will engage theological, psychological, and cultural frameworks that affirm Black women’s dignity, resilience, and holistic healing. Drawing on Womanist theology, African-centered psychology, and Black feminist thought, the course equips pastoral caregivers to practice care that is liberative, justice-oriented, and culturally relevant.
Meet the Instructor

Rev. Dr. Danielle “Danie” J. Buhuro is Assistant Professor of Practical Theology at Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia. She is also Executive Director and lead CPE Supervisor at Sankofa CPE Center which offers innovative online Clinical Pastoral Education programming along with unique social justice-oriented clinical work settings and prepares clergy chaplains for board certification. Dr. Buhuro is passionate about issues of race, gender and sexuality. She is author of “Spiritual Care In An Age of #BlackLivesMatter: Examining the Spiritual and Prophetic Needs of African Americans Living In A Violent America.”
Dr. Buhuro attended Chicago Theological Seminary, where she earned the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Theology, Ethics and Human Sciences with a focus on Pastoral Theology. Dr. Buhuro also holds a Doctor of Ministry and Master of Divinity degrees respectively and has served on the national board of directors for ACPE: The Standard for Spiritual Care & Education. She facilitates numerous workshops nation-wide on African American Pastoral Care and African-centered psychology.
Rev. Dr. Buhuro is committed to excellence and community partnership. Her philosophy of education embraces a pedagogy of helping students enhance their pastoral identity and pastoral competence while improving their pastoral reflection.
Dates: Thursdays, 7-9pm EST, April 9 – May 14, 2026
Registration closes on April 7, 2026, 2 business days before the first class meeting.
Offered by the Leadership Institute at Union Presbyterian Seminary
Use this link to register for the course

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