BONUS EPISODE!

Dr. Erica M. Ramirez is Auburn’s Director of Applied Research. Before joining Auburn, she was the Richard B. Parker Assistant Professor of Wesleyan Thought and Heritage at Portland Seminary in Portland, Oregon. A rising star in the field of U.S. Latinx religion, and a scholar of Pentecostalism, she brings to the Auburn team a vital sociological imagination and a deep commitment to research and writing that troubles the waters and heals the world. 

Ramirez holds the Ph.D. in Sociology of Religion, having studied at Drew University under the late Otto Maduro, a leading sociologist of his generation. Her dissertation revisited the Azusa Street mission revival through the frame of the maternal divine, working with themes of revolution, disruption, and the carnivalesque. She holds the M.A. in the History of Christianity from Wheaton College and the B.A. in Counseling and Psychology from Southwestern Assemblies of God University. With broad interests in religion, contemporary politics, and culture, Ramirez is particularly interested in “how radical religious traditions present as a challenge to and resource against social oppression.” 

She is a fifth-generation Texan, with deep roots in San Antonio. Ramirez enjoys music, hiking, and all things pop culture. With her husband Chris, she has three children: Judah, Julia, and Camilla.

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Christy graduated from the University of Virginia and then received her MA in Applied Theology and the Arts from Regent College in Vancouver, BC. At Theological Horizons, she directs the Horizons & Perkins Fellows programs as well as coordinates student and community engagement. She lives just outside Charlottesville with her husband Chris, a writer and philosopher, their four children, flock of hens and rescue dog. Christy is also a visual artist and you can find her work at www.christenyates.com.

Instagram: @christenbyates

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Kamilah Hall Sharp is a native of St. Louis, Missouri, and currently residing in Desoto, Texas, with her spouse Nakia and daughter Anaya. After practicing law for ten years, she accepted a call to ministry. As a Ph.D. candidate in Biblical Interpretation-Hebrew Bible at Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University, her scholarship focuses on the intersection of race, gender, and class with the biblical text and contemporary culture. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Economics from Florida A&M University, a Master of Divinity from Memphis Theological Seminary, and a Juris Doctor from Indiana University-Bloomington. Kamilah is a co-author of The Gathering, A Womanist Church: Origins, Stories, Sermons, and Litanies. She was ordained as a minister in the Disciples of Christ (Christian Church) and currently serves as co-pastor of The Gathering, A Womanist Church in Dallas.  

Instagram: @kamilah.h

Twitter: @kamilahmh

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Robert Chao Romero is an associate professor in the departments of Chicana/o Studies and Central America Studies, and Asian American Studies at UCLA. He is also the Director of the Brown Church Institute. He received his Ph.D. from UCLA in Latin American History and his Juris Doctor from U.C. Berkeley, and is also an attorney.  Romero is the author of Brown Church: Five Centuries of Latina/o Social Justice, Theology, and Identity; The Chinese in Mexico, 1882-1940; Jesus for Revolutionaries: An Introduction to Race, Social Justice, and Christianity; and Mixed Race Student Politics.  The Chinese in Mexico received the Latina/o Studies book award from the Latin American Studies Association and Brown Church was written with the support of a Louisville Institute Sabbatical Grant for Researchers.  Romero is also an ordained minister and faith rooted community organizer. 

Instagram: @RobertChaoRomero

Twitter: @ProfeChaoRomero

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Daisy L. Machado was born in Cuba and migrated to the U.S. with her parents when she was 3 years old. She was raised in NYC where she earned her B.A. (Brooklyn College), her MSW (Hunter College School of Social Work, and her M.Div. (Union Theological Seminary). She is an ordained minister and has served inner city congregations in Brooklyn and Manhattan, NY, Houston, TX, Fort Worth, TX. Her experience of living in the Texas borderlands led her to pursue and complete a PhD in Modern Church History at the University of Chicago where Dr. Martin Marty was her dissertation advisor. She has taught in seminaries in Texas, Kentucky and currently in NYC. She has also served as the first Latina dean at Lexington Theological Seminary (KY) and at Union Theological Seminary. She was the first director of the Hispanic Theological Initiative and is currently the director of the Hispanic Summer Program.

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Stephanie originally hails from near Portland, Oregon and now makes her home near Portland, Maine. She holds a PhD in Theological Ethics from Boston College (2019), where her interdisciplinary research focused on the ties between Christian theology and trauma, particularly in the case of pharmaceutical memory modification. Stephanie's interest in such work has its roots in her "other" career as a social worker (MTS/MSW, Boston University 2011), wherein she has practiced diverse service delivery, grant writing, and non-profit management for nearly a decade. Interweaving both her non-profit and theological expertise, she now serves as the Executive Director of the Boston Theological Interreligious Consortium (BTI), and lectures in ethics and theology at Boston College and the University of Southern Maine. She lives in Biddeford, Maine with her husband and rescue dog, EmmyLou.

Instagram: @_steds_

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A second generation Korean American, Hardy was born in Seoul, South Korea, and grew up in Vancouver, British Columbia, and near Detroit, Michigan. 

Hardy studied government at Harvard University, law at the University of Michigan, and then received his M. Div. from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. A year of volunteer service in Belfast, Northern Ireland, working with at-risk youth and young adults, solidified his sense of call to ministry.

Hardy serves as Pastor at Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church, in the heart of Silicon Valley. His previous ministry work has focused on evangelism and ministry to young adults in Atlanta and Chicago.

Hardy lives with his wife, Hyunjung, and their kids Jonah and Haeil.  Hardy enjoys food and travel that connects him to different cultures and their generative intersections, and struggles to make room for the spiritual discipline of running.

Instagram: @hardyhkim

Twitter: @hardykim

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Eric D. Barreto is Weyerhaeuser Associate Professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary and an ordained Baptist minister. He is the author of Ethnic Negotiations: The Function of Race and Ethnicity in Acts 16 (Mohr Siebeck, 2010), the co-author of Exploring the Bible (Fortress Press, 2016), and editor of Reading Theologically (Fortress Press, 2014).

Instagram: @eric.barreto

Twitter: @ericbarreto

Personal Website: ericbarreto.com

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A native Southerner, Rich grew up in Gloster, Mississippi – a small town with a population of 960. After calling Alabama and Georgia home for seven years, Rich moved to Chicago in 2014 to work as a Church Starting Resident at Urban Village Church. After his one-year residency program, Rich became Pastor and Executive Director of the Inclusive Collective, a campus ministry at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and he has spent the past five years leading the relaunch of this ministry. He feels called by God to create faith communities where all people are both truly welcome and invited to follow Jesus with all they’ve got. Rich holds a BA in Religion from Samford University in Birmingham, AL, and a Master of Divinity from Mercer University in Atlanta, GA. Rich is a frequent retreat leader and speaker and has taught in the Theological Studies Program at Lee Arrendale State Prison.

Instagram: @rkhavard 

Twitter: @rkhavard

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Boyung Lee, a native of Korea, is Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty and Professor of Practical Theology at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado. She is also an ordained United Methodist Clergy who has served churches in Korea, California, Massachusetts and Connecticut. She is the first Korean American woman academic dean at the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada. Prior to her current position, for 15 years she taught at Pacific School of Religion and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA where she became the first woman of color to receive tenure in 2007. She is the program chair and the incoming president of the Religious Education Association.

Instagram: @bleebkdist

Twitter: @Bleeiliff  

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