235th Annual Meeting
Saturday, November 7, 2026 |
Bethesda baptist church
New Rochelle, NY
Our Keynote Speaker:
The Rev. Dr. Lisa Thompson
Rev. Dr. Lisa L. Thompson, 17th President, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York
The Rev. Dr. Lisa L. Thompson, an internationally recognized theological scholar, public theologian, executive, and vocal justice advocate became the 17th president of Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York on July 1, 2026. She brings more than twenty years of experience advancing mission-driven initiatives across higher education, government, and the private sector. She prioritizes building bridges to conversation, across a room of thousands or to one person in front of her, as pathways to living in accountability to our neighbors, collective problem solving, and engaged citizenship.
Throughout her career, Dr. Thompson has produced an array of scholarship grounded in Womanist and Black Feminist epistemologies. Her work explores lived religions, hermeneutical ethics, and the social consequences of religious meaning-making, occupying the intersections of religion, culture, gender, race, and rhetorics for social change. She is the author of Preaching the Headlines: Pitfalls and Possibilities (Fortress, 2021) and Ingenuity: Preaching as an Outsider (Abingdon, 2018), both widely adopted in higher education classrooms and faith-based professional development programs. Her forthcoming book offers a creative, non-fictional glimpse into Black women’s everyday pursuits of becoming and evolving spiritualities, exploring practical wisdom and the arts as pathways to collective thriving. Most recently, she served as the Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Black Homiletics and Liturgics at Vanderbilt Divinity School, where she also chaired the area of Homiletics and Liturgics. She previously held faculty posts as Assistant Professor of Homiletics at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and as Assistant Professor of Homiletics at Union Theological Seminary. A scholar-executive as well as an academic, she understands the possibilities and necessity of engaging audiences well beyond the academy. Dr. Thompson has served as a principal consultant and subject-matter expert to public, private, and government clients. She has designed and delivered executive coaching and leadership-development curricula for senior leaders, advised federal agencies on equity-centered and ethical frameworks, and cultivated cross-sector partnerships spanning education, religion, business, healthcare, technology, culture, and the arts.
Dr. Thompson holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and a Master of Arts (MA) in Religion from Vanderbilt University and a Master of Divinity (MDiv) from Fuller Theological Seminary. An ordained clergy member of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. who has served in both university and parish ministry settings, she majored in psychology and communication studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and worked in case management—including alternative-to-corrections programs for women and at-risk youth—before pursuing the study of theology and religion full-time. Those early years remain the foundation of her insight into the human experience, the power of empathy, and our day-to-day interconnectedness.
A native of Cedar Grove, North Carolina, and the child of parents who grew up as sharecroppers, Dr. Thompson understands education as an expansive practice of freedom. She remains an inside agitator toward more radically inclusive frameworks of belief—supporting multi-religious and non-religious connections, safe and healing communities, and accountable global belonging.
Leading in a time of Remembrance: Rev. Derrick T. Jordan
The RevDerrick T. Jordan is a licensed clinical social worker, consultant, educator, leader, and spiritually-informed psychotherapist who earned a Bachelor of Music in Music Education, cum laude, from Virginia Commonwealth University; a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary; and a Master of Science in Social Work, with a concentration in Advanced Clinical Practice, from Columbia University. An American Baptist minister, Rev. Jordan was ordained at The Riverside Church on June 29, 2025.
Derrick received his clinical training at Ackerman Institute for the Family, and is the former Director of the Gender & Family Project at Ackerman Institute for the Family, where he managed a multi-departmental team that conducted research and provided care, resources and training to families, agencies and organizations throughout metro New York. Derrick has been featured in various local and national media outlets including CBS, NY1, The Associated Press, Yahoo Life, Vice and nationally syndicated podcasts, speaking to the role of mental health in the context of equity-based inclusionary practices and policies. Currently, Derrick has a private practice and bi-costal consulting business based in NYC and Los Angeles, CA., and is interested in further understanding the impact, contemporary societal implications and treatment of religious trauma in various faith and social contexts.
He has a Bachelor of Music in Music Education, cum laude, from Virginia Commonwealth University; a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary; and a Master of Science in Social Work from Columbia University.