ACADEMIC PREPARATION:

Master of Theological Studies, magna cum laude, St. John Provincial Seminary, Plymouth, Michigan, 1989.

Bachelor of Arts, Interdisciplinary Studies, magna cum laude, Sacred Heart Seminary College, Detroit, Michigan, 1985.

MEMBERSHIP:

RECENT PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

Chair of the Department of Religious Studies—July 2009 to present
Director of African American Studies Program—July 2008 to present
Promoted to Professor—June 2008
Associate Professor—August 2005
Joint appointment, Department of Religious Studies and Women's Studies Program
Teaching graduate and undergraduate courses: African American Religious Experience; African American Feminist Studies; Religions of the African Diaspora; Religion and Healing; Feminist Theory
.

Chair of Department of Religious Studies — 2003 to August 2005
University of Detroit Mercy

Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies — 1995 to August 2005
Tenured and promoted to associate professor — August 2002
Teaching, undergraduate and graduate courses:

Women's Studies; Anthropology of Religion; Third World Women's Theologies, Womanist Theology; Third World Women's Theologies; Religion in the U.S; African American Studies Seminar; Latin American Liberation Theologies; Ecology and Justice
Director of African American Studies program — 2000-2003

Director of Women's Studies program — 1995-1998.

University of Detroit Mercy, Director of Student Development, 1993 - 1995.
Student personnel director. Overall student affairs office direction including budget development and oversight for one campus. Additional development of programs included: Family Fun Day, focus on commuter students; mentoring for new students; speakers' series implementation; student retreat opportunities.

PUBLICATIONS:

Essay, "Black Religion and Health" entry for Encyclopedia of African American Religious Culture

Essay, "Black American Women and the Gift of Embodied Spirituality" for volume edited by Morny Joy.

Faith, Health, and Healing Among African Americans, co-editors, Stephanie Y. Mitchem and Emilie M. Townes (Praeger, 2008).

African American Folk Healing (New York: New York University Press, 2007).

Name It and Claim It? Prosperity Preaching and the Black Church (Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 2007).

African American Women Tapping Power and Spiritual Wellness (Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 2004).

Introducing Womanist Theology, (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2002).

"Womanist Theology," for Women and Religions, edited by Michaela Moravcikova and Lucia Greskova. (2008).

"Finding Questions and Answers in Womanist Theology and Ethics," in Feminist Theologies, Legacy and Prospect, edited by Rosemary Radford Ruether (Minneapolis: Fortress Press 2007), pp. 66-78. (Conference proceedings).

"Religious Healing as Pedagogical Performance," in Teaching Religion and Healing, edited by Linda Barnes and Ines Talamantez (Oxford University Press 2006). 219-228.

"Border Disputes: Honoring Our Ancestors, Honoring Our Selves" in Teaching African American Religions edited by Carolyn M. Jones and Theodore Louis Trost (New York: Oxford University Press,2005). pp. 43-56.

"Jesus is My Doctor: African American Women and Healing," in Religion and Healing in America edited by Linda L. Barnes and Susan S. Sered (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 281-290.

"What Doesn't Kill You Will Make You Strong: African American Women in Catholic Colleges," in Women in Catholic Higher Education: Border Work, Living Experiences, and Social Justice edited by Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber and Denise Leckenby (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2003), pp. 17-31.

"African American Women, Healing and Reconciliation," in Gender, Ethnicity, and Religion, edited by Rosemary Radford Ruether, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002), pp. 247-262.

Response to "Must I be Womanist?" Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion Spring 2006. vol. 22, #1. 123-128.

"Coloring Outside the Lines," Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Fall 2005. vol. 21, #2. 128-130.

"Reading Womanists, Reading Ourselves," Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Fall 2003. vol. 19, #2. 67-74.

"There is a Balm: African American Women and Healing," Michigan Family Review, Fall 2002. vol. 7, #1. 19-34.

"Womanists and (Unfinished) Constructions of Salvation," Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Spring 2001. vol. 17, #1. 85-100.

"Womanist Theology: Looking to the Future," New Theology Review, February 2008. vol. 21, #1. 52-56.

"What's Love Got to Do? (and other stories of black women's sexualities)," Crosscurrents, Fall 2004. vol. 54, #3. 72-84.

"No Longer Nailed to the Floor," Crosscurrents, Spring 2003. vol. 53, #1. 64-75.

"Interview with Jane D. Schaberg," Crosscurrents, Spring 2002. vol. 52, #1. 72-80.

"Sankofa: Black Theologies," Crosscurrents, Spring-Summer 2000. vol. 50, #1/2. 177-185.

"Barbie Insurrection: Tales from the Liberatory Teaching Front," Journal of Women and Religion, volume 17, 1999. 31-41.

Book Review, Fighting Words, Black Women, and the Search for Justice, P.H. Collins, for Women's Review of Books, June 1999. vol. 16. p. 26.

• Fall 2007, vol. 57, #3. Religious Encounters.
• Fall 2005, vol. 55, #1. American Dreams: Class and Religion.
• Summer 2004, vol. 54, #2. An Anniversary of Ideas.
• Spring 2003, vol. 53, #1. Feminism: What Went Wrong.
• Spring 2001, vol. 51, #1. Godscape, Cityscape.

GENERAL RESEARCH INTERESTS:

• Contemporary religious thought, with emphasis on womanist and liberation thought;
• Women in the African Diaspora.
• Postcolonialism, class, and African American religious thought.

SERVICE:

TO THE PROFESSION

Program committee member, Society for the Study of Black Religion, 2007-2008.

Visiting professor, (occasional summer teaching), Instituto de Educacão Teológica da Bahia (ITEBA), Salvador, Bahia, beginning July 2006.

Member, Workgroup on Constructive Theology, beginning 2006.

Member of Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession, American Academy of Religion, 2005-2007.

Member, Religions, Medicines and Healings section committee, American Academy of Religion beginning 2005.

Visiting professor, Institute for Black Catholic Studies, Xavier University, New Orleans, LA, July 2004.

Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, editorial board, beginning November 2004.

Cross Currents, Contributing Editor. 2000 to present (Involves occasional editing of an issue plus regular conference-call-meetings of editorial board). .

2001-2002, through Wabash Center, national collaboration: "Mining the Motherlode: Teaching and Learning African American Religious Life."

1999-2000, American Academy of Religion, Lilly Foundation teaching workshop, "Mining the Motherlode of African American Religious Life."

TO THE UNIVERSITY

January 2009-present, member of Quality of Life of the University Committee (Focus Carolina).

December 2008-present, member of Diversity Task Force.

Faculty awards selection committee, Women's Studies Program, 2008.

Search committee member, Women's Studies faculty position, 2007-2008.

Board member, University of South Carolina Press, 2007 to present.

Search committee member, Women's Studies Director 2006-07.

Shared Governance task force, University of Detroit Mercy, 2004-5.

2001 -2004, member, University of Detroit Mercy Academic Committee on the Status of Women.

University of Detroit Mercy Sexual Harassment prevention Contact Person, 1999- 2000.

Member of the Diversity and Liberal Learning Committee, 1996-1998.

IN THE COMMUNITY

December 2006 to present, South Carolina Humanities Council, member of Humanities Out Loud Speaker Bureau.

June 2006 to present, Board member, Sexual Trauma Services of the Midlands.

Summers 2004-5, Faculty with the Detroit Summer Project.

Fall 2003, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, Michigan. Historian consultant team member for development of core exhibit.

1999-2000, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, Michigan. Visiting scholar.

Initiated and implemented community based "African American Women's Health Conference, Promoting Wellness," March 1998.

PRESENTATIONS (PARTIAL LISTING)

February 2009, South Carolina African American Studies Association, "The Importance of African American Studies," invited keynote speaker.

February 2009, Claflin University, "Money and Pastoral Responsibility," Harkins Conference invited speaker.

March 2008, Brite Divinity School, Fort Worth, TX, "Thinking about Profits or Prophets," Black Religious Scholars Group.

February 2008, Presenter on Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines, for the Big Read, at the State Library, Columbia, South Carolina.

February 2008, Clarendon County Library, "Black Culture", Manning, South Carolina. Part of the Humanities Out Loud program.

January 2008, panelist, Barnes Symposium, University of South Carolina.

November 2007, Respondent to panel discussion of book, African American Folk Healing Afro-American Religious History Group and Religion, Medicines, and Healing Group, American Academy of Religion.

October 2007, Denison University, "African Americans and Healing: Facing Fears and Feeding Dreams."

September 2007, Claflin University, speaker for Scholars' Lecture series: "Calling, Vocation, and Socio-Ethical Responsibility for the 21st Century."

April 21, 2007, Workgroup for Constructive Theology, Nashville, "Divinity of Jesus, wellness, and me."

March 31, 2007, Keynote address, University of South Carolina Annual Diversity and the Doctorate Symposium, McNair Program.

March 2, 2007, presenter, University of South Carolina Annual Women's Studies conference, "Women across the African Diaspora: First Conversations in Bahia."

February 28, 2007, Keynote for the Augustus Tolton Lecture, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, IL.

November 19, 2006, American Academy of Religion, "Teaching as Pedagogical Performance" for a Religions, Medicines, and Healing session.

November 18, 2006, American Academy of Religion, "'What is Africa to Me?' The Diaspora and Postcolonial Studies in Black Theology (on the U.S. Side)" for a Black Theology session.

November 17, 2006, American Academy of Religion, "On Publishing" for the pre- conference, Womanist Consultation.

June 2006, guest lecturer, Human Development (School of Architecture) University of Detroit Mercy.

November 2005, Respondent Bernadin Lecture, University of South Carolina.

October 2005, "Mamas, Sisters and Lovers: African American Women and Wellness," University of South Carolina, Women's Studies Research Series.

June 2005, Panelist, "Teaching for Change" invited conference, Harvard Divinity School.

May 2005, "Sexualities and Spiritualities," invited speaker, DePaul University, Chicago, IL.

March 2005, "Finding Questions and Answers in Womanist Theology and Ethics," conference presenter, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California.

June 2004, Presenter at Women's Wellsprings Conference, St. Mary College, Notre Dame, Indiana

November 2003, "A Real Woman with a Dollar in her Shoe: African American Women and Theologies of Prosperity" and "Testing Inequality: Losing Brown v Board, Maintaining Race" at American Academy of Religion conference, San Antonio, TX.

October 2003, "Womanist Theology," St. Mary's, Notre Dame, Indiana.

February 2003, "African Americans and Health," Bon Secours Hospital, Grosse Pointe, Michigan.

January 2003, "Womanist Theology" Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio.

November 2002, discussant for paper, "Black Feminism and Identity Politics," Theory Construction and Research Methodology conference, Houston, TX.

October 2002, "Construct/ing Black Women," for Georgetown University's Women's Studies Program.

June 2002, "Tangled Roots: African American and Hispanic Catholics in Dialogue," Catholic Theological Society of America Conference, New Orleans, LA.

September 2001, "Jesus is My Doctor," Religious Healing in Urban America Conference, Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions, Boston, MA.

March 2001, "Un-essentially Yours: Black Women in Different Colors," Michigan Women's Studies Association Conference, Detroit, MI.

July 2000, "Morphing Theology," Cross Currents Conference.

June 2000, "Between a Rock and a Hard Place: African American Women in the Academy," National Association of Women in Catholic Higher Education.

March, 2000, "African American Women, Healing and Spirituality," Museum of African American History, Detroit, MI.

GRANTS AND HONORS:

2005, College of Liberal Arts and Education research grant.

June, 2002, the Wise Woman Award from the National Association of Women in Catholic Higher Education.

January 2002, invited participant, Louisville Institute Consultation on tenure and promotion for minority scholars.

Summer 2001, Collegium (intercollegiate Catholic colleges' scholars) fellow.

Summer 2000, Jesuit 100 research grant, University of Detroit Mercy.

July 1999, Association of Religion and Intellectual Life, Coolidge Fellow.

Grant for the Advancement of Feminist Studies, University of Detroit Mercy, Women's Studies, 1996.

1995 - 1997, Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary, Fellowship.

1996 and 1997, Fund for Theological Education scholar.