Disciples Divinity House

Yvonne T. Gilmore will become the Associate Dean of the Disciples Divinity House of the University of Chicago, effective September 30. She will preach the opening chapel service of the 2013-14 academic year on Monday, October 7, at 5:30 pm.

A member of the 2001 entering class of Disciples Divinity House Scholars and a current member of the Alumni/ae Council, Yvonne Gilmore is a 2005 MDiv graduate of the University of Chicago Divinity School. In 2007, she became the founding pastor of New Song Community Church, a diverse urban congregation in Northeast Columbus, Ohio, that is dually aligned with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ. Since 2010, she has served also as staff chaplain and decedent care coordinator for Mount Carmel West Hospital in Columbus. She is a current member of the Board of Directors of Higher Education and Leadership Ministries (HELM) and of the General Board of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and she has served Reconciliation Ministry as an anti-racism trainer.

Throughout her ministry she has enunciated and exemplified the importance of graduate theological education that nurtures "thought leaders." She commented, "Profound scholarship, service, and creativity abounds at the House ... in concert with a great cloud of witnesses and a vast array of faithful and disciplined stewards of God's grace in its midst. I am so excited to join the grand constellation."

Yvonne Gilmore is also a poet and a spoken word artist who, as a member of the Cornel West Theory, has performed and spoken at Trinity College in New Haven, West Virginia State University, and Princeton University, among other places. She has preached, lectured, and/or and performed at varied educational institutions and denominational events, including Louisville Presbyterian Seminary, the Ohio Regional Assembly, the General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and McCormick Theological Seminary. She previously served in the Capital Area Region as an interim pastor, associate pastor, and a chaplain. She grew up in the Capital Area at Michigan Park Christian Church and attended The American University, where she earned a BA in International Relations. She has two daughters, Assata and Kharis, aged 9 and 14.

Alumni/ae Council President and Drury University Professor Peter Browning commented, "Choosing Rev. Gilmore as the Associate Dean of Disciples Divinity House is a future-oriented move. [She is] a poet who stands up for freedom and liberation and a pastor who has started a new church.... Not only does she have the background in development and the experience of knowing the House well as a former House Scholar, but she knows the church and she has a passionate voice."

As Associate Dean, Yvonne Gilmore will collaborate with and assist Dean Kristine A. Culp in furthering the educational work of the Disciples Divinity House and interpreting that work to key constituencies in ways that will support DDH's mission over the long term. This will involve fostering educational opportunities, vocational development, and transformative conversation among current students, alumni/ae, and friends as well as in wider venues, especially the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and also in relation to the University of Chicago Divinity School.

Yvonne Gilmore's appointment is a crucial next step in DDH's preparation for the future, Dean Kris Culp explained. The position was envisioned during several months of study and conversation led by the Dean and the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees and with the assistance of Jim Powell, former President of Church Extension (now with the Columbia Partnership). It is one of several steps being taken as DDH has been recovering from the economic downturn; other steps include increasing the number of Disciples House Scholars, resuming a full complement of educational programs, rebuilding endowment resources (which are now slightly above the previous high), and ensuring capital repairs and improvements to the building.

"The Board of Trustees and I are grateful for your support through this time of challenge and for your partnership as new possibilities emerge," Dean Culp said. "We are grateful, too, for the work of recent graduate Laura Jennison Reed, who has served as Assistant to the Dean during this interim period of recalibrating and reconfiguring; her work has helped to bridge to future possibilities." Laura Jennison Reed will embark on the next phase of her vocational discernment and conclude her full-time work as Assistant to the Dean at the end of September.