Pamela Lightsey
Associate Dean for Community Life and Lifelong Learning, Clinical Assistant Professor of Contextual Theology and Practice
B.S. Columbus State University
M.Div. Gammon Seminary at the Interdenominational Theological Center
Ph.D. Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
Pamela Lightsey is a scholar, social justice activist, and military veteran whose academic and research interests include: classical and contemporary just war theory, Womanist theology, Queer theory and theology, and African American religious history and theologies.
Prior to coming to BUSTh, she served as Associate Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, IL, which is where she received her PhD in theology and ethics.
She has served on the American Academy of Religion’s steering committee for the Womanist Approaches to Religion and Society Group and currently co-chairs the group. She has recently accepted a position on the Executive Committee for the Soul Repair Project, which will study the role of moral injury in veterans. The project is funded by several sources including a Lilly Endowment grant and is directed by feminist scholar, Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock.
Pamela’s forthcoming publications include “Reconciliation,” in Radical Evangelical (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company), “If There Should Come a Word” in Black United Methodists Preach! (Abingdon Press) and one work in progress, Inner Dictum: A Womanist Reflection from the Queer Realm.
An ordained elder in the Northern Illinois Conference of the United Methodist Church, Pamela pastored an urban church on the south side of Chicago, has done work for several UM general agencies and has strong connections within several mainline denominations. She has been a member of the Pan Methodist Commission for the last two quadrennials.