The Rev. Dr. Lisa L. Thompson will be Union Theological Seminary’s 17th president
The internationally recognized scholar and social justice advocate will succeed the Rev. Dr. Serene Jones on July 1
Union Theological Seminary’s Board of Trustees announced Monday night the appointment of the Rev. Dr. Lisa L. Thompson as the seminary’s 17th president. An internationally recognized theological scholar and academic, vocal social justice advocate, executive, and faith leader, Thompson brings 20 years of experience advancing mission-driven initiatives across higher education, government, and the private sector.
Thompson, who will begin her presidency on July 1, was selected through a comprehensive, months-long national search process, conducted by a search committee comprised of board members, alumni, students, staff and faculty.
“It was clear throughout the search process that Dr. Thompson is an exceptional leader. She came to the committee with top-notch qualifications and expertise, but also with a vision for the future of Union. And that vision is full of strength, energy, and creativity. As our seminary navigates the complexities and nuances of today’s world, that’s precisely the kind of leadership we need,” said Clifford Hudson, Chairman of Union’s Board of Trustees and a member of the search committee.
“We are honored and excited for Dr. Lisa Thompson to return to Union Theological Seminary as our new president. She has an unparalleled appreciation for the rich scholarship for which our faculty is known and to which our students are drawn,” said Rhonda Joy McLean, chair of the presidential search committee and Vice-Chair of Union’s Board of Trustees. “Her bold vision, strong spirit, humane compassion, and intellectual rigor will build upon our outgoing president, Rev. Dr. Serene Jones’ extraordinary tenure and enduring, groundbreaking legacy.”
“I am honored to serve as the next president of Union Theological Seminary, an institution with a distinguished history of scholarship and progressive theology. Stepping into this role energizes what most inspires me: contributing to a creation enlivened by just, democratic, and generative ways of being together,” said Thompson. “I am committed to Union’s future, and the risky-yet-worthy work ahead of us. Together, with the faculty, students and staff, we will be discerning, dreaming and building, not only for the world we can create today, but for the world we are making possible in the next 200 years.”
The journey to Union
Thompson most recently served as Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair in Black Homiletics & Liturgics at the Vanderbilt Divinity School. Throughout her career, she 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.
One of her culminating experiences was serving as Assistant Professor at Union Theological Seminary from 2016 to 2019. She said, “Union was central in shaping my professional posture. It allowed me to believe in the academy as an incubator of critical imagination for our collective futures, not merely building bridges to society, but existing within the public domain as a partner in conversation and practice. The Union community was spacious enough that I could retrace the edges of what it meant to be an academic again and again.”
Thompson earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, a Master of Divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary, and a Master of Arts and PhD from Vanderbilt University. She previously taught at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
Her earliest lessons, though, began in Cedar Grove, North Carolina. “As the child of parents who grew up as sharecroppers, I understand education as an expansive practice of freedom,” she said. “It is a calling I have inherited, devoted my life to, and am committed to planting forward as seeds in the earth.”
Continuing Union’s pursuit of a more just world
In the midst of global turmoil, Thompson brings years of outspoken advocacy for justice within and outside the academy to Union.
“Union’s mission — its intellectual rigor, interreligious commitments, and unapologetic moral imagination — does not read to me as an abstract institutional statement, but as a lived vocation,” she said, “Our responsibility is not only to preserve knowledge, but to cultivate spiritual, intellectual, ethical, and relational capacities necessary for navigating a world of profound complexity and real possibility.”
Thompson will succeed Jones, who led Union for the past 18 years. “During that time Union has continued an extraordinary experiment in theological education holding a distinct moral compass at the intersections of religion and society,” Thompson said. “Theological education will continue to shape-shift; the question before us is whether it will retain integrity and meaningful public impact. Union has consistently strived for that response to be ‘yes!’ while leaning into what it means to determine the ‘how.’”
Jones offered her full support, saying, “I am really excited about Dr. Thompson’s appointment as the 17th president of Union. I know from both professional and personal experience that she is a person of enormous integrity, exciting vision and powerful presence, and I know that Union will flourish under her leadership.”
About Union Theological Seminary
Founded in 1836 in New York City, Union Theological Seminary is a globally recognized seminary and graduate school of theology where religion and scholarship meet to reimagine the work of justice. A beacon for social justice and progressive change, UTS is led by a diverse group of theologians and activist leaders. Drawing on both Christian traditions and the insights of other religions, the institution is focused on educating leaders who can address critical issues like racial equity, criminal justice reform, income inequality and protection for the environment.
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