Guides/Faculty

Rev. Deborah Flemister Mullen, PhD, joined the Johnson C. Smith’s Executive Leadership Team in July 2020, She serves as Principal Program Associate with primary responsibility for building and strengthening the seminary’s instructional programs and evaluating program effectiveness.  She is the former Dean of Faculty and Executive Vice President at Columbia Theological Seminary.

Previously, she was Dean of Masters Programs and founding Director of the Center for African American Ministries and Black Church Studies at McCormick Theological Seminary.

Dr. Ouida Harding joined the JCSTS Team in 2020. She holds a Master of Arts in Church Music (MACM)/Concentration: Music Ministry Leadership from the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) and a Doctorate in Worship Studies/(DWS)/ Concentration: Standards in Music Ministry Leadership from the Robert Webber Institute for Worship Studies.

She holds a Baccalaureate in Fine Arts from City College of New York. Known as a gifted pianist and educator, she uses her international platform to teach students, congregations and audiences, the power of unity through music. 

Brandon Wrencher is a minister, teacher, organizer, and consultant working across faith, higher education, and non-profit sectors at the intersections of decolonizing church, contemplative activism, and local presence to build beloved communities. He is the founding minister of Good Neighbor Movement, an alternative faith community based in Greensboro, North Carolina and Senior Community Organizer with Carolina Federation, a statewide, multiracial, multiclass, power-building political organization.

Brandon is the author of Liberating Church: A 21st Century Hush Harbor Manifesto and Buried Seeds: Learning from the Vibrant Resilience of Marginalized Christian Communities. Together Brandon with his spouse and best friend Erica founded Wrencher Collaborative, a community-rooted education and consulting project. Brandon is an On Being Social Healing Fellow and serves on the board of the Center for Action and Contemplation. 

Erica Wrencher is a public educator, speaker, vocalist, and activist working with schools, churches, and neighborhoods to build beloved communities. Erica is a high school history teacher in Guilford County Schools in North Carolina. She is passionate about mobilizing students to make connections between the past and the present to realize their responsibility in bending the shape of history toward justice and peace. Her teaching and faith-rooted community leadership spans urban and rural contexts in North Carolina and Chicago. Erica holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and a Master of Arts in Teaching from The University of North Carolina at Chapel. She enjoys leading worship and eating good food and drinking good wine with her community and family. Erica is married to her best friend Brandon, and they are the parents of two sons, Phillip and Morris.

The Reverend Paul Timothy Roberts Sr. is President of Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary in Atlanta, GA, a position he has held since the spring of 2010. Under Paul’s leadership, JCSTS has redefined itself—and is helping redefine theological education and expanding social justice understanding in the process. 

Rev. Dr. Derrick McQueen earned his Ph. D. in Homiletics and New Testament at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. He entered the Ph. D. program after completing his M. Div. with a focus on Theology and the Arts, also at Union. He earned his B.A. in Theatre Arts at Drew University in 1987. Derrick’s interests include: practical theology; integrating current academic theologies and Empire critical biblical studies into congregational and community life, classical dramatic structures and their influence on Christianity, early Christian community models of social justice and their modern applications on issues such as poverty, sexuality, race and gender. He has taught New Testament at Fordham University, Worship and Preaching Courses at Lancaster Theological Seminary, as well as Preaching and Worship and a Homiletics course "Preaching with a Biblical Character" at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York.  Rev. McQueen is currently editing his dissertation  for publication, "Preaching and Teaching the Word to Reclaim Christian Identity: LGBT African Americans Who Are Black Church."

Rev. Derrick McQueen is an ordained Teaching Elder in the PCUSA and serves as the Pastor of Saint James Presbyterian Church USA in the Village of Harlem, New York City.