David S. Dockery
O.S. Hawkins
David S. Dockery & O.S. Hawkins
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
The Board of Trustees of South-westerrn Baptist Theological Seminary in September appointed an interim leadership team to be led by David S. Dockery and O.S. Hawkins. Dockery was named interim president; Hawkins will serve as senior advisor and ambassador-at-large.
The decision followed the resignation of President Adam Greenway in September. Greenway had served since 2020.
Dockery is a distinguished professor of theology at Southwestern with four decades of experience as a scholar and administrator in Christian higher education, including serving for nearly 20 years as president of Union University. His service also includes various leadership roles at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and the International Alliance of Christian Education. He is the author or editor of nearly 40 books.
Hawkins served with distinction for 25 years as president of GuideStone Financial Resources, and also has served as pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, and the First Baptist Church of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. A sought-after speaker, Hawkins is also the author of nearly 40 books.
Both Dockery and Hawkins are graduates of Southwestern Baptist and both have been the recipients of distinguished alumni recognition from the seminary, located in Fort Worth, Texas.
Adam J. Morris
Azusa Pacific Seminary
An accomplished senior administrator, transformation leader and fundraiser with more than 30 years of experience in Christian higher education, Adam J. Morris, Ph.D., was unanimously selected by the Board of Trustees to be the 18th president of Azusa Pacific University. He assumed office on July 1.
Formerly executive vice president, chief transformation officer, and chief institutional advancement officer at Biola University, Morris brings “a Christ-centered vision for higher education and a transformational mindset,” said Tom Miller, chair of the Azusa Pacific Board of Trustees.
Morris earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Biola and a Master of Arts in Theology and Ph.D. in Christian Education from Talbot School of Theology.
Michael Cooper-White
Brite Divinity School
The Brite Divinity School Board of Trustees in September elected the Rev. Michael Cooper-White, D.D., interim president of the Fort Worth, Texas, school, which has been affiliated with Texas Christian University since 1914. Cooper-White follows Rev. Dr. D. Newell Williams, who retired from Brite on Aug. 31, after 19 years of service.
Rev. Cooper-White is an experienced leader in higher education and served as president of Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, from 2000 to 2017.
An ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), he also served as director of Lutheran formation at Union Seminary (New York), executive assistant to the Presiding Bishop of the ELCA, and director of the ELCA Department for Synodical Relations.
Since 2017, he has worked as a news reporter and columnist for The Gettysburg Times, and has consulted with seminaries, congregations, and other organizations.
Cooper-White earned a Bachelor of Arts from Concordia College (Moorhead, Minnesota) and a Master of Divinity from Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. He holds honorary Doctor of Divinity degrees from both Susquehanna University and Gettysburg College.
His placement at Brite Divinity School was by recommendation of The Registry.
Victor Aloyo
Columbia Theological Seminary
Columbia Theological Seminary’s Board of Trustees appointed Rev. Dr. Victor Aloyo, an accomplished scholar and administrative leader for diversity, equity, and inclusion, as the school’s 11th president. He began his term on Aug. 1, 2022.
Aloyo previously served as associate dean of Institutional Diversity and Community Engagement at Princeton Theological Seminary. He was the Organizer and Lead Pastor of La Iglesia Presbiteriana Nuevas Fronteras, an affiliated congregation of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in Plainfield, New Jersey, part of the Northeast New Jersey Presbytery.
Aloyo is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Presbyterian Foundation, Family Promise, the Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico, the Muhlenberg Foundation, and Convener of the Covenant Architects Network.
He received his Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies and Sociology from the College of New Rochelle, a Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary, and an executive doctorate in Higher Education Administration from the University of Pennsylvania.
He succeeds Leanne Van Dyk, who retired in July after serving as president of Columbia Theological Seminary since 2015.
Darren Dias, O.P.
Toronto School of Theology
Rev. Dr. Darren Dias, O.P., becameexecutive director of the Toronto School of Theology (TST) on Sept. 1, 2022, by unanimous decision of the Board of Trustees. He is the first faculty member of the newly formed Regis St. Michael’s Faculty of Theology to serve as executive director and will continue his research and teaching as an associate professor of Systematic Theology.
A member of the St. Michael’s College theology faculty since 2008, Dias succeeds Pamela Couture, Ph.D., the Jane and Geoffrey Martin Chair in Church and Community at Emmanuel College. She assumed the role of TST’s executive director in 2020.
Dias earned his doctorate from St. Michael’s under the supervision of Professor Robert M. Doran, S.J., and received the Governor General’s Gold Medal for Academic Excellence. Dias’ current research and publications revolve around interreligious dialogue, relations and decoloniality. Currently the president of the Canadian Theological Society, he is also now working on a project funded by a Templeton Foundation grant and entitled Metaphysics of Contemplation: Religious Life and Form of Thought.