Kelly Brown Douglas

Biography Early life Kelly Delaine Brown was born in 1957 in Dayton, Ohio, and raised in Dayton, Ohio, in a middle-class family. Her father was a professional, and her mother stayed home to care for her children. She attended college at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, where she pursued a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology.

Graduate education and ordination Following her college graduation, Douglas moved to New York City to attend Union Theological Seminary. She graduated with a Master of Divinity (MDiv) in 1982. On September 1, 1983, she was ordained by Walter Dennis as an Episcopal priest at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio. Women's ordination had been officially approved in the Episcopal Church USA in 1976, and the first woman to be ordained in the Southern Ohio Diocese was Doris Ellen Mote. Douglas was the first black woman to be ordained in the diocese and one of the first ten black women ordained in the Episcopal Church USA.

After earning her MDiv, Douglas stayed on to pursue a PhD at Union. She completed her doctorate in systematic theology in 1988, studying with James Cone, a renowned theologian and the founder of black liberation theology. At Union, she was awarded the Hudnut Award and the Julius Hanson Award, for preaching excellence and outstanding theological studies, respectively.

In 2001, Douglas left Howard to join the religion department at Goucher College, a small liberal arts college in Baltimore. As the Elizabeth Connolly Todd Distinguished Professor of Religion, and later the Susan B. Morgan Professor of Religion, she taught at Goucher for six years, and still retains professor emerita status. She continued writing and publishing, completing three additional books, as well as numerous articles and book chapters. She wrote Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God in response to the death of Trayvon Martin. The book analyzes the "systemic failure to hold individuals accountable for racist aggression and murder."

In 2018, she became the inaugural dean for Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary. She is the first African-American woman to lead a seminary affiliated with the Episcopal Church.

In 2024, she became a non-residential honorary Anglican Communion Canon at Newcastle Cathedral, being the first to do so.

Ecclesiastical ministry Douglas served as an associate priest at the Holy Comforter Episcopal Church in Washington, DC, for two decades until 2017, when she joined the staff of the Washington National Cathedral as the Canon Theologian. In this role she helped lead discussions on current issues with the congregation, providing theological background and interpretation. In 2015, a controversy emerged over two stained glass windows in the cathedral that honored Andrew Jackson and Robert E. Lee. Douglas was part of a task force assigned to study the issue and make recommendations on what to do with the windows. In 2017, after two years of discussions among the cathedral worshipping community, the cathedral chapter voted to remove the windows.

In 2019, Douglas preached at the consecration of Kimberly Lucas as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado. Lucas is the first woman bishop and first African-American bishop in the diocese.

Family

Awards Douglas received the 2023 Grawemeyer Award for Religion, from the University of Louisville, for her book Resurrection Hope: A Future Where Black Lives Matter.

In 1995, Douglas received the Grace Lyman Alumnae Award by the Women's Studies Department at Denison University. In 2000, she was awarded Denison's Alumni Citation.

Douglas has been awarded honorary doctorates from Denison University (2021), Ithaca College (2021), and General Theological Seminary (2022).

Published works Black Christ (1993) - Sexuality and the Black Church (1998) - What's Faith Got to Do with It: Black Bodies/Christian Souls (2005) - Black Bodies and the Black Church: A Blues Slant (2012) - Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God (2015) Black Christ, 25th Anniversary Edition (2019) - Resurrection Hope: A Future Where Black Lives Matter (2021) -