Denison alumna Kelly Brown Douglas '79 will return to campus for a convocation titled "Life as a Womanist 25 Years After Denison." Sponsored by the Lilly Lecture Series, the convocation will be at 7:30 p.m., Monday (Feb. 21) in Slayter Auditorium and is free and open to the public.

Douglas has written numerous journal articles and book chapters and is the author ofSexuality and the Black Church(1999),The Black Christ(1994) andWe've Come This Far by Faith: A Womanist Theologian and Psychologist Examines the Black Faith Tradition(co-written with Sherry Davis Molock). Her forthcoming book will be on black/white relations.

Douglas lectured at Denison in 2000 as the inaugural speaker in the Provost Lecture Series and in 1995 as part of the Goodspeed Lecture Series. She has also spoken at the Berkley Divinity School at Yale University in its Martin Luther King Jr./Rosa Parks Lecture Series.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Denison where she earned a bachelor of science degree in psychology, Douglas went on to earn a master of divinity and a doctoral degree in systematic theology from Union Theological Seminary (New York City) under James Cone. She is the recipient of the Union Theological Seminary's Hudnut Award for demonstrated preaching excellence and the Julius Hanson Award as the outstanding theological student.

Denison professor and chair of religion David Woodyard said that Douglas acted as a bridge between the black and white communities at Denison during her undergraduate career. "She is truly an exceptional woman and person," he said. Commenting on her impact in the religion field, Woodyard said, "James Cone was the premier black theologian during the early 1980s and Kelly Douglas influenced him to distinguish between the double oppression of being both black and a woman in society."

Douglas's commitment to the less fortunate, to the black community and its children, is the base of her spiritual convictions. "I am a priest. I have been called to be that from the womb and my ministry is teaching, writing and working in the community. It's important to me right now to save our children. In the black community, we are losing a whole generation of kids," said Douglas in the 1990Denison Magazineprofile.

A native of Dayton, Douglas was ordained at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church (McCall St., Dayton) in 1985 -- the first black woman to be ordained an Episcopal priest in the Southern Ohio Diocese, and one of only five nationwide at the time. She was the youngest member of Howard University's divinity school faculty when she was profiled in Denison's alumni magazine in 1990. Douglas is now chair and professor of religion at Goucher College in Maryland.

Calendar Listing:

CALENDAR LISTING: Denison University, Granville -- Denison alumna Kelly Brown Douglas '79 will return to campus for a Lilly convocation titled "Life as a Womanist 25 Years After Denison"; 7:30 p.m., Monday (Feb. 21) in Slayter Auditorium. Free and open to the public.

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

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