Written by: United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities April 27, 2023

Jermaine Ross-Allam: United’s 2023 Spirit of United Alum

Rev. Anthony Jermaine Ross-Allam

United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities is thrilled to honor Rev. Anthony Jermaine Ross-Allam (’12) as its inaugural Spirit of United alum award recipient. Established this year, the Spirit of United award raises up recent alums who have done “exceptional work that reflects the mission of United in the church, in faith communities, or in society.” Jermaine—a dedicated scholar, gifted Presbyterian preacher, and a thoughtful and discerning social ethicist—has accomplished that and more since he earned his MDiv.

Though Jermaine graduated from United in 2012, his scholarship did not stop. While serving as United’s “superlative admissions recruiter,” he audited United classes through 2015. More recently, Jermaine earned an MTh in 2021 and has become a doctoral candidate in social ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York.

As a preacher in the Twin Cities, Jermaine served as the associate pastor for social justice at Oak Grove Presbyterian Church, as well as the associate pastor at Liberty Community Church. His tenure at Oak Grove coincided with disturbing police-involved encounters with people of color, including the fatal shooting of Philando Castile during a 2016 traffic stop.

Based in North Minneapolis, Liberty Community Church was co-founded by the Rev. Drs. Ralph and Alika Galloway and is the only African American-led Presbyterian congregation in Minnesota. Jermaine—who credits the trajectory of his ongoing ministry to the Galloways’ “witness of just, creative, sacrificial, and faithful parish and community leadership in the face of brazen racist inequity”—co-founded and was executive director of the 21st Century Academy, a faith-inspired after school program that is now one of Liberty’s community outreach initiatives.

Alika Galloway was also Jermaine’s first professor in womanist Theological Ethics through her 2010 United course on Rev. Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon held at Liberty (then named Kwanza Church). Ross-Allam attests that the most important lesson he learned in Galloway’s course was that “a combination of ‘unshouted courage’ and ‘unctuousness’ is a non-negotiable spiritual requirement and ethical virtue for the Afro-American people in our process of achieving a full-spectrum liberation worthy of the unfolding world-creative and historic yet uncompensated labor of our ancestors.”

Galloway, in partnership with United professor Rev. Dr. Paul Capetz (from whom Jermaine learned to embrace the historical-critical method), also taught an important course about the theology of Rev. Dr. James Cone. That course was second only to the field-defining scholarship of Jermaine’s doctoral advisor, the preeminent social ethicist Rev. Dr. Gary Dorrien, as inspiration to attend Union Theological Seminary and build on Cone’s foundation as laid out in his 2011 book, The Cross and the Lynching Tree.

In early 2022, Jermaine delivered two important speeches. As part of a Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. event sponsored by Liberty Community Church and Westminster Presbyterian Church in January, he spoke about “the social ecology that inspires, justifies, ignores, rewards, and excuses extralegal violence against Afro-Americans after Emancipation.” A few months later, Jermaine delivered the Inaugural RIDGS Keynote Lecture—“Strange Fruit: The Social Ecology of Extralegal Violence against Afro-Americans from the New York City Draft Riots to the Wilmington, North Carolina Coup D’état, 1863–1898”—at the Center for Race, Indigeneity, Disability, Gender & Sexuality Studies at the University of Minnesota’s College of Liberal Arts.

Rev. Sarah Moore-Nokes, who penned a support letter for Jermaine’s nomination, met him when he became a Theology and Program Co-Lead for an initiative called Restorative Actions. Restorative Actions is an initiative for churches, individuals, mid-councils, and PC(USA) agencies—as well as ecumenical partners—to take a strong stance against racism and racial privilege, and set aside restorative funds to support harmed communities’ self-development.

“Jermaine,” Rev. Moore-Nokes asserts, has been “instrumental” in developing the initiative. “He has led the group in wrestling with difficult theological questions about institutional injustices; made the case for white Protestant Christians to lead efforts to dismantle systems of oppression; and written a curriculum…for congregations [who want to] begin hard conversations about the church’s history and current role in the significant wealth disparities that exist in this country.”

In October 2022, Jermaine assumed a national role when he was called to lead the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s newly formed Center for the Repair of Historical Harms. “The Center exists,” Jermaine explained at the time, “so that the PC(USA) can have an organized way to go about the business of repairing the harm that the PC(USA) has done to Indigenous peoples and to Afro Americans and to other groups.”

Once the church can acknowledge its historical role in harming others, he added, “it can discover…what role the church is perfectly placed in to begin to lead the culture into believing that repair is necessary and right and possible.”

Since becoming director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Center for the Repair of Historic Harms, Jermaine has been busy traveling, consulting, speaking, and preaching. He shared his vision for the Center this January on “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast.” In February, Jermaine was in Lansing, Michigan, to witness an historic public apology by white clergy to Black parishioners. In Louisville, Kentucky, he celebrated the Very Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas, recipient of the 2023 Grawemeyer Award in Religion, and preached on the occasion of the 125th birthday of Louisville’s Grace Hope Presbyterian Church. This fall, Jermaine expects to complete the initial phase of establishing the Center for Repair’s new International Ecumenical Repair and Reparations Alliance.

“To me,” Jermaine’s nominator Rev. Phil Romine (’16, ’21) avers, “Jermaine embodies that part of our spiritual heritage we affirm in our Presbyterian ordination vows: energy, intelligence, imagination, and love. In a time when many have energy, but few seek to deepen the dimensions of their intelligence to direct that energy, Jermaine brings both to bear on widening our imaginations, so that we might practice love: a love that revives and expands our imaginations; a love that guides our intellects; a love that animates our energies; and a love that ultimately weaves us together in the kindom of creation.”

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October 9, 2026

Alums Homecoming News Releases

Rev. Dr. A. Leon (Lee) Tredwell (’06) Honored As a 2026 Distinguished Alum

United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities is excited to announce that Rev. A. Leon (Lee) Tredwell, PhD—who earned his MA in Theology and Biblical Interpretation from United in 2006—has been selected as a 2026 Distinguished Alum. An accomplished preacher, teacher, and published author, Dr. Tredwell has championed biblical narratives that affirm the divinity of all people, regardless of their race, creed, color, class, gender, or sexuality. Adopted at age four, Lee was raised in the Baptist faith and felt called to ministry as a child. Even so, after earning a degree in Political Science and Sociology at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, he spent the first ten years of his professional life as a grain trader for Cargill. After connecting with Drs. Ralph and Alika Galloway, Lee found United, and his call was reignited. He remembers Rev. Dr. Carolyn Pressler (Professor Emerita of Biblical Interpretation, 1990–2020) and Dean Richard Weis* with great affection. Both teachers, he observes, “taught us to wrestle with the biblical text until it opened up and spoke.” They also introduced Lee to Black and post-colonial hermeneutics, and Rev. Dr. Weis led him to passages in Jeremiah 38 (Hebrew Bible) that sparked his interest in learning more about a Black character named Ebed-Melech. Lee also cites the influence of Rev. Dr. Christine Smith’s (Professor Emerita of Preaching 1992–2013) preaching courses on his life. In Colorado, at the University of Denver and Iliff School of Theology, Lee completed a joint PhD program with a concentration in Religion and Social Change in 2017. Ronald Smith, a former United student who nominated Lee for this award, notes, “Dr. Tredwell has demonstrated that he is an innovator and compassionate leader who has served both inside the academy as a professor of African American Preaching at Iliff School of Theology, University of Colorado, Boulder, and in the larger community; he has served as [a] pastor, civil rights and human rights activist, and [a] chief executive officer in Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Minnesota, and Texas.” Lee’s new book—Black, Queer and Blessed: My Story and the Biblical Story Churches Don’t Teach—was published in June 2025. As the description reads, “For all who believe God-Yahweh is angry, mad, disgusted, and against LGBTQIA+ folx, regrettably, you been had, misled, took, hood-winked and bamboozled! Black, Queer and Blessed, through lived experience and the excavation of the subjugated biblical narrative of Ebed-Melech, demolishes society’s antiquated mores.” The book is part memoir and part theological reflection on the Ebed-Melech revelation. In addition to his roles as teacher, preacher, and author, Lee has specifically worked to promote adoption of Black children from foster care and create affordable housing. These days, he serves as the pastor of Theology and Community Engagement at Allendale United Methodist Church in St. Petersburg, Florida. As Ronald Smith asserts, “Dr. Tredwell is the embodiment and an exemplar of United Theological Seminary’s mission, vision, and values.” * of blessed memory About United Founded by the United Church of Christ (UCC) as a welcoming, ecumenical school that embraces all denominations and faith traditions, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities has been on the creative edge of progressive theological thought and leadership since it was established in 1962. Today, United continues to educate leaders who, through the eyes of faith, engage in the dismantling of systems of oppression, explore multi-faith spirituality, and push the boundaries of knowledge.

Lena K. Gardner (’15) Honored As a 2026 Distinguished Alum

[caption id="attachment_11955" align="alignnone" width="1920"] photo by Bethany Birnie[/caption] United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities is thrilled to announce that Lena K. Gardner—who graduated with an MA in Justice and Peace Studies in 2015—has been selected as one of our three 2026 Distinguished Alums. A highly respected social justice activist and community leader, Lena is the co-founder and executive director of Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU), a nonprofit founded in 2015 that creates life-giving and life-saving opportunities for spiritual community and Black-centered organizing. According to Rev. Dr. Rebecca Voelkel (’13), Lena has “been a force in the Twin Cities’ religiously rooted justice ecosystem for the last 15 years.” Dr. Voelkel, Lena’s nominator, traces Lena’s justice-organizing acumen back to 2011, when she served on the Faith Organizing Roundtable—a body that coordinated religious communities’ opposition to the anti-marriage amendment. Lena went on to champion marriage equality in the 2012–2013 legislative session. After a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, shot and killed Michael Brown, Jr., an unarmed 18-year-old Black teen, in 2014, Lena played a key role in transforming the Faith Organizing Roundtable into the Multifaith Anti-Racism, Change & Healing or MARCH. “In that same period,” Voelkel notes, “Lena was a core team organizer of Black Lives Matter Minneapolis and served on its steering committee.” Lena was deeply involved, quoted in many national and local articles, and interviewed on Minnesota Public Radio after former police officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd in 2020. In April 2021, after a Brooklyn Center police officer killed Daunte Wright during a traffic stop, Lena co-wrote an article in the Sahan Journal demanding that Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecute the case, and that the Hennepin County attorney be removed. More recently, Lena embarked on another ambitious project. In May 2024, through the BLUU Cooperative Housing Initiative, she co-hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for an affordable housing complex for single parents in North Minneapolis. In a MinnPost article about the groundbreaking, Lena explained, “It’s really about trying to give back to one of the communities that made me…. We really see providing stable housing in a cooperative framework as one of the many paths to collective liberation and Black liberation. Ultimately, it’s about self-determination.” When Operation Metro Surge arrived in the Twin Cities in late 2025, Lena took action again. As Voelkel observes, she “returned to the MARCH steering committee…. When MARCH organized a clergy call (in five days) to which 700 clergy came, the ability to create and host such an amazing event owes part of its success to Lena’s relationships with communications specialists, graphic designers, and organizers.” Lena was also a driving force behind Neighbors Helping Neighbors (NHN), a mutual aid group she and Anna Stamborski founded in late 2025 to connect vulnerable ICE-targeted families with congregational networks whose members could provide shopping and transportation services. Through all of Lena’s indefatigable contributions to working for justice, Voelkel asserts, she “has focused on Black excellence, Black power, Black spiritual wholeness, Black beauty, and how non-Black folks can act in solidarity and followership of Black folks, particularly Black queer women. She has done so skillfully through building relationships across differences in ways that facilitate and deepen genuine relationships.”

Cori Berg (’98) Honored As a 2026 Distinguished Alum

United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities is elated to announce that Cori Berg (’98)—advocate, artist, and educator—is a 2026 Distinguished Alum. Cori earned her Master of Arts (MA) in Theology and the Arts in 1998, and for more than 27 years, she has integrated creativity, art, and spirituality into her field. Cori arrived at United in the 1990s, having majored in theater and minored in studio art during her undergraduate studies. “I knew I had an artistic voice,” she recalls, “but it didn’t make sense in any of the traditional contexts.” After seeing an advertisement for United’s Theology and the Arts program, Cori drove from Dallas to the Twin Cities to visit as a prospective student. A campus art exhibit by Merle Janis was all she needed to see—“this school had something I needed: strength, boldness, vulnerability.” For Cori, “life is liturgy.” She credits United with introducing her to “the freedom in a progressive faith.” At United, Cori learned to expand her creativity, which became a launching pad for a vibrant career. “United gave me a safe, nurturing space to explore, dream, and execute big things,” she writes. “I’ve continued that through the rest of my career as an artist, an educator, an administrator, and a speaker.” Art is central to Cori’s work and features prominently in her curriculum development for children. Her art was featured in the 2012 opening parade for the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in Dallas, TX, a project that involved “seniors, children, and adults in all aspects” from a local Methodist community program. Ministry with Children and Spirituality, courses taught by Rev. Dr. Barbara Anne Keely (Professor Emerita, 1991–2015), were particularly formative for Cori’s future in education. “I remember she taught us to get on the floor and view the church nursery from a baby’s point of view,” Cori reflects. “I use this today over and over as I teach early childhood educators…. She introduced the idea of seeing oneself not as a separate body, mind, or spirit, but when one part of my being is suffering, to use the other parts to help lift that part.” More recently, Cori has been an active community member at Dallas Meditation Center, where she is known for her moving dharma talks that weave Buddhist themes into contemporary storytelling. In public schools and congregational settings, Cori has applied what she learned as a United student to the field of early childhood education, for which—nominator Rev. Jim Peck (’99) points out—she has become “one of the nation’s leading advocates.” When facing challenges in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cori leveraged her ingenuity and creative vision to support educators with online training resources. As a teacher and an administrator in spaces where lack of institutional funding and support are commonplace, Jim observes, “she uses her [United] education to work for justice and equity,” to “nurture relationships in the early childhood settings where she has served, with an expertise in working in settings in crisis to encourage recovery, healing, and new paths for serving the future.” In May 2026, Cori completed her MEd in Curriculum and Instruction at American College of Education, where she immediately enrolled to begin her EdD in Early Childhood Education. She serves as an executive director at the University of Kansas (KU) and anticipates returning to Dallas to live near her family at the end of the year while awaiting her next opportunity. We are delighted to celebrate Cori and her decades of faithful, innovative leadership in the field of early childhood education and art. About United Founded by the United Church of Christ (UCC) as a welcoming, ecumenical school that embraces all denominations and faith traditions, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities has been on the creative edge of progressive theological thought and leadership since it was established in 1962. Today, United continues to educate leaders who, through the eyes of faith, engage in the dismantling of systems of oppression, explore multi-faith spirituality, and push the boundaries of knowledge.