Written by: United Theological Seminary April 3, 2020

‘Live out your faith and values in your own life and in ministry:’ 2019 Distinguished Alum Meg Riley

United celebrates 2019 distinguished alum Meg Riley. Meg has focused her ministry around world peace and justice for over 25 years. She has inspired and mentored many church leaders in this community and beyond. Her mantra is, “live out your faith and values in your own life and in ministry.”

Meg Riley 2019 Distinguished Alum

Many of those who were mentored by Meg first met her as an adjunct professor at United where she taught a course on social action for Unitarian Universalists. Terri Burnor, an alum who took Meg’s class, writes that Meg asked students to engage a chosen justice issue from many angles–theological, historical, congregational, strategic and practical. Terri states that Meg taught them the “business of faith,” and led her students and mentees into meaningful religious work with compassion, humor, grace, and encouragement. Terri goes on to say, “Meg can do this because she always sees possibilities in people…In the words of Desmond Tutu, she refuses to stay neutral in situations of injustice. In the words of the congregation she currently serves, Meg carries the flame of hope and helps us all do the same.”

Meg graduated from United in 1987 with an MA degree. She was ordained as a Unitarian Universalist minister in 1992. Her work has touched the lives of individuals but also many institutions. At the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) she directed the Advocacy and Witness Programs at the Washington Office for Advocacy; the Office of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Concerns; and the Youth Office. Meg directed the UUA response to Hurricane Katrina and was the founding president of Faith in Public Life: A Strategic Center for Justice and the Common Good that continues to be an important organizing force today.

One of Meg’s major achievements was the launch of the national, “Standing on the Side of Love,” campaign.” This long time UUA slogan for LGBTQ equality was expanded under Meg’s direction into a public advocacy campaign. The campaign generated high visibility in communities around the country and helped move the conversation that led to a vote that affirmed, “Love Wins,” when it comes to marriage.

In 2010 Meg left the UUA staff to become senior minister of the Church of the Larger Fellowship (CLF) whose mission is to cultivate wonder, imagination and the courage to act. She and many others consider the CLF to be the most creative and unusual spiritual community around. The congregation exists fully online, without any walls and includes over 2700 members across geographic and social boundaries. Meg’s responsibilities include spiritual leadership, working with others to envision a collective future, preaching, counseling, hosting a podcast, and “being a general gadfly.”

Throughout her career, Meg has served many national boards of directors including the Interfaith Alliance, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. She has contributed to numerous anthologies and has written blog posts for the Huffington Post, Medium, and Patheos. She is the editor of a collection of personal stories shared in the book, Testimony: The Transformative Power of Unitarian Universalism.

In 2017, Meg was selected by her colleagues to deliver the sermon for the 25-year class (those with 25 years of service as ministers) at the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association (UUMA) annual meeting. She was also asked to deliver the prestigious and historic Berry Street Lecture at the 2018 UUMA conference. She has been awarded an honorary degree from the Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley, CA. Most recently she has been unanimously nominated to be the co-moderator of the UUA along with Charles Du Monde.

United alum, Karen Hering writes of Meg, “we turn to her as a leader not only for her insights but because she models being as open about her human limitations as she is to her many gifts. By her words and her example, she reminds us, colleagues and congregants alike, that nobody expects us to be perfect; only that we show up, bring our best selves forward and honestly admit when our efforts have gone wrong. In keeping with her recent study and practice of improv theater, she regularly demonstrates the philosophy of “Yes, and…..” This is an improv practice that takes what is given (saying “yes” to it not as approval but as acceptance) and builds on it, creatively turning the story in sometimes surprising new directions that can be humorous and, more importantly, hopeful Meg’s ministry–both in her call as the minister of CLF and in her ongoing service to and with colleagues and justice movements alike—is one that shows us the beautiful and theological possibilities of showing up in the spirit of “Yes, and…”

Bill Sinkford, former UUA president and senior minister of First Unitarian in Portland, OR writes, “Meg has modeled the ministerial calling to love not only the world as it is and the world as it ought to be, but also the world as it changes and can be changed. Like so many other colleagues, I am indebted to her for her mentoring, her courage and her friendship. Meg is, in fact, a distinguished alum. I hope you will decide to honor her for 25 years of transformational ministry and for her good and loving heart.”

In the words of Terri Burnor, “United applauds and recognizes Meg’s significant leadership and service in religious education, LGBTQ rights, faith-based advocacy across many justice issues, congregational ministry online and locally, and mentorship to countless ministers and seminarians. We celebrate Meg Riley.

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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.