Rev. Dr. Valerie Miles-Tribble
Dr. Valerie is Professor of Ministerial Leadership and Practical Theology at BST. Valerie engages liberation theology as a womanist scholar, practical theologian, and community activist pastor to raise critical awareness of systemic oppressions. As the 2021 GTU Distinguished Faculty Lecturer, Valerie holds dual GTU department alignment in Theology & Ethics and Religion & Practice to integrate theoethics with intersections of social justice praxis in church and society for restorative public approaches. In addition to several journal publications and book chapter contributions, she authored the monograph, Change Agent Church in Black Lives Matter Times: Urgency for Action. Valerie is the Interim Pastor at Faith Church in Oakland, California.
Rev. Michael-Ray Mathews
Michael is president of the Alliance of Baptists and Deputy Director for Faith in Action, formerly PICO National Network, a national community organizing network that gives people of faith the tools that they need to fight for justice and work towards a more equitable society. Michael is a senior fellow at Auburn Seminary and affiliate faculty at BST.
Master of Community Leadership, 2011
Doctor of Ministry, 2024
Rev. Dr. Michael A. Smith
Michael has been Pastor of the McGee Avenue Baptist Church in Berkeley California for 18 years. In 2014, he became the founding Executive Director of The Center for Food, Faith & Justice which serves as a faith-based non-profit arm of the church as a lead organization dedicated to the issues of environmental and food justice, health equity and economic development. His DMin dissertation topic was The Black Earth Theology Project: Toward Reconciliation and Care of God’s Creation.
Rev. Karen Yee
Rev. Karen Yee is BST’s 2023-24 Alum of the Year! Rev. Lee is Senior Pastor at New Life Christian Fellowship, Castro Valley and is the English-speaking pastor at the Iu-Mienh Friendship Baptist Church in Richmond. She graduated in 1997 from Berkeley School of Theology with her Master of Divinity. Among her many accomplishments, she is on the Executive Board of Directors for the American Baptist Home Mission Society (ABHMS), and a liaison to the Office of the General Secretary. She served as a Trustee for Rainbow Acres, a community for developmentally challenged adults and as the Treasurer of the Executive Council of the Ministers Council of the Greater Bay Area. She was part of the Convener of the Missionary Partnership Team for Ingrid Roldan-Roman, an AB missionary serving in Panama. For 15 years, Rev. Yee was the Associate Pastor at the First Baptist Church of Alameda, an American Baptist church, serving a multi-ethnic, intergenerational congregation of Christ followers, and also served as an active lay leader at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.
