Katie was honored as the 2023 recipient of the Cora and John Sparrowk President’s Award at the 2023 American Baptist Churches Biennial Mission Summit. In addition, Katie serves on BST Board of Trustees as the Chair, and recently published a book called Building Lasting Bridges: An Updated Handbook for Intercultural Ministries. Katie is a retired pastor from New Life Christian Fellowship, an American Baptist church in Castro Valley, California.

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. Staples received her Master of Divinity Degree in 2005 and is celebrating her 20th graduation anniversary from Berkeley School of Theology. Rev. Staples was present at the February virtual alumni gathering, “Hope in Spiritual Care”, for the alumni graduation anniversaries segment where she acknowledged one of her influential professors, Rev. Dr. J. Alfred Smith, Sr., professor of Preaching and African American Spirituality. Upon graduation, Rev. Staples was the recipient of the L. Doward McBain Preaching prize for outstanding preacher in the graduating class of 2005. Rev. Staples completed her pastoral education at Sequoia Hospital, now Dignity Health, and then was Chaplain for ten years with the Veterans Affairs. She was also a faculty member of the Leadership Institute at Allen Temple Baptist Church. Rev. Staples thoroughly enjoyed the 1:1 spiritual care aspect that chaplaincy offered.

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.