Rev. Celinda Miranda, LCSW & PPSC
Celinda was awarded the 2022 Alum of the Year at the sold out 150th Anniversary Banquet in October 2022 with Dr. Cornel West as the featured speaker (video on BST’s YouTube page). Celinda has worked in the bilingual mental health services for 33 years and teaches at San Jose State University. Celinda is an associate minister at Emmanuel Baptist Church in San Jose, California.
Doctor of Divinity, 2022
Rev. Dr. Curtis Price
Curtis is Pastor at First Baptist Church in Salt Lake City, Utah. Curtis has over 20 years of experience as a pastor and has served at Salt Lake First Baptist Church for 14 years. Curtis’ DMin dissertation topic at BST is entitled Redeeming the Church: Healing and Reconciliation Between the LGBTQ Community and the Church.
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. Dorothy Taliaferro Staples
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.
Master of Divinity, 2000
Rev. Dr. Allison J. Tanner
Allison has been at Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church for nearly 25 years and is the Pastor of Public Witness. Her role entails education, advocacy, relationship building, partnerships, and public witness. Allison is also the National Coordinator of the Apartheid Free initiative, an interdenominational coalition of faith groups that are encouraging people to step away from any and all support to Israeli apartheid, occupation, and settler colonialism.
